Apple M6 GPU (12-core) vs M5 Pro GPU (16-core)
VS
Apple M6 GPU (12-core)
Custom
Apple M5 Pro GPU (16-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 Pro GPU (16-core) that utilizes 256 pipelines and 2048 shaders. Here you will find complete details about specs, efficiency, performance tests, and more.
Review
Gaming
Performance in DirectX, OpenCL, and Vulkan games
Workstation
Perf. in 3D modeling, video editing and rendering apps
Energy Efficiency
Power consumption efficiency in different scenarios
DeviceFacts Final Score
Overall video card score
Scores marked with a red asterisk (**) represent initial estimates from early testing.
Key differences
Reasons to consider the Apple M6 GPU (12-core)
- Manufactured using a more efficient 2 nm process technology
Reasons to consider the Apple M5 Pro GPU (16-core)
- 35% higher maximum theoretical performance (6.6 vs 4.9 TFLOPS)
- Has 81% higher memory bandwidth: 307 vs 170 GB/s
- Has 33% more shading units (2048 vs 1536)
Benchmarks
Graphics cards’ performance in recent benchmarking apps3D Mark
Steel Nomad Lite Score
| Solar Bay | - | 39369 |
| Wild Life Extreme | - | 19874 |
GeekBench 6 GPU Compute
GB6 Compute Score
| Background Blur | - | 153.3 img/sec |
| Face Detection | - | 101 img/sec |
| Horizon Detection | - | 2.82 Gpixels/sec |
| Edge Detection | - | 4.09 Gpixels/sec |
| Gaussian Blur | - | 3.69 Gpixels/sec |
| Feature Matching | - | 0.84 Gpixels/sec |
| Stereo Matching | - | 212.6 Gpixels/sec |
| Particle Physics | - | 9757.6 FPS |
| API | - | OpenCL |
Recent User Tests
Apple M6 GPU (12-core)
No benchmark results yet
Apple M5 Pro GPU (16-core)
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 📘 2026-07-18 (JSK) | Steel Nomad Light | 8894 |
| 📘 2026-03-30 (JSK) | Geekbench 6 OpenCL | 76085 |
Artificial Intelligence Tests
Performance in machine learning and artificial intelligence tasksGeekBench 6 ML
GB6 ML Single Precision
GB6 ML Half Precision
GB6 ML Quantized
| Image Classification (SP) | - | 8260 |
| Image Segmentation (HP) | - | 25244 |
| Image Super Resolution (Q) | - | 33177 |
| Face Detection (HP) | - | 51773 |
| Pose Estimation (Q) | - | 190718 |
| Text Classification (SP) | - | 2913 |
| Machine Translation (HP) | - | 8985 |
| Object Detection (SP) | - | 7777 |
| Depth Estimation (Q) | - | 63837 |
| Style Transfer (SP) | - | 128419 |
| Framework | - | Core ML |
| Backend | - | GPU |
Specifications
Technical specifications of Apple M6 GPU (12-core) and M5 Pro GPU (16-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 Pro (15-Core) or above |
| Used in CPUs | - Apple M6 (12-Core) | - Apple M5 Pro (15-Core) |
Laptop GPU ranking (27th and 24th place)
Graphics Processing Unit
| Boost Clock | 1600 MHz | 1620 MHz |
| Shading Units | 1536 | 2048 |
| Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) | 96 | 128 |
| Render Output Units (ROPs) | 80 | 64 |
| Compute Units (Pipelines) | 192 | 256 |
| Tensor Cores | No | - |
| Ray-tracing Cores | No | - |
| Instructions Per Cycle | 2 IPC | 2 IPC |
Raw Performance
| Pixel Fill Rate | 128 GPixel/s | 104 GPixel/s |
| Texture Fill Rate | 154 GTexel/s | 207 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 | 256-bit |
| ECC | No | No |
Memory Bandwidth
API
| CUDA | No | - |
| Ray Tracing | Yes | Yes |
| DLSS | No | No |
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Total votes: 1