M3 MacBook Air after a week | developer's machine
Summary
TLDR视频脚本对M3 MacBook Air进行了全面评测,指出其与M2版本在外观上的主要区别在于新的阳极氧化工艺。虽然M3芯片在Geekbench测试中表现更佳,但视频更关注其在编码、构建时间和实际开发环境中的性能。经过一周的使用,发现即使是基础款8GB RAM和256GB存储的M3 MacBook Air也能流畅运行多个开发工具和应用。视频还讨论了适合使用M3 MacBook Air的用户群体,包括学生、日常用户、专业人士和音频创作者,并建议开发者选择16GB RAM和1TB存储的配置,以获得更好的使用体验和转售价值。
Takeaways
- 🔍 M3 MacBook Air 与 M2 版本在外观上差异不大,主要区别在于新的阳极氧化工艺。
- 📊 M3 芯片在 Geekbench 测试中表现更好,这在 MacBook Pro 中已有体现。
- 👨💻 作者通过实际使用体验,分享了 M3 MacBook Air 在编码、构建时间和执行效率方面的表现。
- 🚀 M3 MacBook Air 在原始性能测试中胜过其他型号,包括与 M1 Pro 的比较。
- 🛠️ 即使是基础款 8GB RAM 和 256GB 存储的 M3 MacBook Air,也能流畅运行多个开发工具和应用。
- 📚 对于学生和日常用户,新款 MacBook Air 的电池续航是一个吸引人的特点。
- 💻 对于需要轻便和便携性的专业用户,M3 MacBook Air 是一个不错的选择。
- 🎵 对于音频创作者来说,由于无风扇设计,M3 MacBook Air 是一个很好的选择。
- 👨🔧 对于开发者,尤其是进行移动和网络开发的,M3 MacBook Air 能够满足大多数开发任务的需求。
- 🚫 对于需要进行重度工作负载如游戏开发或机器学习的用户,可能更适合选择 MacBook Pro 或 Mac Studio。
- 💡 作者推荐选择 16GB RAM 和 1TB 存储的 M3 MacBook Air 型号,认为这是一个在可用性和转售价值之间平衡的甜点。
Q & A
M3 MacBook Air 与 M2 MacBook Air 在外观上有哪些不同?
-M3 MacBook Air 与 M2 MacBook Air 在外观上的主要区别是采用了新的阳极氧化工艺,这使得 M3 看起来略好一些。
M3 芯片在 Geekbench 测试中的表现如何?
-M3 芯片在 Geekbench 测试中的表现优于 M2 芯片,这在之前的 MacBook Pro 测试中已经有所体现,因此是意料之中的结果。
作者在视频中提到了哪些开发工具和环境?
-作者提到了终端、Git、Xcode、iOS 模拟器、Android Studio、Chrome 浏览器、Todoist、Notion、VS Code、Zed、Postman 和 Docker 桌面版等工具和环境。
M3 MacBook Air 能否满足软件开发者的需求?
-是的,M3 MacBook Air 对于软件开发者来说是一个很好的选择,尤其是那些需要便携性和长电池寿命的用户。
作者提到了哪些不适合使用 M3 MacBook Air 的工作负载?
-作者提到,M3 MacBook Air 不太适合进行重度工作负载,如游戏开发或机器学习,特别是需要运行大型虚拟机或本地模型的情况。
M3 MacBook Air 在处理单核任务时的表现如何?
-M3 MacBook Air 在处理单核任务时表现出色,例如在 C/C++ 单核排序操作中,M3 MacBook Air 的完成时间比 M1 Pro MacBook Pro 快了近一分钟。
M3 MacBook Air 在多核编译任务中的表现如何?
-尽管 M3 MacBook Air 在多核编译任务中仍然比 M1 或 M2 系列的设备快,但由于 M1 Pro 有更多的性能核心,因此在多核编译任务中 M1 Pro MacBook Pro 完成得更快。
作者对于 M3 MacBook Air 的存储配置有何建议?
-作者建议至少选择 512GB 的存储配置,而对于需要存储视频或图像素材的用户,建议选择 1TB 的存储配置。
M3 MacBook Air 在 RAM 方面有哪些限制?
-作者提到,8GB RAM 的 M3 MacBook Air 在运行多个程序时可能会遇到性能瓶颈,建议至少选择 16GB RAM 的配置。
作者推荐哪款 M3 MacBook Air 配置?
