Apple M4 Pro (12-Core) vs M3 Pro

86 out of 100
Apple M4 Pro (12-Core)
VS
73 out of 100
Apple M3 Pro

We compared two 12-core laptop CPUs: the 4.51 GHz Apple M4 Pro (12-Core) against the 4.05 GHz M3 Pro. On this page, you'll find out which processor has better performance in benchmarks, games and other useful information.

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 (12-Core)
Advantages of Apple M4 Pro (12-Core)
  • Supports up to 64 GB LPDDR5X-8533 RAM
  • Around 119.4 GB/s (78%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • Newer - released 1 year later
  • 22% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 3864 vs 3163 points

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
172
143
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
1421
1059
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) 5470 -
Cinebench Scores (79th and 139th place)

GeekBench v6

The new version of this benchmark emulates common operations often used in real-world apps
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
3864
3163
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
20499
15512
File compression 2120 MB/sec 1560 MB/sec
Clang compilation 165.8 Klines/sec 132.6 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 484.7 pages/sec 382.9 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 486.8 Mpixels/sec 393.2 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 368.5 pages/sec 301 pages/sec
Background blur 84.2 images/sec 61.4 images/sec
Photo processing 189.3 images/sec 144.1 images/sec
Ray tracing 25.9 Mpixels/sec 19.7 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 991 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
4557
4247
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
32710
24046
Integer math 70.9 GOps/sec 55.9 GOps/sec
Floating point math 71.5 GOps/sec 64.8 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 460M Primes/sec 240M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 46.4M Strings/sec 35.2M Strings/sec
Data encryption 19.5 GBytes/sec 14.4 GBytes/sec
Data compression 409.9 MBytes/sec 288.5 MBytes/sec
Physics 4875 Frames/sec 2060 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 21.8B Matrices/sec 14.1B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 661 & 1204 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 37.4 PPW 35.3 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 539.4 PPW 517.1 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 860.8 PPW 801.5 PPW
Blender / Watt - 7.62 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 M4 Pro (12-Core)
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-07 (skibidigomgom)Cinebench 2024172 / 1421
πŸ“˜ 2025-11-21 (TommyYOyoyo)GeekBench4066 / 21270
πŸ“˜ 2025-04-16 (Infrra)Cinebench 2024169 / 1297
πŸ“˜ 2025-02-23 (Amandeep)GeekBench3911 / 20685
Apple M3 Pro
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-01-25 (Kirich)GeekBench3198 / 14601
πŸ“˜ 2026-01-25 (Kirich)Cinebench 2024150 / 946

Specifications

Full technical specification of Apple M4 Pro (12-Core) and M3 Pro

General

Vendor Apple Apple
Released October 29, 2024 October 30, 2023
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set ARMv9 ARMv8
Codename Apple M4 Apple M3
Integrated GPU Apple M4 Pro GPU (16-core) Apple M3 Pro GPU (18-core)
Successor - Apple M5 Pro (15-Core) - Apple M5 Pro (18-Core)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 8 6
P-Threads 8 6
Base Frequency (P) 4.51 GHz 4.05 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 4 6
E-Threads 4 6
Base Frequency (E) 2.59 GHz 2.75 GHz
Total
Total Cores 12 12
Total Threads 12 12
Multiplier 45x 40x
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 16MB (shared) 16MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Transistors - 37 billions
Fabrication Process 3 nm 3 nm
TDP (PL1) 38 W 30 W
Socket Apple M-Socket Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100Β°C 100Β°C
Laptop processors ranking (12th and 39th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Apple M4 Pro GPU (16-core) Apple M3 Pro GPU (18-core)
GPU Base Clock 500 MHz 500 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1578 MHz 1380 MHz
Shading Units 2048 2304
TMUs 128 144
ROPs 64 72
Execution Units 256 288
TGP 26 W 30 W
iGPU FLOPS
6.5 TFLOPS
6.4 TFLOPS

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5X-8533 - LPDDR5-6400
Max. Memory Size 64 GB 36 GB
Memory Channels 16 12
Max. Memory Bandwidth 273 GB/s 153.6 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

PCI Express Version - 4.0
Further details
Notes on M4 Pro (12-Core):
    - SoC is designed using ARMv9.2-A architecture.

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
152 (67%)
75 (33%)
Total votes: 227

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M3 Pro or M4 Pro (12-Core)?
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