Apple M3 Max 14-Core vs Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E-84-100 vs Apple M3
Apple M3 Max 14-Core
► remove from comparisonThe 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).
Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E-84-100
► remove from comparisonThe Snapdragon X Elite X1E-84-100 is a pretty fast ARM architecture processor (SoC) for use in Windows laptops. The X1E-84-100 is the fastest member of the Snapdragon X series, as of May 2024; as such, it has 12 Oryon CPU cores (3 clusters of equally powerful cores; 12 threads) running at up to 4.2 GHz, along with the 4.6 TFLOPS Adreno X1-85 GPU, the 45 TOPS Hexagon NPU and an impressively fast LPDDR5x-8448 memory controller.
Two slower Snapdragon X Elite flavors exist, known as the X1E-80-100 and X1E-78-100. In the meantime, the X1E-00-1DE is a special version of the X1E-84-100 aimed at system makers and software developers that has just slightly higher single-core and dual-core Boost clock speed of 4.3 GHz but otherwise the same CPU/GPU/NPU configuration.
Architecture and Features
Qualcomm Oryon cores are in part based on Nuvia IP; they most likely make use of the ARM v8.7 microarchitecture. Much like modern AMD and Intel processors, the Snapdragon chip is compatible with USB 4 and thus with Thunderbolt 4 but it remains to be seen if the X Elite is compatible with GeForce or Radeon discrete graphics cards.
The Qualcomm SoC is believed to have at least 12 PCIe 4 and 4 PCIe 3 lanes for connecting various kinds of devices. NVMe SSDs are supported with a throughput of up to 7.9 GB/s; furthermore, most laptops built around the chip are expected to have 16 GB of LPDDR5X-8448 RAM. There is also a 45 TOPS NPU for accelerating AI workloads.
Performance
When all of the 12 cores are under load, they run at up to 3.8 GHz. The 4.2 GHz clock speed is only achievable under single-thread or dual-thread loads.
Taking the difference in clock speeds into consideration, its multi-thread performance should be around 12% higher than that of the X Elite X1E-78-100 for AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS-like performance in most real-world tasks. We'll make sure to update this section once we get our hands on a laptop powered by the X1E-84-100.
Like any other Windows on ARM platform, the Snapdragon X chip works best with applications and games compiled specifically for ARM processors. If making use of the built-in x86 to ARM emulation mode, a performance penalty of about 20% is to be expected.
Graphics
The integrated 4.6 TFLOPS X1-85 GPU is DirectX 12-enabled but not DirectX 12 Ultimate-enabled, despite featuring VRS and ray tracing support. The 4.6 TFLOPS of performance that it supposedly delivers represent a half of what the slowest current-generation professional Nvidia Ada graphics card for laptops, the RTX 500 Ada, is capable of.
Its gaming performance is set to be just slightly better than that of the Radeon 780M. That should be sufficient for about 30 fps in Baldur's Gate 3, a triple-A title released in 2023, at 1080p / Low. Slightly older games will run just fine with most settings set to Medium.
The Qualcomm iGPU will let you use up to 3 UHD 2160p monitors simultaneously. 2160p120 integrated displays are supported, as are the popular AV1, HEVC and AVC video codecs (both decoding and encoding). The hardware does not support the VVC codec; that feature remains a Lunar Lake exclusive for now.
Power consumption
As the most powerful Snapdragon X Elite chip, the X1E-84-100 can eat up to 80 watts depending on the system and the power profile chosen. This will differ from one laptop to another, with most designs expected to target the 40 W sweet spot.
The SoC is built with a 4 nm TSMC process for decent, as of H1 2024, energy efficiency.
Apple M3
► remove from comparisonThe Apple M3 is a system on a chip (SoC) from Apple for notebooks that was introduced in late 2023. It integrates a new 8-core CPU with 4 performance cores with up to 4.06 GHz and 4 efficiency cores running at up to 2.75 GHz. Apple claims that the CPU is up to 20% faster than in the old Apple M2 (3.5 GHz).
Due to the higher clock speeds and architecture improvements, the processor performance is also significantly better than the M2 in benchmarks (see e.g. Geekbench below) and can keep up with the fastest CPUs in short single-core tests (like the Raptor Lake i9-13950HX).
The M3 also integrates a new graphics adapter with dynamic caching, mesh shading and ray tracing acceleration. According to Apple, it is 20% faster than the GPU in the M2. The chip integrates again 10 GPU cores, but the cheaper variant only offers 8 cores (e.g. in the entry iMac). Furthermore, the GPU only supports 2 displays (an additional 6K60 display to the internal one).
Both GPU and CPU can access the unified memory on the package together. It is still available in 8, 16 and 24 GB variants and offers the same 100 GB/s maximum bandwidth (unlike the Pro models that feature a reduced memory bandwidth).
The integrated 16-core Neural Engine has also been revised and now offers 18 TOPS peak performance (versus 15.8 TOPS in the M2 but 35 TOPS in the new A17 Pro). The video engine now supports AV1 decoding in hardware. H.264, HEVC and ProRes (RAW) can still be decoded and encoded.
Unfortunately, the integrated wireless network module only supports Wi-Fi 6E (no Wi-Fi 7) and due to the support of only a single external monitor, the chip also has to make do with no Thunderbolt 4 (Thunderbolt 3 / USB 4 support only for up to 40 Gbit/s).
The chip is manufactured on the current 3nm TSMC process (N3B most likely) and contains 25 billion transistors (+25% vs. Apple M2). The 3nm process should also contribute to the excellent efficiency of the chip. Under load, the M3 CPU consumes approximately 20 Watt.
Model | Apple M3 Max 14-Core | Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E-84-100 | Apple M3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Series | Apple Apple M3 | Qualcomm Snapdragon X | Apple Apple M3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Series: Apple M3 |
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Clock | 2748 - 4056 MHz | <=4200 MHz | 2748 - 4056 MHz | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cores / Threads | 14 / 14 10 x 4.1 GHz Apple M3 P-Core 4 x 2.7 GHz Apple M3 E-Core | 12 / 12 12 x 4.2 GHz Qualcomm Oryon | 8 / 8 4 x 4.1 GHz Apple M3 P-Core 4 x 2.7 GHz Apple M3 E-Core | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
TDP | 78 Watt | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Transistors | 92000 Million | 25000 Million | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Technology | 3 nm | 4 nm | 3 nm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Features | ARMv8 Instruction Set | ARMv8 Instruction Set | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
iGPU | Apple M3 Max 30-Core GPU | Qualcomm Snapdragon X Adreno X1-85 (4.6 TFLOPS) | Apple M3 10-Core GPU | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Architecture | ARM | ARM | ARM | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Announced | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manufacturer | www.apple.com | www.qualcomm.com | www.apple.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Codename | Oryon | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
TDP Turbo PL2 | 80 Watt | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
L2 Cache | 4 MB |