Home > CPU Comparison > M3 Max or Apple M1: what's better?

Apple M3 Max vs Apple M1

83 out of 100
Apple M3 Max
VS
53 out of 100
Apple M1
Apple M3 Max
Apple M1

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 4.05 GHz Apple M3 Max with 16-cores against the 3.2 GHz Apple M1 with 8-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 M1 and Max
Advantages of Apple M3 Max
  • Supports up to 128 GB LPDDR5-6400 RAM
  • Around 341.35 GB/s (500%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • More powerful Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) integrated graphics: 14.1 vs 2.6 TFLOPS
  • Newer - released 3 years later
  • Has 8 more physical cores
  • More modern manufacturing process – 3 versus 5 nanometers
  • 34% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 3227 vs 2410 points

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
M3 Max
vs
Apple M1

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
M3 Max +29%
142
Apple M1
110
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
M3 Max +223%
1698
Apple M1
525
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) 5133 -
Cinebench Scores (#51st place)
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)
M3 Max +34%
3227
Apple M1
2410
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
M3 Max +148%
21167
Apple M1
8547
File compression 2190 MB/sec 941 MB/sec
Clang compilation 198.5 Klines/sec 68.2 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 557.3 pages/sec 192.4 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 648.9 Mpixels/sec 211.9 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 309.1 pages/sec 250.8 pages/sec
Background blur 68.9 images/sec 34.1 images/sec
Photo processing 183.5 images/sec 60.9 images/sec
Ray tracing 30.6 Mpixels/sec 9.74 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 678 & 760 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
M3 Max +30%
4780
Apple M1
3673
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
M3 Max +192%
41211
Apple M1
14123
Integer math 91.2 GOps/sec 33.2 GOps/sec
Floating point math 131.5 GOps/sec 35.5 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 573M Primes/sec 141M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 61.7M Strings/sec 21M Strings/sec
Data encryption 24.7 GBytes/sec 8.5 GBytes/sec
Data compression 530.4 MBytes/sec 168 MBytes/sec
Physics 4332 Frames/sec 1359 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 24.2B Matrices/sec 7B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 409 & 10702 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
M3 Max +324%
403.83
Apple M1
95.27

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 30.3 PPW 37.5 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 378 PPW 610.5 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 735.9 PPW 1008.8 PPW
Blender / Watt 7.21 PPW 6.81 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 M3 Max
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2024-09-27 (JayZeppelin)Cinebench 2024142 / 1698
πŸ“˜ 2024-04-27 (Guest #1)Cinebench 2024141 / 1459
Add View all (2)
Apple M1
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-25 -> op1Geekbench 6 CPU2273 / 7967
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-24 -> op1Geekbench 6 CPU2420 / 8793
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-06 (gaR)Geekbench 6 CPU2396 / 8763
πŸ“˜ 2025-04-11 (Ario)Geekbench 6 CPU2395 / 8820
πŸ“˜ 2025-04-11 (Ario)Cinebench 2024110 / 465
Add View all (8)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Apple M3 Max and Apple M1

General

Vendor Apple Apple
Released October 30, 2023 November 20, 2020
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set ARMv8 ARMv8
Codename Apple M3 Apple M1
Integrated GPU Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) Apple M1 GPU
Successor - Apple M5 Max (40-сore GPU) - Apple M5 (10-Core)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 12 4
P-Threads 12 4
Base Frequency (P) 4.05 GHz 3.2 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 4 4
E-Threads 4 4
Base Frequency (E) 2.75 GHz 2.1 GHz
Total
Total Cores 16 8
Total Threads 16 8
Multiplier 40x -
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 32MB (shared) 12MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Transistors 92 billions 16 billions
Fabrication Process 3 nm 5 nm
TDP (PL1) 56 W 14 W
Socket Apple M-Socket Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100Β°C -
Laptop processors ranking (15th and 172nd place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) Apple M1 GPU
GPU Base Clock 500 MHz 450 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1380 MHz 1278 MHz
Shading Units 5120 1024
TMUs 320 64
ROPs 160 32
Execution Units 640 128
TGP 60 W 15 W
iGPU FLOPS
M3 Max +442%
14.1 TFLOPS
Apple M1
2.6 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M1 GPU (8-core) compared to M3 Max GPU (40-core)

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5-6400 - LPDDR4X-4266
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 16 GB
Memory Channels 32 8
Max. Memory Bandwidth 409.6 GB/s 68.25 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

PCI Express Version 4.0 4.0

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
50 (83.3%)
10 (16.7%)
Total votes: 60

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6. Apple M3 Max vs Apple M4 Pro (12-Core)
7. Apple M3 Max vs Apple M4 Max (16-Core) (1)
8. Apple M3 Max vs Apple M4 (10-Core) (2)
9. Apple M3 Max vs Apple M2 Ultra
10. Apple M3 Max vs Apple M4 Ultra
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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M1 or M3 Max?
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