Apple’s New Silicon Chips: Testing Performance for Music Production
October 31, 2023
At Apple’s recent product announcement event, the tech giant unveiled three new Apple silicon chips: the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max. These next-generation chips promise improved performance, with a focus on enhancing the user experience across a range of software applications. However, recent tests have revealed some surprising results that challenge the initial claims made by Apple.
Comparing Apple Silicon Cores
The architecture of Apple’s silicon core is built on a combination of high-performance P-cores and efficient E-cores. By optimizing workload distribution, these chips aim to run software efficiently and effectively. The core configurations for the M1 Pro, M2 Pro, and M3 Pro show a trend of decreasing P cores and increasing E cores with each successive generation.
- M1 Pro
- High performance cores (P cores): 8 pieces
- High efficiency cores (E cores): 2 pieces
- M2 Pro
- High performance cores (P cores): 6 pieces
- High efficiency cores (E cores): 4 pieces
- M3 Pro
- High performance cores (P cores): 5 pieces
- High efficiency cores (E cores): 6 pieces
Performance Testing with Music Production Software
YouTuber James Zhang conducted a series of performance tests with popular music production software, including “REAPER,” “Cubase,” “Pro Tools,” “Logic Pro,” “Ableton Live,” “FL Studio,” and “Studio One”. Zhang’s results revealed some unexpected performance variations across different software applications when running on the M3 Pro MacBook Pro.
In one test, Zhang overloaded the CPU by duplicating audio tracks until the application reached its processing limit. The results showed full CPU utilization for “REAPER,” “Cubase,” and “FL Studio”, while software like “Pro Tools,” “Logic Pro,” “Ableton Live,” and “Studio One” mainly utilized the high-performance P cores, with minimal load on the E cores.
Implications for Consumers and Software Developers
These findings have sparked discussions about the potential implications for consumers considering the purchase of an M3 Pro-equipped PC. While the higher number of cores in the M3 Pro showed better performance in some software applications, such as “REAPER,” “Cubase,” and “FL Studio,” the results suggest that certain high-profile music production software, including “Logic Pro,” favor the M1 Pro over the newer chip.
Foreign media outlet Gearnews commented on the results, raising questions about the compatibility of software and the operating system with the M3 Pro chip. This serves as a reminder for consumers to thoroughly investigate the performance and compatibility of the chip with their preferred software before making a purchase decision.
At Apple’s new product announcement event on October 31, 2023, three next-generation Apple silicon chips were announced: the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max. Apple has mentioned that the performance of these chips has improved significantly compared to the previous generation chips, but some software has shown that the M3 Pro has a lower performance than the M1 Pro, announced in 2021. It has been reported that
Apple M1 Pro beats M3 Pro with Ableton, Logic and Pro Tools! – gearnews.com
The Apple silicon core consists of high-performance P-cores and highly efficient E-cores, and by distributing workloads according to tasks, it is possible to run software efficiently.
The core configurations of “M1 Pro”, “M2 Pro”, and “M3 Pro” are as follows. We can see that with each new generation of Apple silicon, the number of P cores decreases and the number of E cores increases.
M1 ProM2 ProM3 Pro high performance cores (P cores) 8 pieces 6 pieces 5 pieces high efficiency cores (E cores) 2 pieces 4 pieces 6 pieces
YouTuber James Zhang compared the performance of “REAPER” music production software, “Cubase”, “Pro Tools”, “Logic Pro”, “Ableton Live”, “FL Studio”, and “Studio One”.
The Problem with M3 Pro MacBook Pro for Music Production | M3 Pro vs M2 Pro vs M1 Pro – YouTube
In the test conducted by Zang, he created an audio track with a monaural clip of the guitar sound and loaded it into each software. The CPU was deliberately overloaded by duplicating tracks until the audio signal became noisy or the application was forced to close. At the same time, Mr. Zhang checked the CPU load per core through the Mac’s built-in “Activity Monitor” application.
Tests revealed that REAPER, Cubase, and FL Studio were fully utilizing all CPUs.
We also saw that Pro Tools, Logic Pro, Ableton Live, and Studio One mostly use the P core, and there is almost no load on the E core.
Therefore, the performance performance of M3 Pro, which has a higher number of cores than M1 Pro and M2 Pro, was found to be better in REAPER, Cubase, and FL Studio. On the other hand, the performance results of the M1 Pro were reported to be better than the M2 Pro and M3 Pro in Pro Tools, Logic Pro, Ableton Live, and Studio One.
Gearnews, a foreign media outlet, commented on the results, saying, “The fact that even with Logic Pro, Apple’s true music production software, the performance of the M1 Pro is greater than the M3 Pro suggests the the problem could be with the software itself or with the OS.” The results of this test make it clear that anyone considering an M3 Pro-equipped PC should investigate the chip closely before purchasing .” Masu.
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