GeForce RTX 3090 Ti vs Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core)

We performed a head-to-head comparison of the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti 24 GB with 84 pipelines and 10752 shaders against the 1 year and 7 months newer Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) that utilizes 640 pipelines and 5120 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 M3 Max GPU (40-core) over RTX 3090 Ti
Reasons to consider the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti
  • Performs significantly better (up to 2x) in 3DMark Steel Nomad Lite
  • 2.8x higher maximum theoretical performance (40 vs 14.1 TFLOPS)
  • Has 2.5x higher memory bandwidth: 1008 vs 409.6 GB/s
  • Achieves 2.5x more points in the GeekBench 6 Compute test (232K vs 94K)
  • Supports Nvidia DLSS 2 technology
  • Has 2.1x more shading units (10752 vs 5120)
Reasons to consider the Apple M3 Max GPU (40-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
200
136
126
99
-
The Witcher 3
214
185
130
71
-
Counter-Strike 2
286
213
154
85
-
Far Cry 6
160
151
133
83
-
Hogwarts Legacy
141
116
93
52
-
CoD: Modern Warfare III
186
174
139
90
-
Ghost of Tsushima
129
105
89
57
-
Cyberpunk 2077
158
140
98
44
-
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
254
237
183
101
-
Average FPS by Resolution
1080p High 192 -
1080p Ultra 162 -
1440p Ultra 127 -
4K Ultra 76 -
Margin of Error Low Medium

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
Time Spy 21855 -
Solar Bay 109239 49656
Port Royal 14890 -
Fire Strike 51935 -
Wild Life Extreme 48861 30893
Night Raid 156537 -
Sources: 3DMark [1], [2]

GeekBench 6 OpenCL

GPU test for computational tasks (image processing, photography, computer vision, and ML)
GB6 Compute Score
RTX 3090 Ti +146%
232083
Background Blur 362.7 img/sec 157.6 img/sec
Face Detection 227.9 img/sec 100.9 img/sec
Horizon Detection 11.3 Gpixels/sec 3.99 Gpixels/sec
Edge Detection 15.9 Gpixels/sec 6.04 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian Blur 12.1 Gpixels/sec 5 Gpixels/sec
Feature Matching 1.56 Gpixels/sec 0.84 Gpixels/sec
Stereo Matching 1080 Gpixels/sec 363.8 Gpixels/sec
Particle Physics 31024.6 FPS 12226.9 FPS
API OpenCL OpenCL
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]

Cinebench 2024 GPU

Hardware benchmark using Maxon's Cinema 4D rendering engine
Cinebench 2024 GPU

Passmark Graphics

Videocard test that focuses on compute shaders, multi-texturing, tessellation, and other features
G3D Mark Score
G2D Mark 1226 -
DirectX 11 238 FPS -
DirectX 12 121 FPS -
GPU Compute 16494 Ops/s -
Sources: PassMark [5]3325 samples

Blender

Rendering performance test for 3D modeling
Blender GPU
6050.04
Sources: Blender [9], [10]1861 & 444 samples

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
GB6 ML Half Precision
GB6 ML Quantized
Image Classification (SP) 10246 8685
Image Segmentation (HP) 22830 20739
Image Super Resolution (Q) 23532 22775
Face Detection (HP) 48657 37676
Pose Estimation (Q) 147241 91609
Text Classification (SP) 2917 2909
Machine Translation (HP) 4427 5274
Object Detection (SP) 13323 7480
Depth Estimation (Q) 40055 38212
Style Transfer (SP) 298683 190681
Framework ONNX Core ML
Backend DirectML GPU
Sources: Geekbench [9], [10]
Results were compared using different ML frameworks

Specifications

Technical specifications of GeForce RTX 3090 Ti and Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core)

General

Vendor Nvidia Apple
Build Discrete Integrated
Released March 29, 2022 October 31, 2023
Launch price (MSRP) $1999 -
Case Desktop Laptop
Purpose Gaming Professional
Segment High-end High-end
Architecture Ampere Apple M GPU
GPU Codename GA102 -
Rival Equivalent - - GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop
Successor - - Apple M5 Max GPU (40-core)
Recommended CPU - Intel Core i9 12900K or above - Apple M3 Max or above
Used in CPUs - - Apple M3 Max
Desktop GPU rating (#14th place)
Laptop GPU ranking (#20th place)

Graphics Processing Unit

Base Clock 1560 MHz 500 MHz
Boost Clock 1860 MHz 1380 MHz
Shading Units 10752 5120
Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) 336 320
Render Output Units (ROPs) 112 160
Compute Units (Pipelines) 84 640
Tensor Cores 336 -
Ray-tracing Cores 84 -
L1 Cache 128KB per cluster -
L2 Cache 6MB shared -
Instructions Per Cycle 2 IPC 2 IPC

Raw Performance

Pixel Fill Rate 208 GPixel/s 221 GPixel/s
Texture Fill Rate 625 GTexel/s 442 GTexel/s
FLOPS (FP32)
RTX 3090 Ti +184%
40 TFLOPS
14.1 TFLOPS

Physical

Interface PCIe 4.0 x16 Custom
TGP 450 W 60 W
Manufacturing Samsung TSMC
Fabrication Process 8 nm 3 nm
Die Size 628 mm² -
Transistor Count 28 billion 56 billion
Transistor Density 44.59 MTr/mm² -
Max. Temperature - 100°C

Memory

Memory Type GDDR6X System Shared
Memory Size 24 GB -
Memory Clock 1313 MHz 6400 MHz
Effective Memory Speed 21000 Mbps 12800 Mbps
Bus 384-bit 512-bit
ECC No No
Memory Bandwidth
RTX 3090 Ti +146%
1008 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
9 (75%)
3 (25%)
Total votes: 12

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