Intel Processor N50 vs Apple M3 Pro 12-Core
Intel Processor N50
► remove from comparison![Intel N50](fileadmin/_processed_/f/0/csm_intel_alder_lake_n_ablock_diagram_edf631640c.jpg)
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](fileadmin/_processed_/3/6/csm_m3_soc_18fe44e71f.png)
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).
Model | Intel Processor N50 | Apple M3 Pro 12-Core | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Series | Intel Alder Lake-N | Apple Apple M3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Codename | Alder Lake-N | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Series: Apple M3 |
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Clock | 1000 - 3400 MHz | 2748 - 4056 MHz | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
L3 Cache | 6 MB | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cores / Threads | 2 / 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 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
TDP | 6 Watt | 27 Watt | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Technology | 10 nm | 3 nm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
max. Temp. | 105 °C | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
iGPU | Intel UHD Graphics Xe 16EUs (Tiger Lake-H) ( - 750 MHz) | Apple M3 Pro 18-Core GPU | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Architecture | x86 | ARM | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Announced | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manufacturer | ark.intel.com | www.apple.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Transistors | 37000 Million | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Features | ARMv8 Instruction Set |