Apple M3 Pro 11-Core vs Intel Core i5-8210Y
Apple M3 Pro 11-Core
► remove from comparisonThe Apple M3 Pro 11 Core is a system on a chip (SoC) from Apple for notebooks that was introduced late 2023. It integrates 11 of the 12 CPU cores with 5 of 6 performance cores with up to 4.06 GHz and 6 efficiency cores with 2.8 GHz.
Compared to the M2 Pro the M3 Pro has been slimmed down somewhat and swaps two performance cores for efficiency cores. This is due to the changed core configuration, as 6 cores are now used per cluster (the M2 Pro and M3 still have 4 cores per cluster). Furthermore, the memory bus has been reduced from 256 bits to 192 bits (150 GB/s vs. 200 GB/s). Thanks to the new architecture and higher clock rates, the new M3 Pro is still slightly faster.
The M3 Pro also integrates a new graphics card with dynamic caching, mesh shading and ray tracing acceleration via hardware. In the entry-level model, only 14 of the chip's 18 cores are used and support up to 3 displays simultaneously (internal and 2 external).
GPU and CPU can jointly access the shared memory on the package (unified memory). This is available in 18 or 36 GB variants and offers 150 GB/s maximum bandwidth (192 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.
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 37 billion transistors (-7.5% vs. Apple M2 Pro).
Intel Core i5-8210Y
► remove from comparisonThe Intel Core i5-8210Y is a very efficient dual-core SoC for (passively) cooled notebooks based on the Amber Lake generation and was announced on 30th October 2018 with the new MacBook Air. The CPU consists of two processor cores clocked at 1.6 - 3.6 GHz and a TDP of 7 Watt. Thanks to Hyper Threading, the processor can execute up to four threads simultaneously. The chips also includes the Intel HD Graphics 617 GPU, a dual-channel memory controller (DDR3L/LPDDR3) as well as VP9 and H.265 video de- and encoder. Compared to the Kaby Lake-Y predecessors (e.g. Core i7-7Y75), Amber Lake uses the same architecture produced in the improved 14nm+ FinFET process (no 14nm++) but offers higher clock speeds at an increased TDP rating. The Core i5-8200Y is very similar when configured to 7 Watt (cTDP up) and offers even higher Turbo clocks, but a slightly slower GPU (-100 MHz).
Architecture
Intel basically used the familiar micro architecture from the Skylake / Kaby Lake generation, so the per-MHz performance is identical.
Performance
The performance of the Y series is highly depending on the cooling solution of the laptop / tablet and the TDP settings for sustained load. Therefore, the differences between a Core m3 and a i7 may be rather slim, if the thermals are very limited. The high Turbo clock speeds in Amber Lake should however lead to a very good single thread performance for short bursts.
Graphics
The integrated Intel HD Graphics 617 GPU has 24 Execution Units (EUs) like the old HD Graphics 515 and runs with clocks between 300 and 1050 MHz in combination with this processor. The performance heavily depends on the TDP limit as well as the memory configuration; with fast LPDDR3-1866 RAM in dual-channel mode, the GPU should sometimes be able to compete with the HD Graphics 520, but can also be much slower in other scenarios. Modern games from 2016 will, if at all, only run smoothly in the lowest settings.
Contrary to Skylake, Kaby Lake and Amber Lake now also supports hardware decoding for H.265/HEVC Main10 with a 10-bit color depth as well as Google's VP9 codec.
Power Consumption
The chip is manufactured in the 14 nm+ process with FinFET transistors. The typical TDP for the Amber Lake Y-series is specified at 5 Watts, but the i5-8210Y is specified at 7 Watt (for the MacBook Air).
Model | Apple M3 Pro 11-Core | Intel Core i5-8210Y | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Series | Apple Apple M3 | Intel Amber Lake | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Series: Amber Lake Amber Lake-Y |
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Clock | 2748 - 4056 MHz | 1600 - 3600 MHz | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cores / Threads | 11 / 11 5 x 4.1 GHz Apple M3 P-Core 6 x 2.7 GHz Apple M3 E-Core | 2 / 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
TDP | 27 Watt | 7 Watt | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Transistors | 37000 Million | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Technology | 3 nm | 14 nm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Features | ARMv8 Instruction Set | Dual-Channel DDR3L-1600/LPDDR3-2133 Memory Controller (16 GB max), HyperThreading, AVX, AVX2, Quick Sync, Virtualization, AES-NI, vPro, TXT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
iGPU | Apple M3 Pro 14-Core GPU | Intel UHD Graphics 617 (300 - 1050 MHz) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Architecture | ARM | x86 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Announced | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manufacturer | www.apple.com | ark.intel.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Codename | Amber Lake-Y | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
L1 Cache | 128 KB | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
L2 Cache | 512 KB | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
L3 Cache | 4 MB | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
max. Temp. | 100 °C | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Socket | BGA | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
$281 U.S. |