GeForce RTX 3060 vs Apple M4 GPU (10-Core)

We performed a head-to-head comparison of the GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB with 28 pipelines and 3584 shaders against the 3 years and 4 months newer Apple M4 GPU (10-Core) that utilizes 160 pipelines and 1280 shaders. Here you will find complete details about specs, efficiency, performance tests, and more.

Review

General comparison of performance in games, applications, power efficiency, and other metrics
Gaming
Performance in DirectX, OpenCL, and Vulkan games
Workstation
Perf. in 3D modeling, video editing and rendering apps
AI/ML
Capabilities for machine learning and AI-related tasks
Energy Efficiency
Power consumption efficiency in different scenarios
NanoReview Final Score
Overall video card score
The "Energy Efficiency" metric has less impact on the NanoReview Score for desktop GPU.

Key differences

Key distinctions and advantages of M4 GPU (10-Core) over RTX 3060
Reasons to consider the GeForce RTX 3060
  • Performs significantly better (up to 2.2x) in 3DMark Steel Nomad Lite
  • 3.3x higher maximum theoretical performance (12.7 vs 3.8 TFLOPS)
  • Includes 12 GB of dedicated GDDR6 memory
  • Has 3x higher memory bandwidth: 360 vs 120 GB/s
  • Achieves 2.4x more points in the GeekBench 6 Compute test (91K vs 37K)
  • Supports Nvidia DLSS 2 technology
  • Has 2.8x more shading units (3584 vs 1280)
Reasons to consider the Apple M4 GPU (10-Core)
  • Manufactured using a more efficient 3 nm process technology

Gaming Performance

Frame rate comparison across popular AAA titles at different resolutions

Games

FPS Table
Forza Horizon 5
112
68
60
39
-
The Witcher 3
122
100
74
39
-
Counter-Strike 2
181
137
99
48
-
Far Cry 6
95
85
67
37
-
Hogwarts Legacy
65
57
40
18
-
CoD: Modern Warfare III
80
74
53
31
-
Ghost of Tsushima
62
50
37
20
-
Cyberpunk 2077
68
64
38
16
-
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
109
98
70
36
-
Average FPS by Resolution
1080p High 99 -
1080p Ultra 81 -
1440p Ultra 60 -
4K Ultra 32 -
Margin of Error Low Low

Benchmarks

Graphics cards’ performance in recent benchmarking apps

3D Mark

Multiplatform graphics benchmark suite that directly correlates with performance in modern games
Steel Nomad Lite Score
RTX 3060 +119%
9001
Time Spy 8754 -
Solar Bay 41158 16554
Port Royal 5145 -
Fire Strike 22304 -
Wild Life Extreme 17728 9610
Night Raid 97159 -
Sources: 3DMark [1], [2]

GeekBench 6 OpenCL

GPU test for computational tasks (image processing, photography, computer vision, and ML)
GB6 Compute Score
RTX 3060 +143%
91603
Background Blur 149.6 img/sec 72.2 img/sec
Face Detection 91 img/sec 48.3 img/sec
Horizon Detection 4.07 Gpixels/sec 1.4 Gpixels/sec
Edge Detection 5.58 Gpixels/sec 1.94 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian Blur 3.92 Gpixels/sec 1.5 Gpixels/sec
Feature Matching 1.01 Gpixels/sec 0.53 Gpixels/sec
Stereo Matching 372.9 Gpixels/sec 123.3 Gpixels/sec
Particle Physics 12226.3 FPS 4938.4 FPS
API OpenCL OpenCL
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]

Cinebench 2024 GPU

Hardware benchmark using Maxon's Cinema 4D rendering engine
Cinebench 2024 GPU
RTX 3060 +78%
7952

Passmark Graphics

Videocard test that focuses on compute shaders, multi-texturing, tessellation, and other features
G3D Mark Score
G2D Mark 965 -
DirectX 11 127 FPS -
DirectX 12 68 FPS -
GPU Compute 8231 Ops/s -
Sources: PassMark [5]46248 samples

