Notebookcheck Logo

Apple M2 Pro vs Apple M3

Apple M2 Pro

► remove from comparison Apple M2 Pro

The Apple M2 Pro is a System on a Chip (SoC) from Apple that is found in the early 2023 MacBook Pro 14 and 16-inch models. It offers all 12 cores available in the chip divided in eight 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.

Apple states that the M2 Pro has a 25% higher performance than the M1 Pro in Xcode compiling.

The integrated graphics card in the M1 Pro offers all 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

► remove from comparison Apple M3

The Apple M3 is a system on a chip (SoC) from Apple for notebooks that was introduced in late 2023. It integrates a new 8-core CPU with 4 performance cores with up to 4.06 GHz and 4 efficiency cores running at up to 2.75 GHz. Apple claims that the CPU is up to 20% faster than in the old Apple M2 (3.5 GHz)

Due to the higher clock speeds and architecture improvements, the processor performance is also significantly better than the M2 in benchmarks (see e.g. Geekbench below) and can keep up with the fastest CPUs in short single-core tests (like the Raptor Lake i9-13950HX).

The M3 also integrates a new graphics adapter with dynamic caching, mesh shading and ray tracing acceleration. According to Apple, it is 20% faster than the GPU in the M2. The chip integrates again 10 GPU cores, but the cheaper variant only offers 8 cores (e.g. in the entry iMac). Furthermore, the GPU only supports 2 displays (an additional 6K60 display to the internal one).

Both GPU and CPU can access the unified memory on the package together. It is still available in 8, 16 and 24 GB variants and offers the same 100 GB/s maximum bandwidth (unlike the Pro models that feature a reduced memory bandwidth). 

The integrated 16-core Neural Engine has also been revised and now offers 18 TOPS peak performance (versus 15.8 TOPS in the M2 but 35 TOPS in the new A17 Pro). The video engine now supports AV1 decoding in hardware. H.264, HEVC and ProRes (RAW) can still be decoded and encoded.

Unfortunately, the integrated wireless network module only supports Wi-Fi 6E (no Wi-Fi 7) and due to the support of only a single external monitor, the chip also has to make do with no Thunderbolt 4 (Thunderbolt 3 / USB 4 support only for up to 40 Gbit/s).

The chip is manufactured on the current 3nm TSMC process (N3B most likely) and contains 25 billion transistors (+25% vs. Apple M2). The 3nm process should also contribute to the excellent efficiency of the chip. Under load, the M3 CPU consumes approximately 20 Watt.

ModelApple M2 ProApple M3
SeriesApple Apple M2Apple Apple M3
Series: Apple M3
Apple M2 Max compare2.42 - 3.7 GHz12 / 12 cores48 MB L3
Apple M2 Pro « 2.42 - 3.5 GHz12 / 12 cores24 MB L3
Apple M2 Pro 10-Core compare2.42 - 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 compare2.75 - 4.06 GHz11 / 11 cores
Apple M3 « 2.75 - 4.06 GHz8 / 8 cores
Clock2424 - 3504 MHz2748 - 4056 MHz
L1 Cache3.3 MB
L2 Cache36 MB4 MB
L3 Cache24 MB
Cores / Threads12 / 128 / 8
4 x 4.1 GHz Apple M3 P-Core
4 x 2.7 GHz Apple M3 E-Core
Transistors40000 Million25000 Million
Technology5 nm3 nm
FeaturesARMv8 Instruction SetARMv8 Instruction Set
iGPUApple M2 Pro 19-Core GPUApple M3 10-Core GPU
ArchitectureARMARM
Announced
Manufacturerwww.apple.com

