First MacBook Air benchmarks confirm the M3 is an M3

Just a day after Apple announced the new MacBook Air with an M3 chip, benchmarks of the new laptops have appeared in the Geekbench results browser. And based on what we’ve seen, it looks like the Air results are like that of other M3-based Macs.

Records for “Mac15,13” have Single-Core scores ranging from 3125 to 3165, and Multi-Core scores ranging from 11890 to 12056. Those scores are a smidge lower than that of the M3 MacBook Pro and the M3 iMac we tested, but not much–about 10 to 15 points in each test. That’s likely because the MacBook Air is fanless and may have to throttle down a little to maintain a proper temperature during very intensive tasks. You likely wouldn’t be able to notice the difference.

Compared to the M2 MacBook Air, the M3 Air scores are about 20 percent faster, which is also similar to what we saw when comparing the M2 and M3 MacBook Pro.

Geekbench allows users of the software to submit results to its online database, so the Air results were submitted by people who have early access to the laptops and those records are accessible on the Geekbench website. However, since the M3 MacBook Air isn’t officially released yet, the Geekbench results are labeled with the laptop’s codename.

Interestingly, the five Geekbench test submissions examined during the writing of this article showed that the tested Macs ran macOS 14.4, which is currently in the release candidate stage and is expected to be installed in the new Airs when they start to ship on Friday. Also, the test Macs had 16GB of RAM, double the MacBook Air’s standard configuration of 8GB.

The M3 MacBook Air is available for pre-order in both 13- and 15-inch sizes. For more information, check out our MacBook Air superguide.

13-inch MacBook Air M3 (2024)

Price When Reviewed: $1,099 (base)

Best Prices Today: $1099 at Apple

15-Inch MacBook Air M3 (2024)

Price When Reviewed: $1,299 (base)

Best Prices Today: $1299 at Apple