Apple M6 GPU (12-core) vs M5 GPU (8-Core)
VS
Apple M6 GPU (12-core)
Custom
Apple M5 GPU (8-Core)
Custom
We compared two integrated laptop graphics cards: the Apple M6 GPU (12-core) with 192 pipelines and 1536 shaders against the 5 months older M5 GPU (8-Core) that utilizes 128 pipelines and 1024 shaders. Here you will find complete details about specs, efficiency, performance tests, and more.
Please note that the tests on the Apple M5 GPU (8-Core) are done on an engineering sample provided by our insiders. The data will be more accurate after the final version of this GPU is available.
Key differences
Reasons to consider the Apple M6 GPU (12-core)
- 48% higher maximum theoretical performance (4.9 vs 3.3 TFLOPS)
- Manufactured using a more efficient 2 nm process technology
- Has 50% more shading units (1536 vs 1024)
Benchmarks
Graphics cards’ performance in recent benchmarking apps3D Mark
Steel Nomad Lite Score
| Solar Bay | - | 19609 |
| Wild Life Extreme | - | 9797 |
Recent User Tests
Apple M6 GPU (12-core)
No benchmark results yet
Apple M5 GPU (8-Core)
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 📘 2026-06-08 (h) | Geekbench 6 OpenCL | 40417 |
Specifications
Technical specifications of Apple M6 GPU (12-core) and M5 GPU (8-Core)General
| Vendor | Apple | Apple |
| Build | Integrated | Integrated |
| Released | August 25, 2026 | March 3, 2026 |
| Case | Laptop | Laptop |
| Purpose | Generic | Professional |
| Segment | Mid-range | Mid-range |
| Architecture | Apple M GPU | Apple M GPU |
| GPU Codename | Custom | Custom |
| Rival Equivalent | - Adreno X2-90 | - |
| Recommended CPU | - Apple M6 (12-Core) or above | - Apple M5 (8-сore GPU) or above |
| Used in CPUs | - Apple M6 (12-Core) | - Apple M5 (8-сore GPU) |
Laptop GPU ranking (#27th place)
Graphics Processing Unit
| Boost Clock | 1600 MHz | 1620 MHz |
| Shading Units | 1536 | 1024 |
| Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) | 96 | 64 |
| Render Output Units (ROPs) | 80 | 32 |
| Compute Units (Pipelines) | 192 | 128 |
| Tensor Cores | No | - |
| Ray-tracing Cores | No | - |
| Instructions Per Cycle | 2 IPC | 2 IPC |
Raw Performance
| Pixel Fill Rate | 128 GPixel/s | 52 GPixel/s |
| Texture Fill Rate | 154 GTexel/s | 104 GTexel/s |
FLOPS (FP32)
Physical
| Interface | Custom | Custom |
| Manufacturing | TSMC | TSMC |
| Fabrication Process | 2 nm | 3 nm |
| Transistor Count | - | 28 billion |
| Max. Temperature | - | 100°C |
Memory
| Memory Type | System Shared | System Shared |
| Memory Clock | 10667 MHz | 9600 MHz |
| Bus | 128-bit | 128-bit |
| ECC | No | No |
Memory Bandwidth
API
| CUDA | No | - |
| Ray Tracing | Yes | Yes |
| DLSS | No | No |
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