Apple AI computer is coming! 8GB is equivalent to 16GB？

Editor: Big Moon

Apple’s spring conference in 2024 is approaching. Just as everyone is still guessing which new products will appear at this conference, Apple decided to play some new tricks this year and directly updated the MacBook Air without any notice.

This morning, Apple CEO Tim Cook promoted two new products in his personal Weibo. Cook said that the new 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air are equipped with powerful M3 chips, and their performance is better than before! Two perfect sizes, incredibly light and portable design, and all-day battery life.

Source: Weibo

Considering that the spring conference is just around the corner, Apple is eager to release new products, which means that Apple, which is slow in AI hardware, is in a hurry. So, how did Apple’s first answer about AI hardware perform?

01

MacBook Air finally ate M3 chip.

Yes, that’s right. The biggest change of the new MacBook Air is that it uses the M3 chip developed by Apple. This chip was a heavy product released by Apple at the press conference last fall, and it was first installed on iMac and MacBook Pro. After a lapse of five months, MacBook Air finally used this chip.

M3 MacBook Air is equipped with 8-core CPU and up to 10-core graphics processor, which supports up to 24GB unified memory and 2TB solid-state storage. Thanks to M3 chip, the new MacBook Air will support dynamic cache function, which can dynamically allocate appropriate cache for different tasks, improve the efficiency of GPU use, and support grid shading rendering and hardware-level ray tracing acceleration technology to achieve stronger graphics rendering effect in games, office and other scenes.

This has greatly improved the productivity of MacBook Air. Although it is slightly inferior to the MacBook Pro with M3 Pro and M3 Max, it is infinitely close to the M3 version of MacBook Pro. This makes the positioning of MacBook Air more three-dimensional, not only for light office scenes, but also for some professional scenes.

Source: Apple

In order to let people have a more intuitive feeling about the performance of M3 MacBook Air, the official directly moved M1 MacBook Air as a reference. Compared with M1 MacBook Air, M3 MacBook Air’s performance is improved by about 1.6 times, and its graphics processing speed is up to 5.8 times.

At the same time of performance improvement, the energy consumption control of MacBook Air has also been upgraded accordingly, and the battery life of up to 18 hours is enough to support users’ long-term work needs.

02

stay true to our original aspiration

It’s still the familiar 8GB.

The reason why Xiao Lei focuses on the performance part is because the new MacBook Air is mainly upgraded with M3 chip, and its appearance, screen, interface and weight are the same as before.

Add support for Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3 technology and external display. We just need to know about these functions, because at best, it can only be regarded as Apple’s self-breakthrough, and users have become accustomed to competing products at the same price in the market.

Source: Apple

In terms of price, the new MacBook Air has already landed in the Bank of China store, and will be ordered at 9: 00 am on March 6 and officially released on March 8.

The price of the new 13-inch MacBook Air top (8-core CPU/10-core GPU/16-core NPU/24GB+2TB) is 17,999 yuan, and the prices of other versions are as follows:

8-core CPU/8-core GPU/8GB+256GB, 8999 yuan.

8-core CPU/10-core GPU/8GB+512GB, 10,499 yuan.

8-core CPU/10-core GPU/16GB+512GB, 11999 yuan.

The price of the new 15-inch MacBook Air top (8-core CPU/10-core GPU/16-core NPU/24GB+2TB) is 19,499 yuan, and the prices of other versions are as follows:

8-core CPU/10-core GPU/8GB+256GB, RMB 10,499.

8-core CPU/10-core GPU/8GB+512GB, 11,999 yuan.

8-core CPU/10-core GPU/16GB+512GB, 13499 yuan.

If you have a greater demand for equipment storage space, brother Guo said that adding money can solve it. You need to add 1,500 yuan for each additional 8GB of memory, 1,500 yuan for each additional 256GB of hard disk, 70W charger and 150 yuan.

In today’s era when mobile phone and computer manufacturers are crazy about volume storage, Apple still maintains its own rhythm. The entry-level Air of 8999 yuan still provides 8GB+256GB configuration, which shows that the previous "golden memory" storm has no impact on Apple. It’s not that 8GB+256GB will have a great impact on the performance of MacBook Air, but in front of Youshang’s large memory, Apple users will have some bad feelings more or less.

