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

Top Rated Comments

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

Popular Stories

General Apps Messages

iMessage Down for Some Users [Update: Service Restored]

Thursday May 16, 2024 3:00 pm PDT by
The iMessage service that Apple users to send messages to one another appears to be down for some users, and messages are failing to go out or are taking an extra long time to send. There are numerous reports about the issue on social networks and a spike of outage reports on Down Detector, but Apple's System Status page is not yet reporting an outage. Update: Apple's status page says...
iOS 17

Troubling iOS 17.5 Bug Reportedly Resurfacing Old Deleted Photos

Wednesday May 15, 2024 5:29 am PDT by
There are concerning reports on Reddit that Apple's latest iOS 17.5 update has introduced a bug that causes old photos that were deleted – in some cases years ago – to reappear in users' photo libraries. After updating their iPhone, one user said they were shocked to find old NSFW photos that they deleted in 2021 suddenly showing up in photos marked as recently uploaded to iCloud. Other...
iphone 15 pro max vs iphone 16 pro max

iPhone 16 Pro Max Looks This Much Bigger Beside iPhone 15 Pro Max

Thursday May 16, 2024 4:51 am PDT by
This year's upcoming iPhone 16 Pro Max is expected to get a boost in overall size from 6.7-inches to 6.9-inches, and a new image gives us a good idea of how the current iPhone 15 Pro Max compares to what could be Apple's largest ever iPhone. The image above, posted on X by ZONEofTECH, shows a dummy model representing the ‌iPhone 16 Pro‌ Max alongside an actual iPhone 15 Pro Max. Dummy...
iOS 17

iOS 17.5 Bug May Also Resurface Deleted Photos on Wiped, Sold Devices

Friday May 17, 2024 12:24 pm PDT by
A bug in iOS 17.5 is apparently causing photos that have been deleted to reappear, and the issue seems to impact even iPhones and iPads that have been erased and sold off to other people. A Reddit user wiped an iPad following Apple's guidelines in September of 2023 before selling it off to a friend. That friend updated the iPad to iPadOS 17.5 this week, and began seeing the Reddit user's old ...
oled m4 ipad pro grainy display reports

OLED iPad Pro Users Report 'Grainy' Displays, But It May Not Be a Defect

Friday May 17, 2024 5:57 am PDT by
Some new M4 iPad Pro models are exhibiting a visible static grain pattern across the OLED display, according to several user reports on Reddit (1, 2, 3) and the MacRumors Forums. Image credit: MacRumors user bk215 Users who see the grain generally report that it is most noticeable in dark environments with the display set at a low to medium brightness while viewing content with gray or muted...
Delta Hands On Feature

iPhone Emulators on the App Store: Game Boy, N64, PS1, PSP, and More

Thursday May 16, 2024 12:45 pm PDT by
In April, Apple updated its guidelines to allow retro game emulators on the App Store, and several popular emulators have already been released. The emulators released so far allow iPhone users to play games released for older consoles from Nintendo, Sony, SEGA, Atari, and others. A list of some popular emulators available on the App Store so far follows. Released Delta Delta is...