chips – SamaGamer

More than ten years have passed since the launch of Grand Theft Auto V. The best-selling and most acclaimed video game in history. The one that has spent the most weeks in the number one position on the most played lists in all countries. It came out so many years ago that the iPhone 4 appeared on its cover, and at that time it was the phone of the moment. Now, after all that time, countless DLCs, expansions, versions for three different generations of consoles, and a lot of expectation, it is here: GTA VI is officialand its trailer will be out in December.

A few days ago, Apple presented its new MacBook Pro and iMac with the M3 chip family. It’s already a coincidence. At their peak—for now—these models offer their M3 Max version. A chip prepared for everything that is thrown at it, including video games. We know that at Apple it is something that they do not leave aside, and GTA VI could be the Mac’s gateway to the gaming world that we have all been waiting for.

“If you want to play, don’t buy a Mac”

Let’s be honest, the Mac has never been a computer for gamers. It has always been focused on a much more professional, creative audience… people who need power to export a video in Adobe Premiere, not to play Counter Strike. It is precisely because of this approach that Apple has given its products that many developers have not bothered to create versions of their games for macOS. All this could change.

The new M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max chips are manufactured in a three-nanometer process that They have allowed Apple to do magic. The M3 Max graphics card is equivalent in power to an RTX 4080. And what is the magic here? Which it does in a laptop that does not need excessive ventilation, with a useful life of 22 hours, and to which it is not necessary to connect an extra cable just for the GPU. Those who have gaming laptops with graphics of that caliber will understand.

The new MacBook Pro is the best gaming laptop in the world

Until Apple announced the new MacBook Pro, the best gaming laptop in the world by specifications—without taking into account its price—was the Razer Blade 16 in its maximum configuration. Quite a beast with an Intel Core i9-13950HX, the GeForce RTX 4090, 32GB of RAM, a 16-inch screen with Mini-LED technology, etc. All this, at the price of 4,999 euros. Nobody said playing was cheap.

This Razer Blade 16 is a machine that can do everything. There is no game that can resist it, but when you have so much power in such a small space, there are sacrifices that are inevitable. Its battery lasts five hours, the fans make a lot of noise, and in order to use the full power of the graphics card, it has to be connected to the power. It’s something normal. Or, at least, it was. If we compare it with the M3 Max, the results are interesting.

For this comparison, we have chosen the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Max chip with 40 GPU cores. In its base version, it costs 4,899 euros. 100 less than the Razer laptop. We will compare both computers one by one, let’s see which one is more powerful. Let’s start with the CPU. To do this, we will use Geekbench 6, the standard for measuring the capacity of a processor.

In Single-core —that is, in the speed of each CPU core—, Apple’s M3 Max obtains 3,076 points, while the Intel Core i9-13950HX stays at 2745. On the other hand, in Multi-core — the sum of power of all its cores— the M3 Max reaches 20,785 points, and the Intel processor remains at 16,477.

In the GPU section, the comparison is against the GeForce RTX 4090. At the moment we do not have specific data, although we can get an idea. User lafaiel in X has compared the M3 Max against other computers, including one with the same Intel processor and an RTX 4080. In the same game, the Windows laptop reached 78.1 FPS, and the M3 Max, 77.4. Practically the same, but with the Nvidia GPU slightly ahead.

Taking into account that the RTX 4090 is more or less 10% higher in power, It should be around 85 FPS. That is, it wins slightly in the graphics section, and loses in the processor section. Although the comparison has only just begun.

Both laptops perform similarly, although with quite a few differences between them. To begin with, the Razer—like any other laptop with these characteristics— needs to be plugged in to give its maximum, and the Mac does not. Unplugged, it has a useful life of five hours, and the Mac quadruples that number and a little more to reach 22. Its maximum temperature is lower, its fans make less noise, and it has 16GB more RAM.

Thanks to these three nanometers that we talked about before, Apple has been able to create a beast that performs on par with the best gaming laptop in the world, for 100 euros less, and without having to make the sacrifices that have been made for years in the industry.

