Home > CPU Comparison > M4 Pro (12-Core) or Apple M3: what's better?

Apple M4 Pro (12-Core) vs Apple M3

85 out of 100
Apple M4 Pro (12-Core)
VS
67 out of 100
Apple M3
Apple M4 Pro (12-Core)
Apple M3

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 4.51 GHz Apple M4 Pro (12-Core) with 12-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.
πŸ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Key Differences

What are the key differences between M3 and (12-Core)
Advantages of Apple M4 Pro (12-Core)
  • Supports up to 64 GB LPDDR5X-8533 RAM
  • Around 170.6 GB/s (167%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • More powerful Apple M4 Pro GPU (16-core) integrated graphics: 6.5 vs 3.5 TFLOPS
  • Newer - released 1 year later
  • Has 4 more physical cores
  • 28% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 3864 vs 3009 points

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
M4 Pro (12-Core)
vs
Apple M3

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
M4 Pro (12-Core) +23%
172
Apple M3
140
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
M4 Pro (12-Core) +100%
1421
Apple M3
712
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) 5470 2341
Cinebench Scores (#80th 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)
M4 Pro (12-Core) +28%
3864
Apple M3
3009
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
M4 Pro (12-Core) +73%
20499
Apple M3
11815
File compression 2120 MB/sec 1260 MB/sec
Clang compilation 165.8 Klines/sec 94.7 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 484.7 pages/sec 264.5 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 486.8 Mpixels/sec 313.9 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 368.5 pages/sec 297 pages/sec
Background blur 84.2 images/sec 50.2 images/sec
Photo processing 189.3 images/sec 114.8 images/sec
Ray tracing 25.9 Mpixels/sec 12.9 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 438 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
M4 Pro (12-Core)
4557
Apple M3 +3%
4707
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
M4 Pro (12-Core) +72%
32710
Apple M3
19065
Integer math 70.9 GOps/sec 42.6 GOps/sec
Floating point math 71.5 GOps/sec 48.3 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 460M Primes/sec 231M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 46.4M Strings/sec 27.3M Strings/sec
Data encryption 19.5 GBytes/sec 11.5 GBytes/sec
Data compression 409.9 MBytes/sec 225 MBytes/sec
Physics 4875 Frames/sec 1867 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 21.8B Matrices/sec 10B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 661 & 1563 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 37.4 PPW 35.6 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 539.4 PPW 590.8 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 860.8 PPW 953.3 PPW
Blender / Watt - 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 M4 Pro (12-Core)
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-07 (skibidigomgom)Cinebench 2024172 / 1421
πŸ“˜ 2025-11-21 (TommyYOyoyo)Geekbench 6 CPU4066 / 21270
πŸ“˜ 2025-04-16 (Infrra)Cinebench 2024169 / 1297
πŸ“˜ 2025-02-23 (Amandeep)Geekbench 6 CPU3911 / 20685
Add View all (4)
Apple M3
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-22 (doannguyenmfs)Geekbench 6 CPU2991 / 11735
πŸ“˜ 2026-06-16 (darkknightSup)Geekbench 6 CPU2990 / 11498
Add View all (2)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Apple M4 Pro (12-Core) and Apple M3

General

Vendor Apple Apple
Released October 29, 2024 October 30, 2023
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set ARMv9 ARMv8
Codename Apple M4 Apple M3
Model number T6040 -
Integrated GPU Apple M4 Pro GPU (16-core) Apple M3 GPU
Successor - Apple M5 Pro (15-Core) - Apple M5 (10-Core)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 8 4
P-Threads 8 4
Base Frequency (P) 4.51 GHz 4.05 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 4 4
E-Threads 4 4
Base Frequency (E) 2.59 GHz 2.75 GHz
Total
Total Cores 12 8
Total Threads 12 8
Bus Frequency 100 MHz -
Multiplier 45x 40x
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 32MB (shared) 16MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Transistors - 25 billions
Fabrication Process 3 nm 3 nm
TDP (PL1) 38 W 20 W
Socket Apple M-Socket Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100Β°C 100Β°C
Laptop processors ranking (13th and 68th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Apple M4 Pro GPU (16-core) Apple M3 GPU
GPU Base Clock 500 MHz 500 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1578 MHz 1380 MHz
Shading Units 2048 1280
TMUs 128 80
ROPs 64 40
Execution Units 256 160
TGP 26 W 15 W
iGPU FLOPS
M4 Pro (12-Core) +86%
6.5 TFLOPS
Apple M3
3.5 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M3 GPU (10-core) compared to M4 Pro GPU (16-core)

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5X-8533 - LPDDR5-6400
Max. Memory Size 64 GB 24 GB
Memory Channels 16 8
Max. Memory Bandwidth 273 GB/s 102.4 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

PCI Express Version - 4.0
Further details
Notes on M4 Pro (12-Core):
    - SoC is designed using ARMv9.2-A architecture.

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
14 (77.8%)
4 (22.2%)
Total votes: 18

Competitors

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3. Apple M3 vs Apple M1 Pro (17)
4. Apple M3 vs Apple M2
5. Apple M3 vs Apple M1
6. Apple M3 vs Apple M1 Max (4)
7. Apple M4 Pro (12-Core) vs Intel Core Ultra 9 185H
8. Apple M4 Pro (12-Core) vs Intel Core Ultra 9 288V
9. Apple M4 Pro (12-Core) vs Intel Core i9 14900HX
10. Apple M4 Pro (12-Core) vs Apple M4 Pro (14-Core) (3)
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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M3 or M4 Pro (12-Core)?
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