Apple M6 GPU (12-core) vs M4 Pro GPU (20-core)
VS
Apple M6 GPU (12-core)
Custom
Apple M4 Pro GPU (20-core)
Custom
We compared two integrated laptop graphics cards: the Apple M6 GPU (12-core) with 192 pipelines and 1536 shaders against the 1 year and 11 months older M4 Pro GPU (20-core) that utilizes 320 pipelines and 2560 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 M4 Pro GPU (20-core)
- 65% higher maximum theoretical performance (8.1 vs 4.9 TFLOPS)
- Has 61% higher memory bandwidth: 273 vs 170 GB/s
- Has 67% more shading units (2560 vs 1536)
Benchmarks
Graphics cards’ performance in recent benchmarking apps3D Mark
Steel Nomad Lite Score
| Solar Bay | - | 33418 |
| Wild Life Extreme | - | 19535 |
GeekBench 6 GPU Compute
GB6 Compute Score
| Background Blur | - | 125.1 img/sec |
| Face Detection | - | 80 img/sec |
| Horizon Detection | - | 2.88 Gpixels/sec |
| Edge Detection | - | 4.22 Gpixels/sec |
| Gaussian Blur | - | 2.98 Gpixels/sec |
| Feature Matching | - | 0.8 Gpixels/sec |
| Stereo Matching | - | 235 Gpixels/sec |
| Particle Physics | - | 9516.1 FPS |
| API | - | OpenCL |
Cinebench 2024 GPU
Cinebench 2024 GPU
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) | - | 8046 |
| Image Segmentation (HP) | - | 15443 |
| Image Super Resolution (Q) | - | 20807 |
| Face Detection (HP) | - | 30860 |
| Pose Estimation (Q) | - | 56783 |
| Text Classification (SP) | - | 2888 |
| Machine Translation (HP) | - | 6167 |
| Object Detection (SP) | - | 7592 |
| Depth Estimation (Q) | - | 33607 |
| Style Transfer (SP) | - | 126726 |
| Framework | - | Core ML |
| Backend | - | GPU |
Specifications
Technical specifications of Apple M6 GPU (12-core) and M4 Pro GPU (20-core)General
| Vendor | Apple | Apple |
| Build | Integrated | Integrated |
| Released | August 25, 2026 | October 29, 2024 |
| Case | Laptop | Laptop |
| Purpose | Generic | Professional |
| Segment | Mid-range | Mid-range |
| Architecture | Apple M GPU | Apple M GPU |
| GPU Codename | Custom | Custom |
| Rival Equivalent | - Adreno X2-90 | - GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop |
| Successor | - | - Apple M5 Pro GPU (20-core) |
| Recommended CPU | - Apple M6 (12-Core) or above | - Apple M4 Pro (14-Core) or above |
| Used in CPUs | - Apple M6 (12-Core) | - Apple M4 Pro (14-Core) |
Laptop GPU ranking (27th and 38th place)
Graphics Processing Unit
| Base Clock | - | 500 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1600 MHz | 1578 MHz |
| Shading Units | 1536 | 2560 |
| Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) | 96 | 160 |
| Render Output Units (ROPs) | 80 | 80 |
| Compute Units (Pipelines) | 192 | 320 |
| Tensor Cores | No | - |
| Ray-tracing Cores | No | - |
| Instructions Per Cycle | 2 IPC | 2 IPC |
Raw Performance
| Pixel Fill Rate | 128 GPixel/s | 126 GPixel/s |
| Texture Fill Rate | 154 GTexel/s | 252 GTexel/s |
FLOPS (FP32)
Physical
| Interface | Custom | Custom |
| TGP | - | 26 W |
| Manufacturing | TSMC | TSMC |
| Fabrication Process | 2 nm | 3 nm |
| Max. Temperature | - | 100°C |
Memory
| Memory Type | System Shared | System Shared |
| Memory Clock | 10667 MHz | 8533 MHz |
| Effective Memory Speed | - | 15000 Mbps |
| Bus | 128-bit | 192-bit |
| ECC | No | No |
Memory Bandwidth
API
| CUDA | No | - |
| Ray Tracing | Yes | Yes |
| DLSS | No | No |
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