Apple M6 GPU (12-core) vs M1 Pro GPU (16-core)
We compared two integrated laptop graphics cards: the Apple M6 GPU (12-core) with 192 pipelines and 1536 shaders against the 4 years and 11 months older M1 Pro GPU (16-core) that utilizes 256 pipelines and 2048 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
Scores marked with a red asterisk (**) represent initial estimates from early testing.
Key differences
Reasons to consider the Apple M6 GPU (12-core)
- Manufactured using a more efficient 2 nm process technology
Reasons to consider the Apple M1 Pro GPU (16-core)
- Has 20% higher memory bandwidth: 204.8 vs 170 GB/s
- Has 33% more shading units (2048 vs 1536)
Benchmarks
Graphics cardsโ performance in recent benchmarking apps3D Mark
Steel Nomad Lite Score
| Solar Bay | - | 12485 |
| Wild Life Extreme | - | 9873 |
GeekBench 6 GPU Compute
GB6 Compute Score
| Background Blur | - | 74.5 img/sec |
| Face Detection | - | 47.3 img/sec |
| Horizon Detection | - | 1.73 Gpixels/sec |
| Edge Detection | - | 3.32 Gpixels/sec |
| Gaussian Blur | - | 1.75 Gpixels/sec |
| Feature Matching | - | 0.47 Gpixels/sec |
| Stereo Matching | - | 131.2 Gpixels/sec |
| Particle Physics | - | 5143 FPS |
| API | - | OpenCL |
Cinebench 2024 GPU
Cinebench 2024 GPU
Recent User Tests
Apple M6 GPU (12-core)
No benchmark results yet
Apple M1 Pro GPU (16-core)
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| ๐ 2026-03-27 (bbffx) | Geekbench 6 OpenCL | 43467 |
| ๐ 2026-03-27 (bbffx) | Cinebench 2024 | 2423 |
| ๐ 2026-03-27 (bbffx) | Steel Nomad Light | 4048 |
| ๐ 2025-02-21 (serhii) | Geekbench 6 OpenCL | 40932 |
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) | - | 4112 |
| Image Segmentation (HP) | - | 7488 |
| Image Super Resolution (Q) | - | 9882 |
| Face Detection (HP) | - | 14702 |
| Pose Estimation (Q) | - | 33560 |
| Text Classification (SP) | - | 2289 |
| Machine Translation (HP) | - | 1629 |
| Object Detection (SP) | - | 3633 |
| Depth Estimation (Q) | - | 16986 |
| Style Transfer (SP) | - | 53586 |
| Framework | - | Core ML |
| Backend | - | GPU |
Specifications
Technical specifications of Apple M6 GPU (12-core) and M1 Pro GPU (16-core)General
| Vendor | Apple | Apple |
| Build | Integrated | Integrated |
| Released | August 25, 2026 | October 18, 2021 |
| Case | Laptop | Laptop |
| Purpose | Generic | Professional |
| Segment | Mid-range | Mid-range |
| Architecture | Apple M GPU | Apple M GPU |
| GPU Codename | Custom | - |
| Rival Equivalent | - Adreno X2-90 | - GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop |
| Successor | - | - Apple M5 Pro GPU (20-core) |
| Recommended CPU | - Apple M6 (12-Core) or above | - Apple M1 Pro or above |
| Used in CPUs | - Apple M6 (12-Core) | - Apple M1 Pro |
Laptop GPU ranking (27th and 79th place)
Graphics Processing Unit
| Base Clock | - | 450 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1600 MHz | 1296 MHz |
| Shading Units | 1536 | 2048 |
| Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) | 96 | 128 |
| Render Output Units (ROPs) | 80 | 64 |
| Compute Units (Pipelines) | 192 | 256 |
| Tensor Cores | No | - |
| Ray-tracing Cores | No | No |
| Instructions Per Cycle | 2 IPC | 2 IPC |
Raw Performance
| Pixel Fill Rate | 128 GPixel/s | 83 GPixel/s |
| Texture Fill Rate | 154 GTexel/s | 166 GTexel/s |
FLOPS (FP32)
Physical
| Interface | Custom | Custom |
| TGP | - | 30 W |
| Manufacturing | TSMC | TSMC |
| Fabrication Process | 2 nm | 5 nm |
| Transistor Count | - | 23.2 billion |
| Max. Temperature | - | 94ยฐC |
Memory
| Memory Type | System Shared | System Shared |
| Memory Clock | 10667 MHz | 6400 MHz |
| Effective Memory Speed | - | 12800 Mbps |
| Bus | 128-bit | 256-bit |
| ECC | No | No |
Memory Bandwidth
API
| CUDA | No | - |
| Ray Tracing | Yes | No |
| DLSS | No | No |
Cast your vote
Total votes: 2