Benchmarks

Cinebench 2024 - Cinebench 2024 CPU Single Core
123 Points (85%)
115%
M3 +
min: 140     avg: 141     median: 141 (98%)     max: 142 Points
Cinebench 2024 - Cinebench 2024 CPU Multi Core
1030 Points (19%)
58%
M3 +
min: 576     avg: 622     median: 599.5 (11%)     max: 712 Points
Cinebench R23 - Cinebench R23 Multi Core
min: 14787     avg: 14795     median: 14794.5 (14%)     max: 14802 Points
70%
M3 +
min: 10074     avg: 10275     median: 10298 (10%)     max: 10454 Points
Cinebench R23 - Cinebench R23 Single Core
min: 1647     avg: 1648     median: 1647.5 (70%)     max: 1648 Points
115%
M3 +
min: 1900     avg: 1901     median: 1900 (81%)     max: 1904 Points
Cinebench R20 - Cinebench R20 CPU (Single Core)
min: 446     avg: 446.5     median: 446.5 (50%)     max: 447 Points
113%
M3 +
504 Points (56%)
Cinebench R20 - Cinebench R20 CPU (Multi Core)
min: 4018     avg: 4031     median: 4031 (10%)     max: 4044 Points
70%
M3 +
2818 Points (7%)
Cinebench R15 - Cinebench R15 CPU Multi 64 Bit
2069 Points (13%)
72%
M3 +
1499 Points (9%)
Cinebench R15 - Cinebench R15 CPU Single 64 Bit
230 Points (69%)
118%
M3 +
271 Points (82%)
Blender - Blender 3.3 Classroom CPU *
331 Seconds (4%)
98%
M3 +
min: 491     avg: 590     median: 517 (7%)     max: 761 Seconds
Blender - Blender 2.79 BMW27 CPU *
100%
1 M3 +
min: 474     avg: 509     median: 494 (3%)     max: 558 Seconds
R Benchmark 2.5 - R Benchmark 2.5 *
100%
1 M2 Pro +
0.4 sec (9%)
Geekbench 6.2 - Geekbench 6.2 Single-Core
2663 Points (72%)
116%
M3 +
min: 3026     avg: 3077     median: 3076 (83%)     max: 3130 Points
Geekbench 6.2 - Geekbench 6.2 Multi-Core
14568 Points (57%)
82%
M3 +
min: 11863     avg: 11984     median: 11992 (47%)     max: 12066 Points
Geekbench 5.5 - Geekbench 5.1 - 5.4 64 Bit Single-Core
min: 1952     avg: 1957     median: 1957 (83%)     max: 1961 Points
120%
M3 +
min: 2256     avg: 2316     median: 2342 (99%)     max: 2350 Points
Geekbench 5.5 - Geekbench 5.1 - 5.4 64 Bit Multi-Core
min: 14859     avg: 14961     median: 15010 (27%)     max: 15013 Points
72%
M3 +
min: 10570     avg: 10697     median: 10748 (19%)     max: 10774 Points
Mozilla Kraken 1.1 - Kraken 1.1 Total Score *
443.8 ms (1%)
100%
M3 +
min: 362.8     avg: 366.4     median: 363.1 (0%)     max: 373.2 ms
Octane V2 - Octane V2 Total Score
76205 Points (67%)
127%
M3 +
min: 96622     avg: 97216     median: 96933 (85%)     max: 98093 Points
WebXPRT 4 - WebXPRT 4 Score
253 Points (73%)
124%
M3 +
min: 313     avg: 314     median: 314 (90%)     max: 315 Points
WebXPRT 3 - WebXPRT 3 Score
386 Points (80%)
115%
M3 +
min: 423     avg: 438.7     median: 445 (93%)     max: 448 Points
CrossMark - CrossMark Overall
min: 1797     avg: 1805     median: 1804.5 (69%)     max: 1812 Points
102%
M3 +
min: 1847     avg: 1850     median: 1847 (71%)     max: 1857 Points
Power Consumption - Idle Power Consumption - external Monitor *
100%
1 M3 +
min: 2.63     avg: 2.8     median: 2.8 (2%)     max: 2.87 Watt
Power Consumption - Idle Power Consumption 150cd 1min *
100%
1 M3 +
min: 3.94     avg: 4.4     median: 4.4 (5%)     max: 4.7 Watt

Average Benchmarks Apple M2 Pro → 100% n=18

Average Benchmarks Apple M3 → 99% 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

Add one or more devices and compare

In the following list you can select (and also search for) devices that should be added to the comparison. You can select more than one device.

restrict list:

show all (including archived), 2024, 2023
v1.28
log 29. 18:01:26

#0 checking url part for id 14973 +0s ... 0s

#1 checking url part for id 15110 +0s ... 0s

#2 redirected to Ajax server, took 1719676883 +0s ... 0s

#3 did not recreate cache, as it is less than 5 days old! Created at Fri, 28 Jun 2024 05:15:21 +0200 +0s ... 0s

#4 composed specs +0.005s ... 0.006s

#5 did output specs +0s ... 0.006s

#6 getting avg benchmarks for device 14973 +0.001s ... 0.006s

#7 got single benchmarks 14973 +0.004s ... 0.011s

#8 getting avg benchmarks for device 15110 +0.001s ... 0.011s

#9 got single benchmarks 15110 +0.006s ... 0.017s

#10 got avg benchmarks for devices +0s ... 0.017s

#11 min, max, avg, median took s +0.02s ... 0.036s

#12 return log +0.002s ... 0.039s

Please share our article, every link counts!
> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > Benchmarks / Tech > Processor Comparison - Head 2 Head
Redaktion, 2017-09- 8 (Update: 2023-07- 1)