M3 air

billy2

I just received my new M3 air.

M3 speed test

wayne_sauder

@billy2
 Any idea how much of a change that is compared to the m1 or m2? 
 I am running an M1 max and have thought about upgrading but it still hits the + for triangles and lines which I heard indicates maxing out the capabilities of the test. 
 Been wondering if the M3 is a significant improvement.   

billy2

I skipped the m2, didn't think it was worth it.

Is the m3 and good upgrade from my m1? 
-it's a new computer, my old m1 is working fine though
-there is no wedge, who cares
-is it faster? I don't know, the m1 was fast enough, I need to play with it some more
-rotation are faster? who cares, the m1 is fast enough
-regens are faster? it's based on the internet which is the same speed
-is the browser faster? I don't know yet
-the speakers are better
-the display is more crisp
-battery life, m1 was great, m3 should be better
-the "f" & "j" keys show white spots from wear, who cares

It's too soon to tell if it's that much faster. I'm currently working on a large project and hopefully by the end of the day I'll be able to determine if I can tell if it's faster. I'll post my findings later today.

MichaelPascoe

Would love to see the Onshape Unofficial Benchmark results for this! 

nick_papageorge073

I have the M2 Air and love it. I maxed out the ram to 24GB and its never gone to swap in the year I've used it.

I'll be honest, I have a base M1 Air (8GB ram), an M1 Ultra, and an M2 loaded Air, and I don't really notice much, if any, OS difference across any of them, "except" when the memory runs out on the base M1 machine.

billy2

@nick_papageorge073 I'm finding the same thing. You'd think with a 60% boost in cpu speed, the M3s speed would be more noticeable.

Everything in the browser is faster. So windows opening are snappier and the general feel is nicer. It is noticeable when selecting things on the screen. I'm not talking about picking 3 things, but window selecting is faster. I've been converting a bunch of imported parts into composite parts and then picking faces to add color to them. This is noticeably faster and I do this a lot. This action is better.

Things that involve a spinning wheel don't change much since it's waiting on a server and that speed won't change. 

The M3 laptop is nicer than the old M1 and I'm happy with it.

steve_shubin

billy2 said:

the "f" & "j" keys show white spots from wear, who cares

So this made me curious

Are you saying that it looks like they sold you something that was used or are you saying that those keys are wearing out real fast?

my 2017 MacBook Pro still has F & J keys that look like the rest

just curious