You no longer have to always be connected, or have a ridiculous battery life, or noisy fans… just enjoy. The MacBook Pro M3 Max is the best gaming laptop in the world because it does the same thing as what it was until now, but without giving up anything. And on top of that, cheaper.

If Apple manages to get GTA VI released natively for Apple Silicon, and for the rest of the studios to see the potential of these new chips, It could be the company’s front door entry into the world of gaming. It already did it with the iPhone 15 Pro, bringing triple AAA games to a smartphone for the first time in history, and these new Macs could close the cycle.

Three years ago the Apple Silicon revolution began, and since then, everything has been progress. When Macs came with Intel, we all said that it made no sense to buy one to play games. Now things change. Maybe in a few months we will change that “don’t buy a Mac to play games” for “if you want to play, buy a Mac.” The results are in sight, and the numbers don’t lie. This is the best gaming laptop in the world, you just need to take advantage of it, and GTA VI could be the one who opens the way. It won’t take long to see it.

The first high-aperture extreme ultraviolet (EUV) photolithography equipment on the planet is on its way to the Intel factory in Hillsboro (USA). It is possible that by the time SamaGame readers are reading these lines it has already reached its destination. This very complex machine of about 300 million dollars It has been designed and manufactured by the Dutch company ASML, although Intel engineers have also participated in this process.

This first equipment will be used to start the testing phase, and presumably during 2024 TSMC, Intel and Samsung will receive more units of this machine, whose commercial name is Twinscan EXE:5000 or EXE:5200. In any case, ASML has confirmed that large-scale production with this photolithography equipment will begin in 2025. A priori, these seem like reasonable deadlines and are aligned with the itineraries managed by Intel, TSMC and Samsung.

In theory, high-aperture UVE lithography equipment will allow semiconductor manufacturers to produce integrated circuits beyond the 3 nm barrier. To make this possible ASML has implemented a very advanced optical architecture that It has an aperture of 0.55 compared to the value of 0.33 that the first generation UVE lithography equipment has. This refinement of optics allows higher resolution patterns to be transferred to the wafer, making it possible to manufacture chips using more advanced integration technologies than those currently used in 3nm nodes.

In reality, it is ASML who has the upper hand.

Without high-aperture UVE photolithography equipment there will be no 2nm integrated circuits. And much less than 1 nm. These chips already appear on the itineraries of the three companies I have talked about in this article, so we can be sure that their medium-term business requires their nodes to be well-oiled and capable of performing correctly to deliver the performance per wafer necessary to ensure the cost-effectiveness of these integration technologies. At this juncture it is evident that the role of ASML lithography machines is unquestionably leading.

According to ASML, its Twinscan EXE:5200 lithography equipment is capable of producing more than 200 wafers per hour.

As I mentioned in the first lines of this article, a high-aperture UVE photolithography equipment has an approximate price of 300 million dollars, while a first-generation EUV machine moves in the orbit of 150 million dollars. The difference in cost between one and the other is overwhelming. The reasonable conclusion we can reach once we have noticed this price difference is that integrated circuit manufacturers are going to be forced to optimize performance per wafer of its next nodes to keep the cost of the chips within an acceptable range. And they are also going to have to maximize their monthly wafer production.

According to ASML, its Twinscan EXE:5200 lithography equipment is capable of producing more than 200 wafers per hour. Furthermore, the improvements introduced by this company’s engineers in the optical and mechanical systems of this machine reduce the complexity of the processes involved in the manufacturing of integrated circuits, an asset that will benefit chip producers.

However, former ASML analyst Jeff Koch says the need to combine two types of mask exposure on the same wafer will significantly increase the cost of chip manufacturing. TSMC, Intel and Samsung weigh in on the many advantages that the new devices in the Twinscan EXE family put in their hands. But we must not overlook that the other tray resides a very notable increase in costs. Be that as it may, if these manufacturers want to produce chips of 2 nm, 1 nm and beyond, they will necessarily have to check out and get the new ASML machines.