Home > CPU Comparison > M1 Max or A18 Pro (MacBook): what's better?

Apple M1 Max vs A18 Pro (MacBook)

61 out of 100
Apple M1 Max
VS
66 out of 100
Apple A18 Pro (MacBook)
Apple M1 Max
Apple A18 Pro (MacBook)

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 3.2 GHz Apple M1 Max with 10-cores against the 2 GHz A18 Pro (MacBook) with 6-cores. On this page, you'll find out which processor has better performance in benchmarks, games and other useful information.

  1. Review
  2. Differences
  3. Performance
  4. Specs
  5. Comments

Review

General overview and comparison of the processors
Single-Core Performance
Performance in single-threaded apps and benchmarks
Multi-Core Performance
Measure performance when all cores are involved
Power Efficiency
The efficiency score of power consumption
Integrated Graphics
iGPU capabilities for gaming and 3D-intensive tasks
DeviceFacts Final Score
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
πŸ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Key Differences

What are the key differences between (MacBook) and Max
Advantages of Apple M1 Max
  • Supports up to 64 GB LPDDR5-6400 RAM
  • Around 349.6 GB/s (583%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • More powerful Apple M1 Max GPU (32-core) integrated graphics: 10.6 vs 2.3 TFLOPS
  • Has 4 more physical cores
Advantages of Apple A18 Pro (MacBook)
  • Newer - released 2 years and 11 months later
  • More modern manufacturing process – 3 versus 5 nanometers
  • 49% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 3615 vs 2431 points

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
M1 Max
vs
A18 Pro (MacBook)

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
M1 Max
111
A18 Pro (MacBook) +52%
169
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
M1 Max +12%
789
A18 Pro (MacBook)
702
Submit your benchmark results

GeekBench v6

The new version of this benchmark emulates common operations often used in real-world apps
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
M1 Max
2431
A18 Pro (MacBook) +49%
3615
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
M1 Max +37%
12673
A18 Pro (MacBook)
9225
File compression 1450 MB/sec 1050 MB/sec
Clang compilation 105.1 Klines/sec 58.1 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 329.2 pages/sec 201.6 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 317 Mpixels/sec 214.8 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 249.6 pages/sec 318.8 pages/sec
Background blur 42.2 images/sec 41 images/sec
Photo processing 122.8 images/sec 91.5 images/sec
Ray tracing 14.9 Mpixels/sec 9.18 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 447 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
M1 Max
3831
A18 Pro (MacBook) +6%
4078
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
M1 Max +73%
22162
A18 Pro (MacBook)
12812
Integer math 46.1 GOps/sec 37.5 GOps/sec
Floating point math 64.5 GOps/sec 25.4 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 278M Primes/sec 132M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 32.7M Strings/sec 17.2M Strings/sec
Data encryption 12.2 GBytes/sec 8 GBytes/sec
Data compression 274.4 MBytes/sec 133.5 MBytes/sec
Physics 2833 Frames/sec 1380 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 12.8B Matrices/sec 6.5B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 2398 & 962 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
M1 Max +180%
199.2
A18 Pro (MacBook)
71.04

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 15.8 PPW 70.2 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 253.5 PPW 922.5 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 443.2 PPW 1281.2 PPW
Blender / Watt 3.98 PPW 7.1 PPW
These are rough calculations, as most CPUs surpass PL1 TDP wattage even in multicore workloads.

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Apple M1 Max
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2025-07-04 (Daniel)Geekbench 6 CPU2459 / 13052
Add View all (1)
Apple A18 Pro (MacBook)
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-10-03 -> RennsportGeekbench 7 CPU3006 / 7807
πŸ“˜ 2026-06-03 -> RennsportGeekbench 6 CPU3505 / 8840
πŸ“˜ 2026-04-24 -> RennsportGeekbench 6 CPU3505 / 8840
Add View all (3)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Apple M1 Max and A18 Pro (MacBook)

General

Vendor Apple Apple
Released October 18, 2021 September 9, 2024
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set ARMv8 ARMv9
Codename Apple M1 Apple M4
Model number - APL1V07
Integrated GPU Apple M1 Max GPU (32-core) Apple A18 Pro GPU
Successor - Apple M5 Max (40-сore GPU) -

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 8 2
P-Threads 8 2
Base Frequency (P) 3.2 GHz 2 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) - 4.05 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 2 4
E-Threads 2 4
Base Frequency (E) 2.1 GHz -
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) - 2.42 GHz
Total
Total Cores 10 6
Total Threads 10 6
Multiplier - 40x
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 24MB (shared) 16MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Transistors 57 billions -
Fabrication Process 5 nm 3 nm
TDP (PL1) 50 W 10 W
Socket Apple M-Socket Custom
Laptop processors ranking (93rd and 70th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Apple M1 Max GPU (32-core) Apple A18 Pro GPU
GPU Base Clock 450 MHz -
GPU Boost Clock 1296 MHz 1490 MHz
Shading Units 4096 768
TMUs 256 40
ROPs 128 -
Execution Units 512 128
iGPU FLOPS
M1 Max +361%
10.6 TFLOPS
A18 Pro (MacBook)
2.3 TFLOPS
More info: Apple A18 Pro GPU compared to M1 Max GPU (32-core)

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5-6400 - LPDDR5x-7500
Max. Memory Size 64 GB 8 GB
Memory Channels 4 4
Max. Memory Bandwidth 409.6 GB/s 60 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
2 (66.7%)
1 (33.3%)
Total votes: 3

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6. Apple A18 Pro (MacBook) vs Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite (X2E-88-100)
7. Apple A18 Pro (MacBook) vs Apple M1 (2)
8. Apple A18 Pro (MacBook) vs Apple M5 (8-сore GPU) (2)
9. Apple A18 Pro (MacBook) vs Intel Core Ultra 7 256V
Compare other CPUs (460+)

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple A18 Pro (MacBook) or M1 Max?
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