Blender

Rendering performance test for 3D modeling
Blender GPU
RTX 3060 +115%
2290.88
Sources: Blender [9], [10]6495 & 529 samples

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
GeForce RTX 3060
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2025-12-07 (tach)Cinebench 20247952
Apple M4 GPU (10-Core)
No benchmark results yet

Artificial Intelligence Tests

Performance in machine learning and artificial intelligence tasks

GeekBench 6 ML

Tests throughput of AI operations in single, half, and quantized precision
GB6 ML Single Precision
RTX 3060 +46%
15123
GB6 ML Half Precision
RTX 3060 +118%
25942
GB6 ML Quantized
10356
11036
Image Classification (SP) 6645 4874
Image Segmentation (HP) 15338 8168
Image Super Resolution (Q) 14283 11983
Face Detection (HP) 28862 17036
Pose Estimation (Q) 61313 31171
Text Classification (SP) 2463 2964
Machine Translation (HP) 3793 3410
Object Detection (SP) 7712 5112
Depth Estimation (Q) 25461 22700
Style Transfer (SP) 123233 60872
Framework ONNX Core ML
Backend DirectML GPU
Sources: Geekbench [9], [10]
Results were compared using different ML frameworks

Specifications

Technical specifications of GeForce RTX 3060 and Apple M4 GPU (10-Core)

General

Vendor Nvidia Apple
Build Discrete Integrated
Released January 12, 2021 May 7, 2024
Launch price (MSRP) $329 -
Case Desktop Laptop
Purpose Gaming Professional
Segment Mid-range Mid-range
Architecture Ampere Apple M GPU
GPU Codename GA106 Custom
Rival Equivalent - Radeon RX 6700 XT - Adreno X1-85
Successor - GeForce RTX 5060 - Apple M5 GPU (10-Core)
Recommended CPU - Intel Core i5 12600K or above - Apple M4 (10-Core) or above
Used in CPUs - - Apple M4 (10-Core)
Desktop GPU rating (#57th place)
Laptop GPU ranking (#71st place)

Graphics Processing Unit

Base Clock 1320 MHz 500 MHz
Boost Clock 1777 MHz 1470 MHz
Shading Units 3584 1280
Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) 112 80
Render Output Units (ROPs) 48 40
Compute Units (Pipelines) 28 160
Tensor Cores 112 -
Ray-tracing Cores 28 -
L1 Cache 128KB per cluster -
L2 Cache 3MB shared -
Instructions Per Cycle 2 IPC 2 IPC

Raw Performance

Pixel Fill Rate 85 GPixel/s 59 GPixel/s
Texture Fill Rate 199 GTexel/s 118 GTexel/s
FLOPS (FP32)
RTX 3060 +234%
12.7 TFLOPS
3.8 TFLOPS

Physical

Interface PCIe 4.0 x16 Custom
TGP 170 W 18 W
Manufacturing Samsung TSMC
Fabrication Process 8 nm 3 nm
Die Size 276 mm² -
Transistor Count 12 billion 28 billion
Transistor Density 43.48 MTr/mm² -
Max. Temperature - 100°C

Memory

Memory Type GDDR6 System Shared
Memory Size 12 GB -
Memory Clock 1875 MHz 7500 MHz
Effective Memory Speed 15000 Mbps 15000 Mbps
Bus 192-bit 128-bit
ECC No No
Memory Bandwidth
RTX 3060 +200%
360 GB/s
120 GB/s

API

DirectX 12 -
Vulkan 1.3 -
OpenGL 4.6 -
OpenCL 3.0 -
CUDA 8.6 -
Ray Tracing Yes Yes
DLSS DLSS 2 No
DisplayPort 1.4a -

Cast your vote

Choose between two graphics cards
96 (55.5%)
77 (44.5%)
Total votes: 173

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