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Apple M2 Pro 10-Core vs Apple M3 Pro 11-Core

Apple M2 Pro 10-Core

► remove from comparison Apple M2 Pro 10-Core

The Apple M2 Pro 10-Core is a System on a Chip (SoC) from Apple that is found in the early 2023 MacBook Pro 14 and Mac Mini entry level models. It offers 10 of the 12 cores available in the chip divided in six performance cores (P-cores) and four power-efficiency cores (E-cores). The E-cores clock with up to 3.4 GHz, the P-Cores up to 3.7 GHz (mostly 3.3 GHz in multi-threaded workloads and 3.4 GHz in single threaded).

The big cores (codename Avalanche) offer 192 KB instruction cache, 128 KB data cache, and 36 MB shared L2 cache (up from 24 MB in the M1 Pro). The four efficiency cores (codename Blizzard) are a lot smaller and offer only 128 KB instruction cache, 64 KB data cache, and 4 MB shared cache. CPU and GPU can both use the 24 MB SLC (System Level Cache). 

The unified memory (16 or 32 GB LPDDR5-6400) next to the chip is connected by a 256 Bit memory controller (200 GB/s bandwidth) and can be used by the GPU and CPU.

The performance of the M2 Pro 10-Core should be similar to the old M1 Pro with all 10 cores. The multi-threaded performance should be slower, as the M2 10-core has two p-cores less (and 2 e-cores more) but the single-threaded performance should be better due to the faster clock speed and architectural improvements. The old M1 Pro 8-core should be noticeably slower.

The integrated graphics card in the M1 Pro 10-core offers all 16 of the 19 cores.

Furthermore, the SoC integrates a fast 16 core neural engine (faster than M1 Pro), a secure enclave (e.g., for encryption), a unified memory architecture, Thunderbolt 4 controller, an ISP, and media de- and encoders (including ProRes).

The M2 Pro is manufactured in 5 nm at TSMC (second generation) and integrates 40 billion transistors. 

Apple M3 Pro 11-Core

► remove from comparison Apple Apple M3 Pro 11-Core

The 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).

ModelApple M2 Pro 10-CoreApple M3 Pro 11-Core
SeriesApple Apple M2Apple Apple M3
Series: Apple M3
Apple M2 Max compare2.42 - 3.7 GHz12 / 12 cores48 MB L3
Apple M2 Pro compare2.42 - 3.5 GHz12 / 12 cores24 MB L3
Apple M2 Pro 10-Core « 2.42 - 3.7 GHz10 / 10 cores24 MB L3
Apple M2 compare2.42 - 3.48 GHz8 / 8 cores8 MB L3
Apple M3 Max 16-Core compare2.75 - 4.06 GHz16 / 16 cores
Apple M3 Max 14-Core compare2.75 - 4.06 GHz14 / 14 cores
Apple M3 Pro 12-Core compare2.75 - 4.06 GHz12 / 12 cores
Apple M3 Pro 11-Core « 2.75 - 4.06 GHz11 / 11 cores
Apple M3 compare2.75 - 4.06 GHz8 / 8 cores
Clock2424 - 3696 MHz2748 - 4056 MHz
L1 Cache7.3 MB
L2 Cache36 MB
L3 Cache24 MB
Cores / Threads10 / 1011 / 11
5 x 4.1 GHz Apple M3 P-Core
6 x 2.7 GHz Apple M3 E-Core
Transistors40000 Million37000 Million
Technology5 nm3 nm
FeaturesARMv8 Instruction SetARMv8 Instruction Set
iGPUApple M2 Pro 16-Core GPUApple M3 Pro 14-Core GPU
ArchitectureARMARM
Announced
TDP27 Watt
Manufacturerwww.apple.com

Benchmarks

Cinebench 2024 - Cinebench 2024 CPU Single Core
144 Points (100%)
Cinebench 2024 - Cinebench 2024 CPU Multi Core
908 Points (17%)
Cinebench R23 - Cinebench R23 Multi Core
11811 Points (11%)
13315 Points (12%)
Cinebench R23 - Cinebench R23 Single Core
1643 Points (70%)
1942 Points (83%)
Cinebench R20 - Cinebench R20 CPU (Single Core)
449 Points (50%)
502 Points (56%)
Cinebench R20 - Cinebench R20 CPU (Multi Core)
3235 Points (8%)
3529 Points (9%)
Cinebench R15 - Cinebench R15 CPU Multi 64 Bit
1664 Points (11%)
1913 Points (12%)
Cinebench R15 - Cinebench R15 CPU Single 64 Bit
231 Points (70%)
281 Points (85%)
Blender - Blender 3.3 Classroom CPU *
435 Seconds (6%)
355 Seconds (5%)
Blender - Blender 2.79 BMW27 CPU *
415 Seconds (3%)
365 Seconds (3%)
Geekbench 6.2 - Geekbench 6.2 Single-Core
3113 Points (84%)
Geekbench 6.2 - Geekbench 6.2 Multi-Core
14412 Points (57%)
Geekbench 5.5 - Geekbench 5.1 - 5.4 64 Bit Single-Core
min: 1926     avg: 1937     median: 1936.5 (82%)     max: 1947 Points
2331 Points (98%)
Geekbench 5.5 - Geekbench 5.1 - 5.4 64 Bit Multi-Core
min: 12074     avg: 12132     median: 12131.5 (22%)     max: 12189 Points
13312 Points (24%)
Mozilla Kraken 1.1 - Kraken 1.1 Total Score *
447.4 ms (1%)
374.1 ms (0%)
Octane V2 - Octane V2 Total Score
75471 Points (66%)
98732 Points (87%)
WebXPRT 4 - WebXPRT 4 Score
250 Points (72%)
WebXPRT 3 - WebXPRT 3 Score
391 Points (81%)
431 Points (90%)
CrossMark - CrossMark Overall
1772 Points (68%)
1966 Points (75%)
Power Consumption - Cinebench R15 Multi Power Consumption - external Monitor *
40.1 Watt (7%)
Power Consumption - Idle Power Consumption - external Monitor *
2.2 Watt (1%)
2.1 Watt (1%)
Power Consumption - Idle Power Consumption 150cd 1min *
5.2 Watt (6%)
4.8 Watt (5%)
Power Consumption - Cinebench R15 Multi Power Efficiency - external Monitor
47.7 Points per Watt (36%)

Average Benchmarks Apple M2 Pro 10-Core → 100% n=14

Average Benchmarks Apple M3 Pro 11-Core → 112% n=14

- 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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Redaktion, 2017-09- 8 (Update: 2023-07- 1)