03

So this is the answer sheet of Apple AI PC?

The improvement in the performance of the MacBook Air is certainly surprising. The most striking thing, however, is that Apple called the new MacBook Air "the best AI consumer notebook" in the official website publicity-this is the first time that Apple officially mentioned the concept of AI notebook, and it is also the first time that Apple has made a statement to follow the trend of AI hardware.

Prior to this, Apple completely abandoned the car-building project and turned to overweight AI, which made the outside world look forward to Apple’s actions on AI mobile phones and AI hardware.

2024 is the first year of AI PC, and head computer manufacturers including Lenovo, Asus and Hewlett-Packard have launched their own AI PC products. The new MacBook Air is the first AI PC launched by Apple after adding AI. But I prefer to call it AI MacBook than AI PC.

Source: Apple

AI MacBook is a brand-new concept introduced by Apple based on M3 chip which integrates 16-core neural network engine, central processing unit and graphics processor. MacOS uses the powerful performance of M3 chip to provide users with real-time voice-to-text translation, text prediction, visual understanding, auxiliary functions and other functions.

In addition, the AI MacBook has a rich AI application ecosystem, which helps to support AI-enabled applications and help users better use these applications. For example, using Pixelmator Pro to automatically enhance photos, using "AI Math Assistant" in Goodnotes 6 to check homework, or removing background noise in videos through CapCut. ……

Apple official said that MacBook Air supports cloud-based solutions and runs optimized AI models locally, such as Large Language Model (LLM) and Image Generation Diffusion Model, so that users can better play the powerful productivity and creativity of AI.

Previously, Mac users imitated Chat with RTX and launched a framework of exclusive Mac: Chat with MLX. Let Apple computer run local big model, and complete seven kinds of open source big models, such as local document summary and YouTube video analysis. Although the effect is achieved, the complicated setting process makes ordinary users flinch. Nowadays, the official support for importing AI models will greatly reduce the cost for users to use AI functions.

As the first experience of Apple’s AI PC, the AI MacBook is remarkable in both the number of AI functions and the attitude towards AI applications. However, at present, Apple has only opened the AI interface, and there is still no official big model of its own, which is slightly inferior to the progress of other manufacturers.

In addition, Microsoft has just launched the Copilot Pro subscription service to provide users with AI functions. This service clearly puts forward new requirements for PC computing power and memory: the new Windows AI PC will need at least 40 TOPS computing power and 16GB memory to meet the threshold of AI PC. According to this standard, the MacBook Air is not an AI PC, at least the 8GB version is not counted.

Of course, Apple has a famous saying that "Apple’s 8GB is equivalent to other 16GB", so it can’t be refuted that the new MacBook Air meets the "16GB" memory of AI PC.

(Source: See Watermark)

04

Write it at the end

For consumers, with the blessing of Apple M3 chip, the performance of the new MacBook Air has become even better while keeping the body small. It will also become one of the best solutions in the current computer market with both daily office and light professional productivity.

Source: produced by Lei Technology

For Apple, the release of the new MacBook Air is not only an iteration at the hardware level, but more importantly, the first step of combining AI with hardware. Apple’s attitude shows that AI hardware is not a gimmick, but a battleground for military strategists.

If the new MacBook Air is a test of Apple’s AI field, then the next WWDC developer conference may be the key work of Apple’s AI. After all, AI hardware is inseparable from software and hardware, systems and application ecology, and the cloud and terminals support each other. At the same time as the terminal is AI, the software system is as important as the AI of application ecology. At present, IOS18′ s update on generative AI has attracted much attention. It will be the base of Apple’s AI hardware ecology, which will directly affect Apple’s most profitable iPhone business, and will also determine whether Apple can continue its head position in the era of smart phones in the AI ​ ​ era.

Then, whether Apple’s new MacBook Air can be "8GB as 16GB" or not is a qualified AI PC, and Lei Technology will provide an evaluation as soon as possible. Regarding the dynamics of Apple’s AI hardware and all AI hardware, please pay attention to Lei Technology, which focuses on AI "hard" technology.