Apple M3 Max 14-Core vs AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX
Apple M3 Max 14-Core
► remove from comparison![Apple Apple M3 Max 14-Core](fileadmin/_processed_/d/9/csm_Apple-M3-Max-chip-series-unified-memory-architecture_c0044e24af.jpg)
The Apple M3 Max 14 core CPU is a system on a chip (SoC) from Apple for notebooks that was introduced towards the end of 2023. It integrates a new 14-core CPU with 10 performance cores with up to 4.06 GHz and 4 efficiency cores with 2.8 GHz. There is also a more powerful 16-core variant with 40 GPU cores.
Thanks to the higher clock rates and architectural improvements, the processor performance is also significantly better than the M2 Max in benchmarks and can keep up with the fastest mobile CPUs.
The M3 also integrates a new graphics card with dynamic caching, mesh shading and ray tracing acceleration via hardware. In the cheaper model, 30 of the chip's 40 cores are used and support up to 5 displays simultaneously (internal and 4 external).
GPU and CPU can jointly access the shared memory on the package (unified memory). This is available in 36 and 96 GB variants and offers 400 GB/s maximum bandwidth (512 bit bus).
The integrated 16-core Neural Engine has also been revised and now offers 18 TOPS peak performance (compared to 15.8 TOPS in the M2 but 35 TOPS in the new A17 Pro). The video engine now also supports AV1 decoding in hardware. H.264, HEVC and ProRes (RAW) can still be decoded and encoded. Like its predecessor, the Max chip offers two video engines and can therefore encode and decode two streams simultaneously.
Unfortunately, the integrated WLAN only continues to support WiFi 6E (no WiFi 7), unlike the small M3 SoC thunderbolt 4 is also supported (max 40 Gbit/s).
The chip is manufactured in the current 3nm process (N3B) at TSMC and contains 92 billion transistors (+37% vs. Apple M2 Max).
AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX
► remove from comparison![AMD R9 7945HX](fileadmin/_processed_/9/4/csm_amd_dragon_range_7945hx_chip_801546e25d.jpg)
The AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX is a high-end notebook processor from the Dragon Range series with 16 cores and hyperthreading (SMT), which means it can process up to 32 threads simultaneously. The CPU uses the current Zen 4 architecture for the 16 cores and clocks these from 2.4 GHz (base clock) up to 5.2 GHz (single-core boost). The CPU offers 16 MB L2 cache and 64 MB L3 cache (i.e. a total of 80 MB cache). The 7940HX consists of three chiplets, two CCD clusters with 8 CPU cores each in 5nm (71mm²) and one IO die in 6nm (122mm²) which are all manufactured at TSMC.
The performance of the Ryzen 9 should be comparable to a Core i9-13900HX (24 hybrid cores, max 5.4 GHz) in the top range of mobile processors from 2024. AMD itself advertises a clear lead over the old Ryzen 9 6900HX (8 Zen 3 cores, 4.9 GHz), which can be explained by the additional cores, improved architecture and higher frequencies. Compared to the top model, the Ryzen 9 7945HX, the 7940HX is slightly lower clocked.
The chip also integrates 4x USB 3.2 Gen2 (10 Gbps) ports (no USB 4), 28 PCIe 5.0 lanes (for GPUs and SSDs), a dual-channel DDR5-5200 memory controller and a small AMD Radeon 610M graphics card (2CUs, 400 - 2200 MHz).
The R9 7940HX is specified with 55 watts TDP and can be configured up to 75 watts (cTDP).
Model | Apple M3 Max 14-Core | AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Series | Apple Apple M3 | AMD Dragon Range (Zen 4, Ryzen 7045) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Series: Dragon Range (Zen 4, Ryzen 7045) Dragon Range-HX (Zen 4) |
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Clock | 2748 - 4056 MHz | 2400 - 5200 MHz | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cores / Threads | 14 / 14 10 x 4.1 GHz Apple M3 P-Core 4 x 2.7 GHz Apple M3 E-Core | 16 / 32 16 x 5.2 GHz AMD Zen 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
TDP | 78 Watt | 55 Watt | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Transistors | 92000 Million | 9900 Million | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Technology | 3 nm | 5 nm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Features | ARMv8 Instruction Set | DDR5-5200 RAM, PCIe 5, MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4A, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX, AVX2, AVX-512, BMI2, ABM, FMA, ADX, SMEP, SMAP, SMT, CPB, AES-NI, RDRAND, RDSEED, SHA, SME | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
iGPU | Apple M3 Max 30-Core GPU | AMD Radeon 610M (400 - 2200 MHz) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Architecture | ARM | x86 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Announced | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manufacturer | www.apple.com | www.amd.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Codename | Dragon Range-HX (Zen 4) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
L1 Cache | 1 MB | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
L2 Cache | 16 MB | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
L3 Cache | 64 MB | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
max. Temp. | 100 °C | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Socket | FL1 |