Apple M4 vs Apple M3 Pro: The M3 Pro Still Has a Minor Lead in Multi-Core Performance, but Falls Behind in Single-Core

LaptopMedia.com Comparisons Apple M4 vs Apple M3 Pro: The M3 Pro Still Has a Minor Lead in Multi-Core Performance, but Falls Behind in Single-Core

From: Severin Kolakov 09 May 2024 / 12:50 0

We’ve already seen what the Apple M4 can do against the M3, however what about the M3 Pro? It should put up a decent fight when it comes to Multi-core performance, thanks to its higher number of cores, however, we’re expecting total domination for the M4 chip as far as Single-core performance is concerned (after all, it did bring down even the high and mighty Core i9-14900KF to its knees).

Specs table

The M3 Pro gets more cores in both of its configurations, which will help it in Multi-core tests.

CPU	CPU Cores	GPU Cores	Memory Bandwidth	Unified Memory	Process Technology
Apple M4 (10-core CPU)	4 performance cores + 6 efficiency cores	10 cores	120 GB/s	TBD	3 nm
Apple M3 Pro (12-core CPU)	6 performance cores + 6 efficiency cores	14 cores or 18 cores	153.6 GB/s	up to 36GB	3 nm
Apple M3 Pro (11-core CPU)	5 performance cores + 6 efficiency cores	14 cores or 18 cores	153.6 GB/s	up to 36GB	3 nm

Benchmarks

CPU benchmarks

Comparing the Geekbench results, it’s clear that the new M4 chip has a strong lead in the Single-core test of about 21-26% when compared to both iterations of the M3 Pro chip. In terms of Multi-core performance, the M4 is also 2% faster than the 11-core M3 Pro. However, the 12-core M3 Pro is still the quickest overall, with a 7% lead over the M4.

CPU	Geekbench 6 Single / Multi Score
Apple M4	3810 / 14541
Apple M3 Pro (12-core CPU)	3033 / 15538
Apple M3 Pro (11-core CPU)	3155 / 14266

GPU benchmarks

Now, since these are SoCs with bundled GPUs, we can’t go without testing them too. We’ll use the Geekbench 6 Metal test, which reveals quite a lot. First of all, the more cores of the M3 Pro’s 14-core and 18-core GPU is much better suited to handle more intensive workloads. The 18-core is the fastest of the three, with a 46% lead over the M4 10-core GPU and a 15% lead over the M3 Pro 14-core GPU.