Apple M3 Max 16-Core vs Intel Core i7-10510U vs Apple M3 Max 14-Core

Apple M3 Max 16-Core

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.

Intel Core i7-10510U

The Intel Core i7-10510U is a power efficient quad-core SoC for notebooks based on the Comet Lake (CML-U) generation and was announced in August 2019. Compared to the similar Whiskey Lake processors (e.g.& Core i7-8665U), the only difference is support for higher memory speeds (DDR4-2666, LPDDR4-2933) and two additional cores in the top model (not in this i7-10510U). The processor cores are clocked between 1.8 and 4.9 GHz (all 4 cores 4.3 GHz max). Thanks to HyperThreading 8 threads can be used. More information on Comet Lake and all the models and articles on it can be found here.

The integrated graphics adapter however is still the same as in the previous generations. It should be still called Intel HD Graphics 620 and clock from 300 - 1150 MHz in the i7. Furthermore, the SoC integrates a VP9 and H.265 de- and encoder and an integrated dual channel DDR4-2666 / LPDDR4-2933 memory controller.

Performance

The average 10510U in our database proves to be an OK mid-range option, its multi-thread benchmark scores hovering near those of the Ryzen 7 2700U and the Core i5-8259U. While not as impressive as the hexa-core Core i7-10710U, the 10510U will make most customers happy, making for short load times and generally pain-free experience.

Thanks to its decent cooling solution and a long-term CPU power limit of 45 W, the Modern 15 A10RB is among the fastest laptops powered by the 10510U that we know of. It can be more than twice as fast in CPU-bound workloads as the slowest system featuring the same chip in our database, as of August 2023.

Power consumption

This Core i7 series chip has a default TDP (also known as the long-term power limit) of 15 W, a value that laptop makers are free to change to anything between 10 W and 25 W resulting in corresponding performance and clock speed changes. By going for the lowest value, it is possible to build passively cooled tablets, laptops, mini-PCs around the i7. Please note that Comet Lake-U chips can briefly consume up to 90 W when under extreme loads.

Last but not the least, the i7-10510U is built with one of the old 14 nm Intel processes for lower-than-average, as of late 2022, energy efficiency.

Apple M3 Max 14-Core

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).