Nonsingular projective 3-folds $V$ of general type can be naturally classified into 18 families according to the {it pluricanonical section index} $delta(V):=text{min}{m|P_mgeq 2}$ since $1leq delta(V)leq 18$ due to our previous series (I, II). Based on our further classification to 3-folds with $delta(V)geq 13$ and an intensive geometrical investigation to those with $delta(V)leq 12$, we prove that $text{Vol}(V) geq frac{1}{1680}$ and that the pluricanonical map $Phi_{m}$ is birational for all $m geq 61$, which greatly improves known results. An optimal birationality of $Phi_m$ for the case $delta(V)=2$ is obtained. As an effective application, we study projective 4-folds of general type with $p_ggeq 2$ in the last section.