Home > CPU Comparison > Core i9 13980HX or Apple M3: what's better?

Intel Core i9 13980HX vs Apple M3

71 out of 100
Intel Core i9 13980HX
VS
67 out of 100
Apple M3
Intel Core i9 13980HX
Apple M3

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 2.2 GHz Intel Core i9 13980HX with 24-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 13980HX
Advantages of Intel Core i9 13980HX
  • Supports up to 192 GB DDR5-5600 RAM
  • Has 16 more physical cores
  • Newer PCI Express version – 5.0
Advantages of Apple M3
  • More powerful Apple M3 GPU integrated graphics: 3.5 vs 0.8 TFLOPS
  • More modern manufacturing process – 3 versus 10 nanometers
  • Newer - released 10 months later
  • Around 12.8 GB/s (14%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • 9% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 3009 vs 2760 points

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core i9 13980HX
vs
Apple M3

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Core i9 13980HX +183%
2014
Apple M3
712
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) - 2341
Cinebench Scores (#25th 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)
Core i9 13980HX
2760
Apple M3 +9%
3009
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Core i9 13980HX +47%
17336
Apple M3
11815
File compression 1400 MB/sec 1260 MB/sec
Clang compilation 161.1 Klines/sec 94.7 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 432.8 pages/sec 264.5 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 469.4 Mpixels/sec 313.9 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 277 pages/sec 297 pages/sec
Background blur 53.3 images/sec 50.2 images/sec
Photo processing 136.1 images/sec 114.8 images/sec
Ray tracing 36.2 Mpixels/sec 12.9 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 434 & 438 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Core i9 13980HX
4209
Apple M3 +12%
4707
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core i9 13980HX +138%
45338
Apple M3
19065
Integer math 163.4 GOps/sec 42.6 GOps/sec
Floating point math 116.3 GOps/sec 48.3 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 186M Primes/sec 231M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 64.7M Strings/sec 27.3M Strings/sec
Data encryption 34.5 GBytes/sec 11.5 GBytes/sec
Data compression 572.8 MBytes/sec 225 MBytes/sec
Physics 2510 Frames/sec 1867 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 33B Matrices/sec 10B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 2555 & 1563 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core i9 13980HX +139%
382.64
Apple M3
160.35

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 36.6 PPW 35.6 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 315.2 PPW 590.8 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 824.3 PPW 953.3 PPW
Blender / Watt 6.96 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
Intel Core i9 13980HX
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2025-12-14 (Judicatio)Cinebench 2024128 / 1861
πŸ“˜ 2025-03-18 (Rennsport)Geekbench 6 CPU2951 / 17667
πŸ“˜ 2024-06-27 (PPLord)Cinebench 2024120 / 1190
Add View all (3)
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 Intel Core i9 13980HX and Apple M3

General

Vendor Intel Apple
Released January 3, 2023 October 30, 2023
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set x86-64 ARMv8
Codename Raptor Lake Apple M3
Model number i9-13980HX -
Integrated GPU UHD Graphics (32EU) Apple M3 GPU
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX -
Successor - - Apple M5 (10-Core)
Intel CPU rating (#40th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 8 4
P-Threads 16 4
Base Frequency (P) 2.2 GHz 4.05 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 5.6 GHz -
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 16 4
E-Threads 16 4
Base Frequency (E) 1.6 GHz 2.75 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) 4 GHz -
Total
Total Cores 24 8
Total Threads 32 8
Bus Frequency 100 MHz -
Multiplier 22x 40x
L1 Cache 80K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 2MB (per core) 16MB (shared)
L3 Cache 36MB (shared) -
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Transistors - 25 billions
Fabrication Process 10 nm 3 nm
TDP (PL1) 45-55 W (configurable) 20 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) 157 W -
Socket BGA-1964 Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100Β°C 100Β°C
Laptop processors ranking (47th and 68th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel UHD Graphics (32EU) Apple M3 GPU
GPU Base Clock 300 MHz 500 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1650 MHz 1380 MHz
Shading Units 256 1280
TMUs 16 80
ROPs 8 40
Execution Units 32 160
TGP 15 W 15 W
iGPU FLOPS
Core i9 13980HX
0.8 TFLOPS
Apple M3 +338%
3.5 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M3 GPU (10-core) compared to UHD Graphics 770

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR5-5600
- DDR4-3200		 - LPDDR5-6400
Max. Memory Size 192 GB 24 GB
Memory Channels 2 8
Max. Memory Bandwidth 89.6 GB/s 102.4 GB/s
ECC Support Yes No

Misc

Official Site Intel Core i9 13980HX official page -
PCI Express Version 5.0 4.0
PCI Express Lanes 20 -

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
11 (52.4%)
10 (47.6%)
Total votes: 21

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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M3 or Intel Core i9 13980HX?
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