In terms of Mac upgrade cycles, the current 15-inch MacBook Air launched in June 2023, which is not that long ago. But in June 2022, Apple unveiled the 13-inch MacBook Air that is currently available. Having not been upgraded in 600 days, it is currently the oldest Mac among Apple’s current lineup.

Apple is reportedly developing new 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air models, with releases expected in late March, according to Mark Gurman of Bloomberg. These are the five new features you should anticipate seeing in both models.

M3 Chip

New MacBook Air versions will most likely include Apple’s base M3 chip. Although the M3 processor’s 3-nanometer architecture is more potent than the M2 chip found in the current 13- and 15-inch MacBook Airs, it is anticipated to feature comparable CPU and GPU core counts.

The 14-inch M3 MacBook Pro is the source of third-party benchmarks, which indicate that the M3 chip has single-core and multi-core scores of about 3,000 and 11,700, respectively. Apple claims the M3 CPU is up to 20% quicker than the ordinary M2 chip found in the current MacBook Air, with single-core and multi-core scores of about 2,600 and 9,700, respectively.

Ray tracing in hardware

The rendering process is made much faster by Apple’s M3 chip, which has hardware-accelerated ray tracing. Rendering is typically a complicated and resource-intensive operation. Applications can produce incredibly lifelike and physically precise visuals by using ray tracing, which simulates the characteristics of light as it interacts with a scene.

The next generation of MacBook Air models should show frame rate gains for ray-tracing games, but the real impact of this technology will be felt when utilizing ray-tracing production rendering tools like Blender or Cinema4D.

The M3 family of chips has demonstrated performance increases up to 2.5 times faster in ray tracing production than the M1 generation of Apple silicon. Ray tracing’s use in games is therefore anticipated to grow over time, however it’s important to remember that many games already run faster thanks to the M3’s improved shader architecture.

AV1 Decoder

AV1 is an open standard video codec that is intended to provide more effective video compression, leading to reduced file sizes and better visual quality. It is utilized by streaming services. You already have an iPhone 15 Pro-compatible device if you own one.

Your viewing experience when streaming and downloading video content on your Mac should be much improved by the new media engine included in Apple’s M3 series of CPUs, which also supports AV1 decode. AV1 decoding prolongs battery life by not only saving bandwidth but also providing streaming services with more power-efficient playing.

Adaptive Caching

Unlike conventional GPUs, the M3 chip’s Dynamic Caching technology distributes the use of local memory in real time within the hardware. Only the precise amount of RAM required for each job is consumed when using dynamic caching.
Developers can easily understand the Dynamic Caching mechanism, which is the foundation of Apple’s new GPU architecture. According to Apple, it considerably boosts the GPU’s average use, which improves performance for demanding professional apps and games.

Wi-Fi 6E

While Wi-Fi 6E uses the 6GHz spectrum for more bandwidth, Wi-Fi 6 operates on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. As long as a compatible device is linked to a Wi-Fi 6E router, it can function at higher wireless rates, with reduced latency and signal interference.

Wi-Fi 6E is perfect for settings with plenty of connected devices, such smart homes and contemporary offices, because it can support more simultaneous connections without sacrificing speed. All of Apple’s Macs, with the exception of the MacBook Air models in the company’s current lineup, now support Wi-Fi 6E, suggesting that the upcoming MacBook Air models will also likely support it.