Apple M3 Max 14-Core vs Apple M3 Max 16-Core
Apple M3 Max 14-Core
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The Apple M3 Max 14 core CPU is a system on a chip (SoC) from Apple for notebooks that was introduced towards the end of 2023. It integrates a new 14-core CPU with 10 performance cores with up to 4.06 GHz and 4 efficiency cores with 2.8 GHz. There is also a more powerful 16-core variant with 40 GPU cores.
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.
The M3 also integrates a new graphics card with dynamic caching, mesh shading and ray tracing acceleration via hardware. In the cheaper model, 30 of the chip's 40 cores 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 36 and 96 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).
Apple M3 Max 16-Core
► remove from comparisonThe 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.
| Model | Apple M3 Max 14-Core | Apple M3 Max 16-Core | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Series | Apple M3 | Apple M3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Series: M3 |
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| Clock | 2748 - 4056 MHz | 2748 - 4056 MHz | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cores / Threads | 14 / 14 10 x 4.1 GHz Apple M3 P-Core 4 x 2.7 GHz Apple M3 E-Core | 16 / 16 12 x 4.1 GHz Apple M3 P-Core 4 x 2.7 GHz Apple M3 E-Core | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| TDP | 78 Watt | 78 Watt | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Transistors | 92000 Million | 92000 Million | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Technology | 3 nm | 3 nm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Features | ARMv8 Instruction Set | ARMv8 Instruction Set | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| iGPU | Apple M3 Max 30-Core GPU | Apple M3 Max 40-Core GPU | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Architecture | ARM | ARM | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Announced | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Manufacturer | www.apple.com | www.apple.com |
Benchmarks
Average Benchmarks Apple M3 Max 14-Core → 100% n=4
Average Benchmarks Apple M3 Max 16-Core → 112% n=4
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance
1 This benchmark is not used for the average calculation
