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

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Three Months With These 12 New Features

Saturday June 14, 2025 5:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro have a...
apple watch ultra 2 new black

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Finally Coming After Two-Year Hiatus

Monday June 16, 2025 8:45 am PDT by
Apple will finally deliver the Apple Watch Ultra 3 sometime this year, according to analyst Jeff Pu of GF Securities Hong Kong (via @jukanlosreve). The analyst expects both the Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3 to arrive this year (likely alongside the new iPhone 17 lineup, if previous launches are anything to go by), according to his latest product roadmap shared with...
Logitech Logo Feature

Logitech Announces Two New Accessories for WWDC

Friday June 13, 2025 7:22 am PDT by
Alongside WWDC this week, Logitech announced notable new accessories for the iPad and Apple Vision Pro. The Logitech Muse is a spatially-tracked stylus developed for use with the Apple Vision Pro. Introduced during the WWDC 2025 keynote address, Muse is intended to support the next generation of spatial computing workflows enabled by visionOS 26. The device incorporates six degrees of...
iPadOS 26 App Windowing

Apple Explains Why iPads Don't Just Run macOS

Friday June 13, 2025 7:46 am PDT by
iPadOS 26 allows iPads to function much more like Macs, with a new app windowing system, a swipe-down menu bar at the top of the screen, and more. However, Apple has stopped short of allowing iPads to run macOS, and it has now explained why. In an interview this week with Swiss tech journalist Rafael Zeier, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi said that iPadOS 26's new Mac-like ...
iphone 16 pro models 1

17 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 17

Thursday June 12, 2025 8:58 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you skipped the iPhone...
apple watch ultra snow

6 Features Coming to the Apple Watch Ultra 3

Tuesday February 25, 2025 9:00 am PST by
The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is expected to launch later this year, arriving two years after the previous model with a series of improvements. While no noticeable design changes are expected for the third generation since the company tends to stick with the same Apple Watch design through three generations before changing it, there are a series of internal upgrades on the way. By the time the ...
terminal macos tahoe

Apple's Terminal App Gets Colorful Redesign in macOS Tahoe

Monday June 16, 2025 4:12 am PDT by
Apple's Terminal app is getting a visual refresh in macOS Tahoe, and it's the first notable design update since the command-line tool debuted. The updated Terminal will support 24-bit color and Powerline fonts, according to Apple's State of the Platforms presentation at WWDC25. The app will also adopt the new Liquid Glass aesthetic with redesigned themes that align with macOS 26's broader...

Top Rated Comments

Dolmio Avatar
17 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
17 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
17 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
17 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
17 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
17 months ago
Why are we still comparing to an Intel Mac from so many years ago?!?
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)