-作者推荐选择 16GB RAM 和 1TB 存储的配置,认为这是在可用性和转售价值之间的一个平衡点。
M3 MacBook Air 是否适合内容创作者?
-对于音频创作者来说,M3 MacBook Air 是一个很好的选择,因为它完全没有噪音。但对于视频工作流程,尤其是使用 Adobe 套件的用户,可能更适合使用 MacBook Pro。
M3 MacBook Air 的散热性能如何?
-M3 MacBook Air 由于没有风扇,所以在进行 CPU 密集型任务时可能会遇到热限制,如果任务持续时间较长,可能会导致性能降低。
对于从 M1 或 Intel 处理器升级的用户,作者有何建议?
-对于使用 Intel 处理器的 MacBook Air 用户,作者强烈建议升级到 Apple 硅芯片。对于 M1 用户,升级到 M3 可以带来性能提升和更高的转售价值。
Outlines
📱 M3 MacBook Air 性能评测
视频脚本首先介绍了M3 MacBook Air的外观与M2版本相似,但采用了新的阳极氧化工艺。接着提到M3芯片在Geekbench测试中的性能优于M2,但作者更关注实际编码、构建时间和开发工具的性能。作者分享了使用M3 MacBook Air的经验,包括在8GB RAM和256GB存储的基础模型上运行多个开发工具和应用程序,如终端、Git、Xcode、iOS模拟器、Android Studio、Chrome浏览器等,表现出色。视频还讨论了M3 MacBook Air适合的使用者类型,包括学生、日常用户和需要轻便便携性的专业人士,但对游戏开发和机器学习等重度工作负载则不太适合。
🔧 M3芯片性能与散热测试
第二段深入探讨了M3芯片在处理中等至大型项目时的性能,尤其是对于单核心操作的优越性。作者通过与M1 Pro MacBook Pro的比较,展示了M3在单核和多核编译测试中的表现。提到了M3 MacBook Air在没有风扇的情况下,如何处理高负载工作,以及在长时间高负载下可能出现的热限制问题。此外,还讨论了8GB RAM的限制,尤其是在运行多个内存密集型应用程序时可能遇到的性能瓶颈。作者还提到了对于不同使用场景的推荐配置,例如对于开发者而言,16GB RAM和1TB存储可能是更合适的选择。
💡 M3 MacBook Air 购买建议
最后一段提供了关于M3 MacBook Air的购买建议。作者建议,如果你使用的是Intel MacBook Air或更旧的设备,升级到搭载Apple硅芯片的新款是明智之举。对于M1 MacBook Air用户,虽然M1性能依然出色,但M3提供了更高的性能和更长的使用寿命。作者还讨论了存储空间的选择,推荐至少选择512GB,对于需要存储大量项目资产的用户,1TB可能是更好的选择。最后,作者强调了M3 MacBook Air适合那些重视便携性和电池寿命的软件开发者,但对于需要处理重度工作负载的用户,可能更适合选择MacBook Pro或Mac Studio。
Mindmap
Keywords
💡M3 MacBook Air
💡Geekbench
💡性能
💡开发工具
💡多任务处理
💡内存(RAM)
💡存储
💡热限制(Thermal Throttling)
💡软件开发者
💡M1 Pro MacBook Pro
💡推荐配置
Highlights
M3 MacBook Air的外观设计与M2版本相似,主要区别在于新的阳极氧化工艺。
M3芯片在Geekbench测试中表现优于M2,但更关注编码、构建时间和执行性能。
M3 MacBook Air在实际开发环境中的性能表现优异,尤其是在代码构建和执行方面。
M3芯片在MacBook Pro中已经展示过性能,现在也应用于MacBook Air。
M3 MacBook Air在多核测试中表现出色,尤其是在xcode bench mark测试中。
8GB RAM和256GB存储的基础款M3 MacBook Air能够流畅运行多个开发工具。
M3 MacBook Air适合学生和日常用户,尤其是对电池续航有高要求的用户。
对于专业人士,尤其是需要轻便和便携性的用户,M3 MacBook Air是理想选择。
M3 MacBook Air对于音频创作者来说是一个好选择,因为它完全没有风扇噪音。
M3 MacBook Air不适合进行重度工作负载,如游戏开发或机器学习。
M3 MacBook Air在单核性能上超越M1 Pro,但在多核性能上由于核心数量差异而略逊一筹。
长时间的CPU密集型工作可能导致M3 MacBook Air因散热问题而降频。
8GB RAM的M3 MacBook Air在多任务处理时可能会遇到性能瓶颈。
对于M1或Intel MacBook Air用户,升级到M3 MacBook Air将带来显著的性能提升。
M3 MacBook Air的推荐配置是16GB RAM和1TB存储,以平衡可用性和转售价值。
256GB存储的基础款可能不足以满足开发者的需求,建议至少选择512GB存储。
M3 MacBook Air是软件开发者的理想选择,特别是那些重视便携性和电池寿命的用户。
Transcripts
by now you've probably already seen some
unboxings of the M3 MacBook Air and it's
really not that different than the M2
MacBook Air the only thing externally
different is the new anodization
process yeah it seems a little bit
better also I promise this will be the
only time I mentioned geekbench in this
video and the M3 does have better
geekbench results this something we were
expecting because we already seen the M3
chip in the MacBook Pro from a couple
months ago but I care more about the
performance of this machine in code
build times execution and in real world
developer situations using real
development tools so after my experience
with all the Apple silicon MacBook airs
till now I have some results to share
about the M3 MacBook Air oh and I'll
also tell you which is the ideal model
to buy because let's face it Apple loves
giving us options almost as much as they
love taking away
ports everyone knew the M3 MacBook airs
were coming so Apple had to act fast in
a recent video I discussed how the M3
chips outperform the upcoming Qualcomm X
Elite chips but not the M2 chips since
the M3s were only in the pricier MacBook
Pro until now and Qualcomm chips were
about to land in newer cheaper laptop
models Apple needed to make the first
move so they surpris us with dropping
this on a Monday morning now while using
this for a week I've also ran some tests
including my typical mandal Brad python
test which is a multicore test building
my own projects and of course the
classic large xcode build called xcode
bench market and there's no question
that when it comes to Raw performance
the M3 version wins every
time I also compared it to the M1 Pro
stay tuned for that as for real world
usage here's what I've been running
quite comfortably for about a week now
on this base model with 8 GB of RAM and
256 GB of storage Yes you heard that
right but listen to this of course I've
been running a few instances of terminal
that's the command line on the Mac
running commands interacting with Git
CIS and so on xcode for iOS development
and also the iOS simulators I did
install Android Studio but a little
caveat about that I'll talk about that
