Home > CPU Comparison > M3 Pro or Apple M2: what's better?

Apple M3 Pro vs Apple M2

72 out of 100
Apple M3 Pro
VS
57 out of 100
Apple M2
Apple M3 Pro
Apple M2

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 4.05 GHz Apple M3 Pro with 12-cores against the 3.5 GHz Apple M2 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 M2 and Pro
Advantages of Apple M3 Pro
  • More powerful Apple M3 Pro GPU (18-core) integrated graphics: 6.4 vs 2.9 TFLOPS
  • More modern manufacturing process – 3 versus 5 nanometers
  • Newer - released 1 year and 5 months later
  • Has 4 more physical cores
  • Supports up to 36 GB LPDDR5-6400 RAM
  • Around 51.2 GB/s (50%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • 22% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 3163 vs 2589 points

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
M3 Pro
vs
Apple M2

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
M3 Pro +14%
143
Apple M2
125
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
M3 Pro +82%
1059
Apple M2
582
Cinebench Scores (#141st 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 Pro +22%
3163
Apple M2
2589
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
M3 Pro +53%
15512
Apple M2
10122
File compression 1560 MB/sec 1130 MB/sec
Clang compilation 132.6 Klines/sec 80.4 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 382.9 pages/sec 235.3 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 393.2 Mpixels/sec 266.1 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 301 pages/sec 257.4 pages/sec
Background blur 61.4 images/sec 42.1 images/sec
Photo processing 144.1 images/sec 107 images/sec
Ray tracing 19.7 Mpixels/sec 10.5 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 991 & 465 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
M3 Pro +9%
4247
Apple M2
3883
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
M3 Pro +54%
24046
Apple M2
15651
Integer math 55.9 GOps/sec 37 GOps/sec
Floating point math 64.8 GOps/sec 37.5 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 240M Primes/sec 174M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 35.2M Strings/sec 23.7M Strings/sec
Data encryption 14.4 GBytes/sec 9.5 GBytes/sec
Data compression 288.5 MBytes/sec 185.8 MBytes/sec
Physics 2060 Frames/sec 1667 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 14.1B Matrices/sec 7.8B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 1204 & 4611 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
M3 Pro +109%
228.7
Apple M2
109.19

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 35.3 PPW 32.3 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 517.1 PPW 562.3 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 801.5 PPW 869.5 PPW
Blender / Watt 7.62 PPW 6.07 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 Pro
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-01-25 (Kirich)Geekbench 6 CPU3198 / 14601
πŸ“˜ 2026-01-25 (Kirich)Cinebench 2024150 / 946
Add View all (2)
Apple M2
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-14 (T)Geekbench 6 CPU2647 / 10245
πŸ“˜ 2026-01-05 (AR)Geekbench 6 CPU2655 / 10211
πŸ“˜ 2025-10-24 (Shivam)Geekbench 6 CPU2619 / 9900
Add View all (3)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Apple M3 Pro and Apple M2

General

Vendor Apple Apple
Released October 30, 2023 June 6, 2022
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set ARMv8 ARMv8
Codename Apple M3 Apple M2
Integrated GPU Apple M3 Pro GPU (18-core) Apple M2 GPU
Successor - Apple M5 Pro (18-Core) - Apple M5 (10-Core)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 6 4
P-Threads 6 4
Base Frequency (P) 4.05 GHz 3.5 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 6 4
E-Threads 6 4
Base Frequency (E) 2.75 GHz 2.4 GHz
Total
Total Cores 12 8
Total Threads 12 8
Multiplier 40x -
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 16MB (shared) 16MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Transistors 37 billions 20 billions
Fabrication Process 3 nm 5 nm
TDP (PL1) 30 W 18 W
Socket Apple M-Socket Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100Β°C -
Laptop processors ranking (44th and 133rd place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Apple M3 Pro GPU (18-core) Apple M2 GPU
GPU Base Clock 500 MHz 500 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1380 MHz 1398 MHz
Shading Units 2304 1024
TMUs 144 64
ROPs 72 32
Execution Units 288 128
TGP 30 W 15 W
iGPU FLOPS
M3 Pro +121%
6.4 TFLOPS
Apple M2
2.9 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M2 GPU (8-core) compared to M3 Pro GPU (18-core)

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5-6400 - LPDDR5-6400
Max. Memory Size 36 GB 24 GB
Memory Channels 12 8
Max. Memory Bandwidth 153.6 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
38 (92.7%)
3 (7.3%)
Total votes: 41

Competitors

1. Apple M3 Pro vs Apple M4 Pro (14-Core)
2. Apple M3 Pro vs Apple M1 Pro (10)
3. Apple M3 Pro vs Apple M4 (10-Core)
4. Apple M3 Pro vs Apple M3
5. Apple M3 Pro vs AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370
6. Apple M3 Pro vs Apple M4 Pro (12-Core)
7. Apple M2 vs Apple M3
8. Apple M2 vs Apple M2 Pro (2)
9. Apple M2 vs Apple M4 (10-Core)
10. Apple M2 vs Intel Core Ultra 7 155H
Compare other CPUs (460+)

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M2 or M3 Pro?
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