Intel Xe3 Graphics (4-Core) vs Apple M6 GPU (12-core)
VS
Intel Xe3 Graphics (4-Core)
Panther Lake
Apple M6 GPU (12-core)
Custom
We compared two integrated laptop GPUs: the Intel Xe3 Graphics (4-Core) with 4 pipelines and 512 shaders against the 7 months newer Apple M6 GPU (12-core) that utilizes 192 pipelines and 1536 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 Intel Xe3 Graphics (4-Core)
- Ray-tracing support with 4 dedicated RT cores
- Features 32 tensor cores for effective deep learning and AI workloads
Reasons to consider the Apple M6 GPU (12-core)
- 88% higher maximum theoretical performance (4.9 vs 2.6 TFLOPS)
- Manufactured using a more efficient 2 nm process technology
- Has 3x more shading units (1536 vs 512)
Benchmarks
Graphics cards’ performance in recent benchmarking appsGeekBench 6 GPU Compute
GB6 Compute Score
| Background Blur | 57.6 img/sec | - |
| Face Detection | 29.1 img/sec | - |
| Horizon Detection | 0.79 Gpixels/sec | - |
| Edge Detection | 1.02 Gpixels/sec | - |
| Gaussian Blur | 1.02 Gpixels/sec | - |
| Feature Matching | 0.34 Gpixels/sec | - |
| Stereo Matching | 61.2 Gpixels/sec | - |
| Particle Physics | 3352.7 FPS | - |
| API | OpenCL | - |
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) | 4265 | - |
| Image Segmentation (HP) | 11549 | - |
| Image Super Resolution (Q) | 4466 | - |
| Face Detection (HP) | 16012 | - |
| Pose Estimation (Q) | 8425 | - |
| Text Classification (SP) | 1380 | - |
| Machine Translation (HP) | 4037 | - |
| Object Detection (SP) | 4026 | - |
| Depth Estimation (Q) | 10708 | - |
| Style Transfer (SP) | 35823 | - |
| Framework | ONNX | - |
| Backend | DirectML | - |
Specifications
Technical specifications of Intel Xe3 Graphics (4-Core) and Apple M6 GPU (12-core)General
| Vendor | Intel | Apple |
| Build | Integrated | Integrated |
| Released | January 5, 2026 | August 25, 2026 |
| Case | Laptop | Laptop |
| Purpose | Generic | Generic |
| Segment | Entry-level | Mid-range |
| Architecture | Celestial | Apple M GPU |
| GPU Codename | Panther Lake | Custom |
| Rival Equivalent | - | - Adreno X2-90 |
| Recommended CPU | - Intel Core Ultra 9 386H or above | - Apple M6 (12-Core) or above |
| Used in CPUs | - Intel Core Ultra 9 386H - Intel Core Ultra 7 366H - Intel Core Ultra 7 365 - Intel Core Ultra 7 356H - Intel Core Ultra 7 355 - Intel Core Ultra 5 336H - Intel Core Ultra 5 335 - Intel Core Ultra 5 325 |
- Apple M6 (12-Core) |
Laptop GPU ranking (76th and 27th place)
Graphics Processing Unit
| Base Clock | 300 MHz | - |
| Boost Clock | 2500 MHz | 1600 MHz |
| Shading Units | 512 | 1536 |
| Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) | 32 | 96 |
| Render Output Units (ROPs) | 16 | 80 |
| Compute Units (Pipelines) | 4 | 192 |
| Tensor Cores | 32 | No |
| Ray-tracing Cores | 4 | No |
| L1 Cache | 64KB per cluster | - |
| L2 Cache | 4MB shared | - |
| Instructions Per Cycle | 2 IPC | 2 IPC |
Raw Performance
| Pixel Fill Rate | 40 GPixel/s | 128 GPixel/s |
| Texture Fill Rate | 80 GTexel/s | 154 GTexel/s |
FLOPS (FP32)
Physical
| Interface | PCIe 5.0 | Custom |
| TGP | 25 W | - |
| Manufacturing | TSMC | TSMC |
| Fabrication Process | 3 nm | 2 nm |
| Max. Temperature | 100°C | - |
Memory
| Memory Type | System Shared | System Shared |
| Memory Clock | - | 10667 MHz |
| Bus | - | 128-bit |
| ECC | No | No |
Memory Bandwidth
API
| DirectX | 12.1 | - |
| Vulkan | 1.4 | - |
| OpenGL | 4.6 | - |
| OpenCL | 3.0 | - |
| CUDA | - | No |
| Ray Tracing | Yes | Yes |
| DLSS | No | No |
| DisplayPort | 2.1 | - |
Cast your vote
Total votes: < 1