shortly Chrome is my browser of choice
it's not the fastest browser it's not
the native browser of Mac OS that's
Safari but I prefer Chrome for his
developer tools with all of my
procrastination tabs open probably 20 to
30 tabs at a time but I do use separate
apps for todoist notion which is my not
taken app my text editor that's
primarily vs code but I've also started
using Zed recently for quick file edits
I made a video about that recently I'll
link it down below and postmen for
testing rest apis I also have Docker
desktop installed but that's not on all
the time only when I need it and a
developer will often switch between
these rapidly as you're working as
you're coding testing debugging doing
research and this machine showed no
signs of slowing down even with all that
stuff open at the same time on an 8 GB
machine don't underestimate the MacBook
Air starting from the m1's all the way
to m2s and the M3s it's a very capable
machine and even the base model will
handle a lot but of course no machine is
one size fits all there are certain
tasks that are going to be way too heavy
for the MacBook Air to handle more on
that later but for my week with this
machine I spent it strictly as a
developer not as a content creator and I
ran NX monor repo that's my main project
that I'm working on that has multiple
IOS and Android apps Huawei apps as well
as a typical load of tools that I
mentioned earlier and the M3 air handles
them
flawlessly so let's talk about who is
this good for and is it good enough for
software developers sure this machine is
great for students and everyday users
it'll slay those everyday tasks like
nothing but students can also buy a
Chromebook if the budget is tight and I
mean those $150 Chromebooks folks never
spend more than $150 on a Chromebook bro
when you can get a used MacBook Air for
example for $300 to $400 the one reason
why you'd want the newer MacBook Air as
a student or everyday user is for that
sweet sweet battery life this thing will
go all day you'll even forget your
charging brick at home sleep overnight
at a friend's house and then it'll still
last you the next day too the next group
is professionals that want lightweight
and portability these include uh non-
Gamers and folks that use their machines
for work especially when traveling or
moving between locations frequently it's
super light and super thin with a long
battery like I mentioned what else is
there to say now as for Med media
creation this machine is probably best
so far for audio creators because it's
completely silent there's no fan in it
and even though I've seen this machine
get prais for video workflows I'm a
stubborn Adobe suite user so I have to
carry the MacBook Pro for video but if
you're on Final Cut or Da Vinci this
might fit the bill for you still for
video though I'd suggest getting a
MacBook Pro for longevity but since I'm
a developer first let's break things
down for my fellow devs I do mobile and
web development with a little bit of the
machine learning touch that right now
cuz it's I don't know I heard it was
good I've ran medium to large NX mono
repos the monor repo is where you have
all your projects all in one repository
with a usually a shared code base and it
runs my projects without a hitch these
consisted of typescript Web projects and
IOS and Android native mobile app
targets now this machine is certainly
not for serious machine learning or game
development you'll be able to do a few
things here and there but certainly not
the base model you also run into some
issues with running larger virtual
machines like if you want to run Windows
for example on a Mac I've got lots of
videos showing how to do that you can
run them just make sure that they're
small give them only a little bit of
resources that are necessary and one at
a time not too many compilation times on
this little beast are quite fast and on
single core transpilation or JavaScript
execution it'll smoke anything else from
the M1 or M2 families including MacBook
Pros because a single M3 core is faster
than any of the M1 or M2 Cor course but
on multi-core compilations it'll still
be a bit faster on a machine that has
more cores cuz it's using all those
cores all at once for example I've
tested against the 14-in M1 Pro MacBook
Pro because that was a very popular
