Home > CPU Comparison > M3 Max or M2 Max: what's better?

Apple M3 Max vs M2 Max

83 out of 100
Apple M3 Max
VS
68 out of 100
Apple M2 Max
Apple M3 Max
Apple M2 Max

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 4.05 GHz Apple M3 Max with 16-cores against the 3.5 GHz M2 Max with 12-cores. On this page, you'll find out which processor has better performance in benchmarks, games and other useful information.

  1. Review
  2. Differences
  3. Performance
  4. Specs
  5. Comments

Review

General overview and comparison of the processors
Single-Core Performance
Performance in single-threaded apps and benchmarks
M3 Max
91
M2 Max
77
Multi-Core Performance
Measure performance when all cores are involved
M3 Max
72
M2 Max
47
Power Efficiency
The efficiency score of power consumption
M3 Max
79
M2 Max
75
Integrated Graphics
iGPU capabilities for gaming and 3D-intensive tasks
M3 Max
99
M2 Max
99
NanoReview Final Score
M3 Max
83
M2 Max
68
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
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Key Differences

What are the key differences between Max and Max
Advantages of Apple M3 Max
  • More modern manufacturing process – 3 versus 5 nanometers
  • Newer - released 10 months later
  • Has 4 more physical cores
  • Supports up to 128 GB LPDDR5-6400 RAM
  • 20% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 3227 vs 2695 points

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
M3 Max
vs
M2 Max

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
M3 Max +16%
142
M2 Max
122
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
M3 Max +66%
1698
M2 Max
1022
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) 5133 -
Cinebench Scores (51st and 148th place)
Submit your benchmark results

GeekBench v6

The new version of this benchmark emulates common operations often used in real-world apps
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
M3 Max +20%
3227
M2 Max
2695
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
M3 Max +42%
21167
M2 Max
14891
File compression 2190 MB/sec 1690 MB/sec
Clang compilation 198.5 Klines/sec 131.8 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 557.3 pages/sec 368.6 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 648.9 Mpixels/sec 382.1 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 309.1 pages/sec 272.7 pages/sec
Background blur 68.9 images/sec 54.1 images/sec
Photo processing 183.5 images/sec 149.6 images/sec
Ray tracing 30.6 Mpixels/sec 17 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 678 & 693 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
M3 Max +16%
4780
M2 Max
4136
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
M3 Max +54%
41211
M2 Max
26843
Integer math 91.2 GOps/sec 57.7 GOps/sec
Floating point math 131.5 GOps/sec 73.4 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 573M Primes/sec 359M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 61.7M Strings/sec 41.1M Strings/sec
Data encryption 24.7 GBytes/sec 15.7 GBytes/sec
Data compression 530.4 MBytes/sec 335.2 MBytes/sec
Physics 4332 Frames/sec 3849 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 24.2B Matrices/sec 14.7B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 409 & 1034 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
M3 Max +60%
403.83
M2 Max
253.11

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 30.3 PPW 20.4 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 378 PPW 297.8 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 735.9 PPW 536.9 PPW
Blender / Watt 7.21 PPW 5.06 PPW
These are rough calculations, as most CPUs surpass PL1 TDP wattage even in multicore workloads.

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Apple M3 Max
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2024-09-27 (JayZeppelin)Cinebench 2024142 / 1698
📘 2024-04-27 (Guest #1)Cinebench 2024141 / 1459
Add View all (2)
Apple M2 Max
No benchmark results yet
Add

Specifications

Full technical specification of Apple M3 Max and M2 Max

General

Vendor Apple Apple
Released October 30, 2023 January 17, 2023
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set ARMv8 ARMv8
Codename Apple M3 Apple M2
Integrated GPU Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core)
Successor - Apple M5 Max (40-сore GPU) - Apple M5 Max (40-сore GPU)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 12 8
P-Threads 12 8
Base Frequency (P) 4.05 GHz 3.5 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 4 4
E-Threads 4 4
Base Frequency (E) 2.75 GHz 2.4 GHz
Total
Total Cores 16 12
Total Threads 16 12
Multiplier 40x 35x
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 32MB (shared) 32MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Transistors 92 billions 67 billions
Fabrication Process 3 nm 5 nm
TDP (PL1) 56 W 50 W
Socket Apple M-Socket Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100°C 100°C
Laptop processors ranking (15th and 64th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core)
GPU Base Clock 500 MHz 450 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1380 MHz 1398 MHz
Shading Units 5120 4864
TMUs 320 304
ROPs 160 152
Execution Units 640 608
TGP 60 W 70 W
iGPU FLOPS
M3 Max +4%
14.1 TFLOPS
M2 Max
13.6 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) compared to M3 Max GPU (40-core)

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5-6400 - LPDDR5-6400
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 96 GB
Memory Channels 32 4
Max. Memory Bandwidth 409.6 GB/s 409.6 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

PCI Express Version 4.0 4.0

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
321 (80.9%)
76 (19.1%)
Total votes: 397

Competitors

1. Apple M2 Max vs Apple M3 Pro
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3. Apple M2 Max vs Apple M4 (10-Core)
4. Apple M2 Max vs Apple M4 Max (16-Core)
5. Apple M3 Max vs Apple M4 Pro (12-Core)
6. Apple M3 Max vs Apple M4 (10-Core) (2)
7. Apple M3 Max vs Apple M2 Ultra
8. Apple M3 Max vs Apple M4 Max (16-Core) (1)
9. Apple M3 Max vs Apple M4 Ultra
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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M2 Max or M3 Max?
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