Intel Core i7-14700HX vs Apple M3 Max 16-Core

Intel Core i7-14700HX

The Intel Core i7-14700HX is a high-end CPU based on the new Raptor Lake architecture for large and heavy notebooks. The CPU was introduced at the beginning of 2024 as part of the Raptor Lake HX refresh. The i7-14700HX is similar to the Core i7-13850HX with slightly higher clocked CPU cores.

The total of 28 threads are divided into P-cores and E-cores, which we already know from Alder Lake. The 13700HX offers 8 performance cores (P-cores) with hyperthreading and 12 efficiency cores (E-cores) without hyperthreading. A total of 28 threads are therefore supported. The P-cores clock at up to 5.5 GHz (single core) and the E-cores up to 3.9 GHz. The integrated memory controller supports a maximum of DDR5 with 5600 MHz.

Compared to Alder Lake, the new Raptor Lake architecture offers improved P-cores (Raptor Cove architecture with more cache), more E-cores (same Gracemont architecture) and higher clock rates thanks to the improved Intel 7 process. Furthermore, Intel now supports faster DDR5 main memory (up to 5600 MHz) in the top models.

The 13700HX is manufactured in the older 10nm FinFET process at Intel (Intel 7 process) and is specified with 55 watts base power and 157 watts turbo power.

Apple M3 Max 16-Core

The Apple M3 Max (16 Core) is a system on a chip (SoC) from Apple for notebooks that was launched towards the end of 2023. It integrates a new 16-core CPU with 12 performance cores with up to 4.06 GHz and 4 efficiency cores with 2.8 GHz. There is also a slimmed-down 14-core variant with a 30-core GPU.

Thanks to the higher clock rates and architectural improvements, the processor performance is also significantly better than the M2 Max in benchmarks and can keep up with the fastest mobile CPUs (such as a Core i9-13900HX).

The M3 also integrates a new graphics card with dynamic caching, mesh shading and ray tracing acceleration via hardware. In the top model, all 40 cores of the chip are used and support up to 5 displays simultaneously (internal and 4 external).

GPU and CPU can jointly access the shared memory on the package (unified memory). This is available in 48, 64 and 128 GB variants and offers 400 GB/s maximum bandwidth (512 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. Like its predecessor, the Max chip offers two video engines and can therefore encode and decode two streams simultaneously.

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 92 billion transistors (+37% vs. Apple M2 Max). Under load, the CPU part consumes up to 56 watts, the chip can use a total of 78 watts.