Home > CPU Comparison > M3 Pro or M1 Max: what's better?

Apple M3 Pro vs M1 Max

73 out of 100
Apple M3 Pro
VS
61 out of 100
Apple M1 Max
Apple M3 Pro
Apple M1 Max

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 4.05 GHz Apple M3 Pro with 12-cores against the 3.2 GHz M1 Max with 10-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 Pro
87
M1 Max
70
Multi-Core Performance
Measure performance when all cores are involved
M3 Pro
46
M1 Max
38
Power Efficiency
The efficiency score of power consumption
M3 Pro
83
M1 Max
69
Integrated Graphics
iGPU capabilities for gaming and 3D-intensive tasks
M3 Pro
99
M1 Max
99
NanoReview Final Score
M3 Pro
73
M1 Max
61
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
๐Ÿ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Key Differences

What are the key differences between Max and Pro
Advantages of Apple M3 Pro
  • Newer - released 2 years and 1 month later
  • More modern manufacturing process โ€“ 3 versus 5 nanometers
  • 30% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 3163 vs 2431 points
  • Has 2 more physical cores
Advantages of Apple M1 Max
  • Around 256 GB/s (167%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • Supports up to 64 GB LPDDR5-6400 RAM
  • More powerful Apple M1 Max GPU (32-core) integrated graphics: 10.6 vs 6.4 TFLOPS

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
M3 Pro
vs
M1 Max

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
M3 Pro +29%
143
M1 Max
111
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
M3 Pro +34%
1059
M1 Max
789
Cinebench Scores (#141st 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 Pro +30%
3163
M1 Max
2431
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
M3 Pro +22%
15512
M1 Max
12673
File compression 1560 MB/sec 1450 MB/sec
Clang compilation 132.6 Klines/sec 105.1 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 382.9 pages/sec 329.2 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 393.2 Mpixels/sec 317 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 301 pages/sec 249.6 pages/sec
Background blur 61.4 images/sec 42.2 images/sec
Photo processing 144.1 images/sec 122.8 images/sec
Ray tracing 19.7 Mpixels/sec 14.9 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] โ€“ 991 & 447 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
M3 Pro +11%
4247
M1 Max
3831
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
M3 Pro +9%
24046
M1 Max
22162
Integer math 55.9 GOps/sec 46.1 GOps/sec
Floating point math 64.8 GOps/sec 64.5 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 240M Primes/sec 278M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 35.2M Strings/sec 32.7M Strings/sec
Data encryption 14.4 GBytes/sec 12.2 GBytes/sec
Data compression 288.5 MBytes/sec 274.4 MBytes/sec
Physics 2060 Frames/sec 2833 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 14.1B Matrices/sec 12.8B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] โ€“ 1204 & 2398 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
M3 Pro +15%
228.7
M1 Max
199.2

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 35.3 PPW 15.8 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 517.1 PPW 253.5 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 801.5 PPW 443.2 PPW
Blender / Watt 7.62 PPW 3.98 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 Pro
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-01-25 (Kirich)GeekBench3198 / 14601
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-01-25 (Kirich)Cinebench 2024150 / 946
Add View all (2)
Apple M1 Max
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-07-04 (Daniel)GeekBench2459 / 13052
Add View all (1)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Apple M3 Pro and M1 Max

General

Vendor Apple Apple
Released October 30, 2023 October 18, 2021
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set ARMv8 ARMv8
Codename Apple M3 Apple M1
Integrated GPU Apple M3 Pro GPU (18-core) Apple M1 Max GPU (32-core)
Successor - Apple M5 Pro (18-Core) - Apple M5 Max (40-ัore GPU)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 6 8
P-Threads 6 8
Base Frequency (P) 4.05 GHz 3.2 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 6 2
E-Threads 6 2
Base Frequency (E) 2.75 GHz 2.1 GHz
Total
Total Cores 12 10
Total Threads 12 10
Multiplier 40x -
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 16MB (shared) 24MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Transistors 37 billions 57 billions
Fabrication Process 3 nm 5 nm
TDP (PL1) 30 W 50 W
Socket Apple M-Socket Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100ยฐC -
Laptop processors ranking (40th and 95th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Apple M3 Pro GPU (18-core) Apple M1 Max GPU (32-core)
GPU Base Clock 500 MHz 450 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1380 MHz 1296 MHz
Shading Units 2304 4096
TMUs 144 256
ROPs 72 128
Execution Units 288 512
TGP 30 W -
iGPU FLOPS
M3 Pro
6.4 TFLOPS
M1 Max +66%
10.6 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M1 Max GPU (32-core) compared to M3 Pro GPU (18-core)

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5-6400 - LPDDR5-6400
Max. Memory Size 36 GB 64 GB
Memory Channels 12 4
Max. Memory Bandwidth 153.6 GB/s 409.6 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

PCI Express Version 4.0 -

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
451 (45.2%)
546 (54.8%)
Total votes: 997

Competitors

1. Apple M3 Pro vs Apple M4 (10-Core)
2. Apple M3 Pro vs Apple M4 Pro (14-Core)
3. Apple M3 Pro vs Apple M1 Pro (10)
4. Apple M3 Pro vs Apple M2 Max
5. Apple M3 Pro vs AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370
6. Apple M3 Pro vs Apple M2 Pro
7. Apple M1 Max vs Apple M4 (10-Core) (13)
8. Apple M1 Max vs Apple M4 Pro (12-Core)
9. Apple M1 Max vs Apple M3 (4)
10. Apple M1 Max vs Apple M4 Max (14-Core)
Compare other CPUs (460+)

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M1 Max or M3 Pro?
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