machine with developers this probably
shouldn't come as a surprise that it's a
single core operation and the M3 is
faster than the M1 Pro but by how much
faster it is is pretty crazy on the
MacBook Pro with the M1 Pro chip in it
this C C++ single core sorting operation
took 3 minutes 55 seconds and on the M3
MacBook Air 2 minutes 58 seconds almost
a minute shorter I'm running the
multicore one now let's see if that
makes a difference there is a little bit
of an imbalance in the number of cores
here on the M1 Pro we've got eight
performance cores on the MacBook Air we
only have four performance cores and
four efficiency cores kind of what we
expected but surprising thing is not by
much M3 MacBook Air got 3 minutes and 2
seconds M1 Pro MacBook Pro 2 minutes and
39 seconds while the M3 air beats it in
single core tests as it should those
cores are 3 nanometers instead of the 5
nanometer cores on the M1 Pro but since
the M1 pro has doubled the performance
core count than this M3 air the M1 Pro
MacBook Pro still finished the builds
faster now during my testing at one
point I did start hitting a bit of a
Slowdown more than that in a bit and I'm
going to get to specific recommendations
momentarily there just some issues that
have been coming up in other reviews
that I'd like to address here will it
throttle faster since it'll be running a
hotter chip yes of course it doesn't
have a fan like a MacBook Pro and has a
different thermal profile and tolerance
even though it's got the powerful M3
chip that can handle intense workloads
as long as these workloads are
relatively short in duration that's key
here based on my test I would keep the
CPU heavy code compilations down to
about 2 minutes max these are the kinds
of intense workflows that raise your
temperature up to 108° on the CPU and if
it stays there a little bit too long the
CPU is going to be slowed down by Mac OS
and sometimes significantly giving it
enough chance to cool down that's what
thermal throttling is so running these
intense processes longer than that may
negate some of the performance gains the
M3 chip will provide due to the form
factor here so this rules out any kind
of game developers and machine learning
Engineers that want to run local models
and the latter Point speaks more towards
the memory side of things because larger
models need more memory too which this
machine won't be able to handle but I
have separate videos on machine learning
stuff I'll link to some down below now
for the ram limitations specific to the
8 GB model I have here into the mix with
all the programs I have running here I
added Android Studio which was using
almost 3 gab of Ram plus another gig for
Java that coupled with docker's default
1 GB of RAM usage and then I noticed a
pretty major slowdown especially when
switching between tasks this 8 GB
machine does have its limits but those
limit limits are pretty hard to reach
during normal operation and even once
they're reached Mac OS cleverly masks
away any performance Problems by doing
some really smart
swapping if you have an M2 MacBook Air
there's really no need for you to
upgrade at all you might be tempted by
the two external monitor capabilities
but at the end of the day you still only
have a total of two displays available
to you also keep in mind the slight
performance hit you'll experience with
more monitors to drive as I've shown in
a recent video where I tested up to
eight displays on the new Macbook lineup
so here I've got the manual broad test I
reran it we got 44 seconds which is
slower than the original time I got with
just the onboard screen but it's still
faster than 47 seconds on the M2 as a
side note the Dual external monitor
support seems to be a synthetic
limitation that Apple placed on the M2
models and my hope is that with the next
major OS update they will enable dual
external support for the M3 MacBook Pro
and if we make a loud enough stink about
it maybe the M2 MacBooks now if you have
an M1 or an Intel MacBook Air forget it
if you have an Intel MacBook Air you
need to upgrade to Apple silicon right
away unless you have some very specific
cases where you need it I have an Intel
MacBook Air and believe me the
difference is insane but if you have the
M1 MacBook Air you may still want to
upgrade there is a large enough
difference in performance the M1 is
