Apple’s latest M3 Max chip has set a new benchmark in the world of Arm-SoCs, outshining Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite in recent Geekbench tests. This news arrives just ahead of the official release of Apple’s latest SoCs, which are built on the advanced 3-nm manufacturing process by TSMC.
The leaked benchmark results reveal that the M3 Max not only outperforms its predecessor, the M2 Max, but also eclipses the Snapdragon X Elite by a significant margin of 38 percent in multi-core test. Remarkably, the M3 Max’s performance even surpasses that of the Intel Core i9-13900K, a processor with 24 cores.
The M3 Max’s impressive performance boost of 47 percent over the M2 Max can be attributed to a new CPU architecture that includes more cores and a higher clock speed. The M3 Max operates at 4.05 GHz, which is 16 percent faster than the M2 Max. With 16 cores compared to Qualcomm’s 12, the M3 Max has a distinct advantage.
However, the true test will be in the power efficiency of the M3 series. While Qualcomm claims its chip surpasses the M2 Max in performance per watt, only time and thorough testing will reveal if Apple can match or exceed these claims.
In single-core tests, Apple continues to lead, narrowly outperforming Intel’s Core i9. The M3 chip shows a 12 percent improvement over the M2, nearly meeting Apple’s promise of 15 percent faster performance cores. The competition is closer in single-core performance, but Apple’s M3 Max still maintains a strong position.
The GPU performance improvements in the new chips are modest, with less than a 10 percent increase over their predecessors. Despite Apple’s announcements of significant GPU enhancements, such as Raytracing and Mesh Shading, these improvements have yet to be fully realized in Geekbench’s Compute tests.
The new chips are expected to have a significant impact on Apple’s product lineup. A MacBook Pro equipped with an M3 Max is anticipated to rival the performance of a Mac Pro and Mac Studio with an M2 Ultra, despite having eight fewer cores.
