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The M3 MacBook Air "Problems"

— March 16, 2024 33 comments




My review of the M3 MacBook Air vs M2 MacBook Air. Addressing concerns around the 8GB RAM and double external screen …

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About the Author: Dave2D

33 Comments

  1. Some clarifications/details as to why I say ā€œitā€™s just the nature of these chipsā€

    The M1/M2/M3 only have one display controller for handling external displays.
    These display controllers take up a large amount of space on the silicon. They are even bigger than performance cores.
    See here: https://ibb.co/7r0Z0SB

    The reason why they are so big is because Apple separates their display controller from their GPU. Qualcomm does this as well on their Snapdragon chips. These display controllers can process a lot of stuff without leaning on the GPU. This helps alot with power efficiency on ARM chips.

    If Apple wanted to add more display controllers to handle more external displays, they would have to make a die trade off. They would either have to reduce the number of CPU or GPU cores, or theyā€™d have to make the base chips larger. IMO neither of these options are worth it for adding an extra external display on the MBA.

    Another thing – thermals. Letā€™s say they did add another display controller on to the base chips. When connected to an external display, these controllers put out heat. On a MacBook Pro, itā€™s a non issue. but on a fanless MacBook Air you do not want another source of heat. These laptop already have limited thermal headroom. Weā€™d see the threads of ā€œmy MBA throttles when I have connect it to external displaysā€ like the 2019 MBA.

    Lastly, there is the option of using a Display Link adapter to get more displays going. Iā€™ve run 3 displays on an M1 MBA with them. These use software to get the CPU cores to handle video output. You can even split your 5K output to multiple displays using this adapter. It works but they have CPU overhead. Static images have very CPU use. Video has very heavy CPU use. DRM content has issues using this. (Netflix/Disney/etc) Itā€™s not an elegant solution but it TOTALLY works and if you need more external displays, itā€™s a good option.

    However, I see some commentary that talks about how this Display Link solution is evidence that Apple could easily add more displays. I donā€™t agree. This is just Display Link doing itā€™s thing. Itā€™s very cool but itā€™s not the same as display controllers on the chip.

    Hope that helps!

  3. I have an M1 and connected to two displays using 2 HDMI. One of them needs to be HDMI to USB-C because there is only one HDMI port. This allows me to use 3 screens simultaneously with the M1. Iā€™m sure you can replicate this on the M2s and M3s.

  4. Iā€™m a medical student, I use the M2 MacBook Air w/8gb RAM. I usually have multiple tabs for studying and research. Sometimes I need to delete tabs because of memory usage. I still think this is ā€œnormalā€ use, and itā€™s really disappointing that Apple thinks 8gb RAM is still a viable baseline.

  8. Please dont justify 8GB . Such expensive laptops should come with 16gb by default. Period. These are in no way entry level laptops. i3/8gb windows laptops that are 1/3rd of MBA are called entry level.

  11. Two external displays. Amazing. Intel 1st generation Core i series from 2010 was able to do this with the laptop display closed. Since 2013 Intel iGPUs were able to drive two external displays with the internal display still on.

    Apple is truly leading the industry.

  12. Macs have had an 8gb ram base model for more than 10 years!! This narrative that 8gb ram is enough for most people is bs. I have two sisters in university that use their laptops for basic tasks and they often run out of ram. I am in tech so they were both complaining that their new laptops are slow…. I told them them to stop opening so many chrome tabs and now it runs fine. Why should there be such restrictions at that price point??

  18. I gifted my Grandpa of 90 years an old ThinkPad with 8Gb of RAM, it runs Linux and even he sometimes takes up as much as ~6Gb of RAM, so no Dave, 8Gb is not enough for anybody.

  19. Apples bs pricing has ruined macs for me. Ive been a mac user for over 10 years and switched about a month ago.

    I got a brand new AMD thinkpad with 64gb of ram, OLED, 1Tb ssd or the peice of a base M1 Air.

    I even switched to android phones recently to. Apple is a boring and greedy company these. Basically Microsofts Steve Balmer era conpany

  20. Sacrificing his face (or the laptop) in the face-to-device rubbing session instantly got the thumbs-up. Whatever else does not quite matter.

  21. "It's just the nature of the hardware." Dave, this is the third generation. It's been a complaint for this long. They could have designed the hardware of the M3 to keep up with the competition considering the price of these devices, instead of just compromising.

  22. Iā€™m a medical student, I use the M2 MacBook Air w/8gb RAM. I usually have multiple tabs for studying and research. Sometimes I need to delete tabs because of memory usage. I still think this is ā€œnormalā€ use, and itā€™s really disappointing that Apple thinks 8gb RAM is still a viable baseline.

  23. I have the M1 MacBook Air base model and have never had issues with the memory usage. I use Safari, play some games here and there, edit videos and photos. Yes, of course it could be quicker or have more storage, but I have come to think that the same way some people donā€™t really care for the specifications of phones, we could try using that philosophy for every device. I have been a Windows and Android user my whole life until 2017 and since switching I seem to ā€œgetā€ the idea of the experience being the first thing in terms of priority, specifications second. Of course specifications are important as they enable the experience, but I think, with a sustainable approach being given, we could be more appreciative of the experience we can have. But yes, the pricing for the upgrades are astronomically high in comparison to the competition.

  25. So i'm going to totally expose my level of nerd here lol, but i detail cars and I've been gaining more and more experience with ceramic coatings, and now ceramic coat everything in sight, including my espresso maker and my kitchen counter. Point is, I tried a ceramic coating layer on my M1 MBP and not only did it remain matte, but its super hydro/oleophobic now, sooooo maybe that might help others šŸ˜‚

  26. i can tell you right now, as a college student 8gb of ram aint enough so i dont know what body part did you pull "8gb is plenty enough for most people" 8gb of ram hardly runs OS 3 google tabs and word doc which is bare minimum, it takes 8gb and 1.9-2.0 gb of swap memory

  29. unless you're editing video or doing heavy image processing for work (and even this is fine), the M1 macbook air is more than enough. All I do is run some pro tool and adobe software through it and it's just like an absolute champ. THe battery has also held up shockingly well after nearly 2 years. The M2 and M3 don't offer much in terms of upgrades

  32. Hey Dave. I have been watching your videos for so many years. But what is your secret for never getting old? I am more interested in this than any other electronics. Please make a new video about this topic, or reply below….Thanks!

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