First Benchmark Result Surfaces for MacBook Air With M3 Chip

An early benchmark result for the new MacBook Air has surfaced, providing a closer look at the M3 chip's performance in Apple's latest laptops.

macbook air new blue
In a Geekbench 5 result spotted by MySmartPrice, the MacBook Air with the M3 chip and 16GB of unified memory achieved a single-core score of 3,157 and a multi-core score of 12,020. The results have a "Mac15,13" identifier, which indicates they are for a 15-inch MacBook Air.

For context, the previous MacBook Air with the M2 chip and 16GB of unified memory achieved a single-core score of 2,610 and a multi-core score of 10,120. The M3 chip in the new MacBook Air therefore scored approximately 20% more in single-core and 18% more in multi-core compared to the M2 chip in the earlier model, and is on par with the M3 chip in the 14-inch MacBook Pro as far as straight CPU benchmarks go.

Featuring an 8-core CPU, up to a 10-core GPU, and support for up to 24GB of unified memory, the new MacBook Air is up to 60 percent faster than the model with M1 and up to 13x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air, according to Apple.

Apple began accepting pre-orders for the new MacBook Air on Monday, March 4, and the first deliveries to customers and in-store availability will begin on Friday, March 8. Pricing for the new MacBook Air starts at $1,099 in the United States, while the previous-generation 13-inch MacBook Air with the M2 chip remains available for $999.

Related Roundup: MacBook Air
Related Forum: MacBook Air

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Top Rated Comments

Dolmio Avatar
18 months ago
Well that’s pretty impressive to get the multicore performance of a M1 Max in such a slim tiny device
Score: 31 Votes (Like | Disagree)
senttoschool Avatar
18 months ago

Why are we still comparing to an Intel Mac from so many years ago?!?
It’s for the Intel MacBook Air users holding out.
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MajorFubar Avatar
18 months ago

Incorrect. Average score for M1 Air is 2300/8500. Increase between M1 and M2 was abysmal.
It was incremental. M2 to M3 is also incremental. It's always going to be incremental from here-on-in. If you're expecting the quantum-leap speed differences between each iteration that we witnessed when the M1 was launched, you're going to be forever disappointed until the next Big Thing.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
contacos Avatar
18 months ago

I start to wonder what these incremental increases mean in a real world situation. With an M2 Max Studio, I don’t notice much change from my previous Macs unless I’m using Final Cut or Logic. Sure, if I want to look back to my G5 Mac Pro, there’s a huge difference. But IMO it takes at least five years between chip iterations to notice a such a difference.
My MacBook Pro from 2012 still runs fine for my daily routine (Safari, Mail, Spotify, Teams, Slack, Outlook, Chrome, Word/Excel) and I also have a 14inch M1 Pro MacBook Pro (my main device) to compare it to. Battery health is also still at 92% (I used it plugged in 99% of the time). I am actually shocked how well it is still performing considering it is running on macOS it does not even officially support.

My Dell laptop from work meanwhile ...
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
chucker23n1 Avatar
18 months ago

Incorrect. Average score for M1 Air is 2300/8500. Increase between M1 and M2 was abysmal.
I wouldn't call 10%/16% "abysmal".
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
k1121j Avatar
18 months ago
Why are we still comparing to an Intel Mac from so many years ago?!?
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)