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Intel Processor N50 vs Apple M3 Pro 12-Core

Intel Processor N50

► remove from comparison Intel N50

The Intel Processor N50 is an entry-level mobile CPU for thin and light laptops from the Alder Lake-N series. It was announced in early 2023 and offers no performance cores and 2 of the 8 efficient cores (E-cores, Gracemont architecture). The chip does not support HyperThreading and clocks with up to 3.4 GHz. The performance of the E-cores should be similar to old Skylake cores (compare to the Core i7-6700HQ). All cores can use up to 6 MB L3-cache. 

Performance

The performance is clearly lower than the Processor N100 (4 cores, 3.4 GHz) due to the reduced core count. The single thread performance however, should be similar. Compared to older processors, the N50 should be comparable to dual core Skylake based CPUs like the Intel Core m3-8100Y (2x 3.4 GHz, 5W).Features

The Alder Lake-N chips only support single channel memory with up to DDR5-4800, DDR4-3200 or LPDDR5-4800. The chip also supports Quick Sync and AV1 decoding (most likely same engine as in Alder Lake). Furthermore, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 are partly integrated (but no Thunderbolt). External chips can be connected via PCIe Gen3 x9 (via the PCH).

The integrated graphics adapter is based on the Xe-architecture and offers only 16 of the 32 EUs (Execution Units) operating at only up to 750 MHz. Due to the single channel memory, low clock speeds, and low shader count, the gaming performance of the iGPU is very limited.

Power consumption

The N50 has a base power consumption of only 6 W and is therefore suited for fanless cooling. The CPU is built with a further improved 10nm SuperFin process at Intel (called Intel 7).

Apple M3 Pro 12-Core

► remove from comparison Apple Apple M3 Pro 12-Core

The Apple M3 Pro (12 Core) is a system on a chip (SoC) from Apple for notebooks that was launched in late 2023. It integrates a new 12-core CPU with 6 performance cores with up to 4.06 GHz and 6 efficiency cores with 2.8 GHz. There is also a slimmed-down 11-core variant with a 14-core GPU.

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). However, 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 top model, all 18 cores of the chip 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).

ModelIntel Processor N50Apple M3 Pro 12-Core
SeriesIntel Alder Lake-NApple Apple M3
CodenameAlder Lake-N
Series: Apple M3
Intel Core i3-N305 compare1.8 - 3.8 GHz8 / 8 cores6 MB L3
Intel Core i3-N300 compare - 3.8 GHz8 / 8 cores6 MB L3
Intel Processor N200 compare1 - 3.7 GHz4 / 4 cores6 MB L3
Intel Processor N97 compare - 3.6 GHz4 / 4 cores6 MB L3
Intel Processor N95 compare - 3.4 GHz4 / 4 cores6 MB L3
Intel Processor N100 compare1 - 3.4 GHz4 / 4 cores6 MB L3
Intel Processor N50 « 1 - 3.4 GHz2 / 2 cores6 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 « 2.75 - 4.06 GHz12 / 12 cores
Apple M3 Pro 11-Core compare2.75 - 4.06 GHz11 / 11 cores
Apple M3 compare2.75 - 4.06 GHz8 / 8 cores
Clock1000 - 3400 MHz2748 - 4056 MHz
L3 Cache6 MB
Cores / Threads2 / 2
2 x 3.4 GHz Intel Gracemont E-Core
12 / 12
6 x 4.1 GHz Apple M3 P-Core
6 x 2.7 GHz Apple M3 E-Core
TDP6 Watt27 Watt
Technology10 nm3 nm
max. Temp.105 °C
iGPUIntel UHD Graphics Xe 16EUs (Tiger Lake-H) ( - 750 MHz)Apple M3 Pro 18-Core GPU
Architecturex86ARM
Announced
Manufacturerark.intel.comwww.apple.com
Transistors37000 Million
FeaturesARMv8 Instruction Set

Benchmarks

Cinebench 2024 - Cinebench 2024 CPU Single Core
143 Points (99%)
Cinebench 2024 - Cinebench 2024 CPU Multi Core
1059 Points (20%)
Cinebench R23 - Cinebench R23 Multi Core
15106 Points (14%)
Cinebench R23 - Cinebench R23 Single Core
1977 Points (84%)
Cinebench R15 - Cinebench R15 CPU Multi 64 Bit
2163 Points (14%)
Blender - Blender 3.3 Classroom CPU *
314 Seconds (4%)
Blender - Blender 2.79 BMW27 CPU *
327 Seconds (2%)
Geekbench 6.2 - Geekbench 6.2 Single-Core
100%
N50 +
1185 Points (32%)
3138 Points (84%)
Geekbench 6.2 - Geekbench 6.2 Multi-Core
100%
N50 +
2024 Points (8%)
15480 Points (61%)
Geekbench 5.5 - Geekbench 5.1 - 5.4 64 Bit Single-Core
100%
N50 +
891 Points (38%)
2327 Points (98%)
Geekbench 5.5 - Geekbench 5.1 - 5.4 64 Bit Multi-Core
100%
N50 +
1339 Points (2%)
15298 Points (27%)
Mozilla Kraken 1.1 - Kraken 1.1 Total Score *
376.2 ms (0%)
Octane V2 - Octane V2 Total Score
96501 Points (85%)
WebXPRT 3 - WebXPRT 3 Score
427 Points (89%)
CrossMark - CrossMark Overall
1977 Points (76%)
Power Consumption - Cinebench R15 Multi Power Consumption - external Monitor *
47.9 Watt (9%)
Power Consumption - Idle Power Consumption - external Monitor *
5.8 Watt (4%)
Power Consumption - Idle Power Consumption 150cd 1min *
7.5 Watt (8%)
Power Consumption - Cinebench R15 Multi Power Efficiency - external Monitor
45.2 Points per Watt (34%)

Average Benchmarks Intel Processor N50 → 100% n=4

Average Benchmarks Apple M3 Pro 12-Core → 608% n=4

- 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)