still a really good machine it's
approaching 4 years of age but it's
still very very good you can go for the
M3 magbook a which will give you the
benefit of lasting a bit longer and
having a higher resell value at this
point and I recently made a video
showing how trading values of the m1's
and the m2s are still pretty good but
also if you're going from an M1 or an
Intel MacBook Air you might want to
consider picking up the M2 MacBook as
well for a nice discount right now if I
find some deals I'll list them down
below but keep in mind that that machine
is approaching 2 years old at this point
versus a machine that's brand new so if
you're selling the M2 MacBook Air 2
years from now it's going to be 4 years
old if you're selling the M3 2 years
from now it's only going to be 2 years
old basic math I know I I didn't need to
tell you that but just think about it
that way from a perspective of a buyer
that's buying it from you 2 years from
now now if you're working on an
intel-based MacBook Pro the M3 MacBook
Air will be a huge upgrade to you in
terms of performance and portability and
battery life unless you know that you
need more than 24 GB of RAM however
giving my earlier example if you had a
choice between the M3 MacBook Air and
the M1 Pro MacBook Pro I would still
personally go for the M1 Pro MacBook Pro
and the reason for that it's a different
class machine it has fans it'll lasts
longer under intense pressure it has a
better screen it's got more IO and it
has more cores so getting back to the M3
MacBook Air what specific model would I
recommend I would go for the 16 GB model
with 1 terabytes I think that's a sweet
spot as far as usability and resell
value because I'll tell you what the a
ma machines will resell very well but
you might hit a wall with that amount of
ram in your upcoming years of use the 24
GB model will not have good resale value
because the amount that you'll spend on
that extra Ram up front I don't think
you'll get that money back in either the
amount you'll use the machine or the
amount of money you'll get back for the
machine when you sell it I have the 8 GB
model but I also bought the 24 GB model
and this was a mistake on my part
because now I don't know what to do with
it and that machine was not cheap so 16
gigs is the way to go I think but if you
had to save some money go with the 8 GB
model is decent enough for many
workflows but sooner or later probably
sooner you'll hit a limit and you'll end
up having to close programs in order to
have a smooth experience look I can jump
on the bandwagon and see things like 8
GB shouldn't even be an option in 2024
the reality is that all manufacturers
still have an 8 GB option if you need
more than 8 GB then get more than 8 GB
and stop complaining that other options
which are not suitable for you exist
Live and Let Live folks now what about
that 256 GB of storage that comes with a
base model it's simply not enough in my
opinion because after installing all the
things and all the developer tooling
that I have on there I only have 50 GB
left 512 is the minimum at this point
but keep in mind that if you plan to
store videos or image assets for your
projects that'll quickly eat up your
storage for a bit more longevity I'd
suggest 1 TB remember that while you
won't be able to upgrade your RAM or or
your internal storage once you purchase
the machine you can always upgrade your
external storage I use this super fast
Samsung 980 Pro SSD in a thunderbolt 4
enclosure and have another terabyte to
play with here but the drives can always
be swapped out for more in the future
the M3 MacBook Air is a fantastic
machine for software developers who
prioritize portability and battery life
it's got pretty impressive performance
for most developer tasks and it offers a
really nice experience however if you
know your work will invol olve heavy
workloads like game development or
machine learning you might be better
served with a MacBook Pro or a Mac
Studio let me know in the comments what
you think of the M3 MacBook Air and if
you want to see more extensive tests of
the M3 chip I made a video of the M3
MacBook Pro base model especially for
software developers in this video right
over here check that out next thanks for
watching and I'll see you
[Music]
soon
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