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 Intel Core i7-1195G7 is a quad-core SoC from the Tiger Lake-UP3 product family designed for thin laptops and Ultrabooks that was introduced in 2021. It integrates four Willow Cove processor cores (8 threads thanks to Hyper-Threading). The base clock (minimum) depends on the configured TDP and can range from 1.3 GHz (12 Watt TDP) up to 2.9 GHz (28 W). The Turbo on one core can reach up to 5 GHz (Turbo Boost 3.0). All cores can reach up to 4.6 GHz. The i7-1195G7 is part of the Tiger Lake UP3 refresh and is the fastest CPU of the Tiger-Lake U line.
Furthermore, Tiger Lake SoCs supports four lanes of PCIe 4, AI hardware acceleration, and the partial integration of Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 and Wi-Fi 6E in the chip.
The 1195G7 integrates the Intel Iris Xe graphics adapter with 96 EUs clocked at 400 - 1400 MHz. The GPU and CPU can together use the 12 MB of L3 cache.
Performance
The average 1195G7 in our database matches the Intel Core i5-10300H in multi-thread performance while, perhaps surprisingly, lagging behind the AMD Ryzen 3 5300U. The makes the i7 a decent lower mid-range chip, as of early 2022. It'll run most apps with virtually no delays or slowdowns which is what the vast majority of users wants.
Thanks to its decent cooling solution and a long-term CPU power limit of slightly more than 30 W, the VAIO SX14 VJS144X0111K is among the fastest laptops built around the 1195G7 that we know of. It can be about 40% faster in CPU-bound workloads than 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 of 12 W to 28 W, the expectation being that laptop makers will go for a higher value in exchange for higher performance. Either way, that's a tad too high to allow for passively cooled designs.
The i7-1195G7 is built with Intel's 3rd generation 10 nm process marketed as SuperFin for below average, as of early 2023, energy efficiency.
Average Benchmarks Apple M3 Max 16-Core → 100%n=18
Average Benchmarks Intel Core i7-1195G7 → 62%n=18
- 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
v1.28
log 04. 04:25:21
#0 checking url part for id 15113 +0s ... 0s
#1 checking url part for id 13181 +0s ... 0s
#2 redirected to Ajax server, took 1720059921 +0s ... 0s
#3 did not recreate cache, as it is less than 5 days old! Created at Mon, 01 Jul 2024 05:15:43 +0200 +0s ... 0s
#4 composed specs +0.006s ... 0.007s
#5 did output specs +0s ... 0.007s
#6 getting avg benchmarks for device 15113 +0.001s ... 0.007s
#7 got single benchmarks 15113 +0.005s ... 0.012s
#8 getting avg benchmarks for device 13181 +0.004s ... 0.016s
#9 got single benchmarks 13181 +0.014s ... 0.03s
#10 got avg benchmarks for devices +0s ... 0.03s
#11 min, max, avg, median took s +0.034s ... 0.064s