The Apple M3 Max (16 Core) is a system on a chip (SoC) from Apple for notebooks that was launched towards the end of 2023. It integrates a new 16-core CPU with 12 performance cores with up to 4.06 GHz and 4 efficiency cores with 2.8 GHz. There is also a slimmed-down 14-core variant with a 30-core GPU.
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 (such as a Core i9-13900HX).
The M3 also integrates a new graphics card with dynamic caching, mesh shading and ray tracing acceleration via hardware. In the top model, all 40 cores of the chip 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 48, 64 and 128 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). Under load, the CPU part consumes up to 56 watts, the chip can use a total of 78 watts.
The AMD Ryzen 7 5700X is a desktop processor with 8 cores and simultaneous multithreading (SMT), which means it can process 16 threads simultaneously. In April 2022, AMD presented the Ryzen 7 5700X, a new 8-core processor that is very similar to the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X. However, due to the lower TDP, there are no restrictions on the clock frequency. Nevertheless, the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X reaches up to 4.6 GHz in boost, which is only 100 MHz less than the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X. However, the base clock drops significantly to 3.4 GHz.
The performance of the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X is consistently excellent in all applications. The native 8-core can really show off its strengths, especially in multi-threaded applications, although the single-core performance has also been significantly improved compared to the older Zen 2 architecture.
The internal structure of the processor is similar to the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X. The CCX modules are also connected to each other via the I/O die, which we already know from Zen2. However, according to AMD, the Infinity Fabric should now achieve clock rates of up to 2 GHz, which in turn enables a RAM clock rate of 4,000 MHz without any loss of performance.
In terms of manufacturing processes, AMD also relies on TSCM for the 7nm production of the CPU cores in the Vermeer processors, although the I/O die is still supplied in 12 nm by Globalfoundries.
The AMD Ryzen 7 5700X is impressive in gaming thanks to the significantly improved IPC compared to Zen2. In terms of power consumption, the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X impresses with its low TDP of just 65 watts. This means that the processor can also be operated with a compact air cooler without any problems. The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X is operated with a TDP of 105 watts.
Average Benchmarks Apple M3 Max 16-Core → 100%n=15
Average Benchmarks AMD Ryzen 7 5700X → 78%n=15
- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card - Average benchmark values for this graphics card * Smaller numbers mean a higher performance 1 This benchmark is not used for the average calculation
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