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

Apple M3 vs M2 Pro

67 out of 100
Apple M3
VS
65 out of 100
Apple M2 Pro
Apple M3
Apple M2 Pro

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 4.05 GHz Apple M3 with 8-cores against the 3.5 GHz M2 Pro 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
Multi-Core Performance
Measure performance when all cores are involved
Power Efficiency
The efficiency score of power consumption
Integrated Graphics
iGPU capabilities for gaming and 3D-intensive tasks
NanoReview Final Score
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
πŸ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Key Differences

What are the key differences between Pro and M3
Advantages of Apple M3
  • More modern manufacturing process – 3 versus 5 nanometers
  • Newer - released 10 months later
  • 13% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 3009 vs 2666 points
Advantages of Apple M2 Pro
  • Around 102.4 GB/s (100%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • More powerful Apple M2 Pro GPU (19-core) integrated graphics: 6.8 vs 3.5 TFLOPS
  • Has 4 more physical cores
  • Supports up to 32 GB LPDDR5-6400 RAM

Test in Benchmarks

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

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Apple M3 +12%
140
M2 Pro
125
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Apple M3
712
M2 Pro +12%
795
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) 2341 -
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)
Apple M3 +13%
3009
M2 Pro
2666
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Apple M3
11815
M2 Pro +23%
14489
File compression 1260 MB/sec 1630 MB/sec
Clang compilation 94.7 Klines/sec 125.3 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 264.5 pages/sec 356.9 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 313.9 Mpixels/sec 352.9 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 297 pages/sec 266.9 pages/sec
Background blur 50.2 images/sec 53.8 images/sec
Photo processing 114.8 images/sec 126.3 images/sec
Ray tracing 12.9 Mpixels/sec 17 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 438 & 917 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Apple M3 +15%
4707
M2 Pro
4089
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Apple M3
19065
M2 Pro +40%
26724
Integer math 42.6 GOps/sec 57.6 GOps/sec
Floating point math 48.3 GOps/sec 73.2 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 231M Primes/sec 354M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 27.3M Strings/sec 40.9M Strings/sec
Data encryption 11.5 GBytes/sec 15.6 GBytes/sec
Data compression 225 MBytes/sec 334.8 MBytes/sec
Physics 1867 Frames/sec 3611 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 10B Matrices/sec 14.7B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 1563 & 584 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Apple M3
160.35
M2 Pro +24%
198.23

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 35.6 PPW 26.5 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 590.8 PPW 483 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 953.3 PPW 890.8 PPW
Blender / Watt 8.02 PPW 6.61 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
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-22 (doannguyenmfs)Geekbench 6 CPU2991 / 11735
πŸ“˜ 2026-06-16 (darkknightSup)Geekbench 6 CPU2990 / 11498
Add View all (2)
Apple M2 Pro
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2025-04-23 (Roman)Cinebench 2024125 / 795
Add View all (1)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Apple M3 and M2 Pro

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 GPU Apple M2 Pro GPU (19-core)
Successor - Apple M5 (10-Core) - Apple M5 Pro (18-Core)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 4 8
P-Threads 4 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 8 12
Total Threads 8 12
Multiplier 40x -
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 16MB (shared) 32MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Transistors 25 billions 40 billions
Fabrication Process 3 nm 5 nm
TDP (PL1) 20 W 30 W
Socket Apple M-Socket Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100Β°C 100Β°C
Laptop processors ranking (69th and 74th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Apple M3 GPU Apple M2 Pro GPU (19-core)
GPU Base Clock 500 MHz 450 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1380 MHz 1398 MHz
Shading Units 1280 2432
TMUs 80 152
ROPs 40 76
Execution Units 160 304
TGP 15 W 35 W
iGPU FLOPS
Apple M3
3.5 TFLOPS
M2 Pro +94%
6.8 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M2 Pro GPU (19-core) compared to M3 GPU (10-core)

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5-6400 - LPDDR5-6400
Max. Memory Size 24 GB 32 GB
Memory Channels 8 4
Max. Memory Bandwidth 102.4 GB/s 204.8 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

PCI Express Version 4.0 4.0

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
207 (19.5%)
853 (80.5%)
Total votes: 1060

Competitors

1. Apple M3 vs Apple M4 (10-Core) (4)
2. Apple M3 vs Apple M1 Pro (16)
3. Apple M3 vs Apple M1
4. Apple M3 vs Apple M2
5. Apple M3 vs Apple M1 Max (4)
6. Apple M2 Pro vs Apple M4 Pro (14-Core) (2)
7. Apple M2 Pro vs Apple M4 (10-Core)
8. Apple M2 Pro vs Apple M1 Max
9. Apple M2 Pro vs Apple M1 Pro (1)
10. Apple M2 Pro vs Apple M4 Pro (12-Core)
Compare other CPUs (460+)

Comments

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