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

Apple M3 Max vs Apple M3

83 out of 100
Apple M3 Max
VS
67 out of 100
Apple M3
Apple M3 Max
Apple M3

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 4.05 GHz Apple M3 Max with 16-cores against the 4.05 GHz Apple M3 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.
๐Ÿ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Key Differences

What are the key differences between M3 and Max
Advantages of Apple M3 Max
  • Supports up to 128 GB LPDDR5-6400 RAM
  • Around 307.2 GB/s (300%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • More powerful Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) integrated graphics: 14.1 vs 3.5 TFLOPS
  • Has 8 more physical cores

Test in Benchmarks

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

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
M3 Max +1%
142
Apple M3
140
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
M3 Max +138%
1698
Apple M3
712
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) 5133 2341
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 +7%
3227
Apple M3
3009
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
M3 Max +79%
21167
Apple M3
11815
File compression 2190 MB/sec 1260 MB/sec
Clang compilation 198.5 Klines/sec 94.7 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 557.3 pages/sec 264.5 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 648.9 Mpixels/sec 313.9 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 309.1 pages/sec 297 pages/sec
Background blur 68.9 images/sec 50.2 images/sec
Photo processing 183.5 images/sec 114.8 images/sec
Ray tracing 30.6 Mpixels/sec 12.9 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] โ€“ 678 & 438 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
M3 Max +2%
4780
Apple M3
4707
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
M3 Max +116%
41211
Apple M3
19065
Integer math 91.2 GOps/sec 42.6 GOps/sec
Floating point math 131.5 GOps/sec 48.3 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 573M Primes/sec 231M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 61.7M Strings/sec 27.3M Strings/sec
Data encryption 24.7 GBytes/sec 11.5 GBytes/sec
Data compression 530.4 MBytes/sec 225 MBytes/sec
Physics 4332 Frames/sec 1867 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 24.2B Matrices/sec 10B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] โ€“ 409 & 1563 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
M3 Max +152%
403.83
Apple M3
160.35

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 30.3 PPW 35.6 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 378 PPW 590.8 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 735.9 PPW 953.3 PPW
Blender / Watt 7.21 PPW 8.02 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
๐Ÿ“˜ 2024-09-27 (JayZeppelin)Cinebench 2024142 / 1698
๐Ÿ“˜ 2024-04-27 (Guest #1)Cinebench 2024141 / 1459
Add View all (2)
Apple M3
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-08-22 (doannguyenmfs)Geekbench 6 CPU2991 / 11735
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-06-16 (darkknightSup)Geekbench 6 CPU2990 / 11498
Add View all (2)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Apple M3 Max and Apple M3

General

Vendor Apple Apple
Released October 30, 2023 October 30, 2023
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set ARMv8 ARMv8
Codename Apple M3 Apple M3
Integrated GPU Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) Apple M3 GPU
Successor - Apple M5 Max (40-ัore GPU) - Apple M5 (10-Core)

CPU

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

Package

Transistors 92 billions 25 billions
Fabrication Process 3 nm 3 nm
TDP (PL1) 56 W 20 W
Socket Apple M-Socket Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100ยฐC 100ยฐC
Laptop processors ranking (15th and 68th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) Apple M3 GPU
GPU Base Clock 500 MHz 500 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1380 MHz 1380 MHz
Shading Units 5120 1280
TMUs 320 80
ROPs 160 40
Execution Units 640 160
TGP 60 W 15 W
iGPU FLOPS
M3 Max +303%
14.1 TFLOPS
Apple M3
3.5 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M3 GPU (10-core) compared to Max GPU (40-core)

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5-6400 - LPDDR5-6400
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 24 GB
Memory Channels 32 8
Max. Memory Bandwidth 409.6 GB/s 102.4 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

PCI Express Version 4.0 4.0

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
46 (69.7%)
20 (30.3%)
Total votes: 66

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5. Apple M3 vs Apple M1 Pro (17)
6. Apple M3 vs Apple M4 (10-Core) (4)
7. Apple M3 vs Apple M2
8. Apple M3 vs Apple M1 Max (4)
9. Apple M3 vs Apple M1
10. Apple M3 vs Apple M2 Pro
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Comments

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