Apple M4 GPU (8-core) vs M3 GPU (10-core)
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We compared two integrated laptop professional GPUs: the Apple M4 GPU (8-core) with 128 pipelines and 1024 shaders against the 1 year older M3 GPU (10-core) that utilizes 160 pipelines and 1280 shaders. Here you will find complete details about specs, efficiency, performance tests, and more.
Review
Gaming
Performance in DirectX, OpenCL, and Vulkan games
Workstation
Perf. in 3D modeling, video editing and rendering apps
Energy Efficiency
Power consumption efficiency in different scenarios
NanoReview Final Score
Overall video card score
Key differences
Reasons to consider the Apple M3 GPU (10-core)
- 17% higher maximum theoretical performance (3.5 vs 3 TFLOPS)
- Has 25% more shading units (1280 vs 1024)
Benchmarks
Graphics cards’ performance in recent benchmarking apps3D Mark
Steel Nomad Lite Score
| Solar Bay | 13969 | 13531 |
| Wild Life Extreme | 7931 | 8237 |
GeekBench 6 OpenCL
GB6 Compute Score
| Background Blur | 57.4 img/sec | 60.3 img/sec |
| Face Detection | 41.3 img/sec | 40.8 img/sec |
| Horizon Detection | 1.21 Gpixels/sec | 1.21 Gpixels/sec |
| Edge Detection | 1.74 Gpixels/sec | 1.64 Gpixels/sec |
| Gaussian Blur | 1.12 Gpixels/sec | 1.2 Gpixels/sec |
| Feature Matching | 0.43 Gpixels/sec | 0.37 Gpixels/sec |
| Stereo Matching | 94.9 Gpixels/sec | 102.6 Gpixels/sec |
| Particle Physics | 3902.5 FPS | 3293.3 FPS |
| API | OpenCL | OpenCL |
Blender
Blender GPU
Recent User Tests
Apple M4 GPU (8-core)
No benchmark results yet
Apple M3 GPU (10-core)
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 📘 2025-04-24 (Alex) | Geekbench 6 OpenCL | 31004 |
Artificial Intelligence Tests
Performance in machine learning and artificial intelligence tasksGeekBench 6 ML
GB6 ML Single Precision
GB6 ML Half Precision
GB6 ML Quantized
| Image Classification (SP) | - | 1579 |
| Image Segmentation (HP) | - | 2944 |
| Image Super Resolution (Q) | - | 4425 |
| Face Detection (HP) | - | 6661 |
| Pose Estimation (Q) | - | 15020 |
| Text Classification (SP) | - | 2984 |
| Machine Translation (HP) | - | 5876 |
| Object Detection (SP) | - | 1826 |
| Depth Estimation (Q) | - | 9339 |
| Style Transfer (SP) | - | 22291 |
| Framework | - | Core ML |
| Backend | - | CPU |
Specifications
Technical specifications of Apple M4 GPU (8-core) and M3 GPU (10-core)General
| Vendor | Apple | Apple |
| Build | Integrated | Integrated |
| Released | October 29, 2024 | October 31, 2023 |
| Case | Laptop | Laptop |
| Purpose | Professional | Professional |
| Segment | Mid-range | Mid-range |
| Architecture | Apple M GPU | Apple M GPU |
| GPU Codename | Custom | - |
| Rival Equivalent | - | - GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop |
| Successor | - Apple M5 GPU (8-Core) | - Apple M5 GPU (10-Core) |
| Recommended CPU | - Apple M4 (8-Core) or above | - Apple M3 or above |
| Used in CPUs | - Apple M4 (8-Core) | - Apple M3 |
Laptop GPU ranking (68th and 81st place)
Graphics Processing Unit
| Base Clock | 500 MHz | 500 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1470 MHz | 1380 MHz |
| Shading Units | 1024 | 1280 |
| Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) | 64 | 80 |
| Render Output Units (ROPs) | 32 | 40 |
| Compute Units (Pipelines) | 128 | 160 |
| Instructions Per Cycle | 2 IPC | 2 IPC |
Raw Performance
| Pixel Fill Rate | 47 GPixel/s | 55 GPixel/s |
| Texture Fill Rate | 94 GTexel/s | 110 GTexel/s |
FLOPS (FP32)
Physical
| Interface | Custom | Custom |
| TGP | 15 W | 15 W |
| Manufacturing | TSMC | TSMC |
| Fabrication Process | 3 nm | 3 nm |
| Transistor Count | - | 13.8 billion |
| Max. Temperature | 100°C | 100°C |
Memory
| Memory Type | System Shared | System Shared |
| Memory Clock | 7500 MHz | 6400 MHz |
| Effective Memory Speed | 15000 Mbps | 12800 Mbps |
| Bus | 128-bit | 128-bit |
| ECC | No | No |
Memory Bandwidth
API
| Ray Tracing | Yes | Yes |
| DLSS | No | No |
Cast your vote
Total votes: 28