GeForce RTX 4080 vs Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core)

We performed a head-to-head comparison of the GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB with 76 pipelines and 9728 shaders against the 1 year and 2 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 4080
Reasons to consider the GeForce RTX 4080
  • Performs significantly better (up to 2.4x) in 3DMark Steel Nomad Lite
  • 3.5x higher maximum theoretical performance (48.7 vs 14.1 TFLOPS)
  • Supports Nvidia DLSS 3 technology
  • Achieves 2.3x more points in the GeekBench 6 Compute test (217K vs 94K)
  • Has 75% higher memory bandwidth: 716.8 vs 409.6 GB/s
  • Has 90% more shading units (9728 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
229
170
154
120
-
The Witcher 3
245
210
157
81
-
Counter-Strike 2
306
220
168
85
-
Far Cry 6
181
163
143
88
-
Hogwarts Legacy
162
136
109
59
-
CoD: Modern Warfare III
217
213
167
111
-
Ghost of Tsushima
148
126
109
69
-
Cyberpunk 2077
192
177
119
54
-
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
290
265
204
107
-
Average FPS by Resolution
1080p High 219 -
1080p Ultra 187 -
1440p Ultra 148 -
4K Ultra 86 -
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
RTX 4080 +143%
30151
Time Spy 28155 -
Solar Bay 136995 49656
Port Royal 17984 -
Fire Strike 64637 -
Wild Life Extreme 59123 30893
Night Raid 185072 -
Sources: 3DMark [1], [2]

GeekBench 6 OpenCL

GPU test for computational tasks (image processing, photography, computer vision, and ML)
GB6 Compute Score
RTX 4080 +130%
217712
Background Blur 250.4 img/sec 157.6 img/sec
Face Detection 190 img/sec 100.9 img/sec
Horizon Detection 9.56 Gpixels/sec 3.99 Gpixels/sec
Edge Detection 12.8 Gpixels/sec 6.04 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian Blur 15.3 Gpixels/sec 5 Gpixels/sec
Feature Matching 1.97 Gpixels/sec 0.84 Gpixels/sec
Stereo Matching 1130 Gpixels/sec 363.8 Gpixels/sec
Particle Physics 28795.5 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
RTX 4080 +111%
26605

Passmark Graphics

Videocard test that focuses on compute shaders, multi-texturing, tessellation, and other features
G3D Mark Score
G2D Mark 1250 -
DirectX 11 313 FPS -
DirectX 12 133 FPS -
GPU Compute 20319 Ops/s -
Sources: PassMark [5]11261 samples

Blender

Rendering performance test for 3D modeling
Blender GPU
RTX 4080 +126%
8682.05
Sources: Blender [9], [10]2841 & 444 samples

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
GeForce RTX 4080
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2025-05-02 (Rennsport)GeekBench267332
Apple M3 Max GPU (40-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 4080 +83%
36799
GB6 ML Half Precision
RTX 4080 +138%
53331
GB6 ML Quantized
RTX 4080 +36%
28104
Image Classification (SP) 13466 8685
Image Segmentation (HP) 34767 20739
Image Super Resolution (Q) 42687 22775
Face Detection (HP) 70927 37676
Pose Estimation (Q) 239350 91609
Text Classification (SP) 3606 2909
Machine Translation (HP) 6519 5274
Object Detection (SP) 18153 7480
Depth Estimation (Q) 65667 38212
Style Transfer (SP) 414848 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 4080 and Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core)

General

Vendor Nvidia Apple
Build Discrete Integrated
Released September 20, 2022 October 31, 2023
Launch price (MSRP) $1199 -
Case Desktop Laptop
Purpose Gaming Professional
Segment High-end High-end
Architecture Ada Lovelace Apple M GPU
GPU Codename AD103 -
Rival Equivalent - Radeon RX 7900 XTX - GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop
Successor - GeForce RTX 5080 - Apple M5 Max GPU (40-core)
Recommended CPU - Intel Core i7 14700K or above - Apple M3 Max or above
Used in CPUs - - Apple M3 Max
Desktop GPU rating (#10th place)
Laptop GPU ranking (#20th place)

Graphics Processing Unit

Base Clock 2205 MHz 500 MHz
Boost Clock 2505 MHz 1380 MHz
Shading Units 9728 5120
Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) 304 320
Render Output Units (ROPs) 112 160
Compute Units (Pipelines) 76 640
Tensor Cores 304 -
Ray-tracing Cores 76 -
L1 Cache 128KB per cluster -
L2 Cache 64MB shared -
Instructions Per Cycle 2 IPC 2 IPC

Raw Performance

Pixel Fill Rate 281 GPixel/s 221 GPixel/s
Texture Fill Rate 762 GTexel/s 442 GTexel/s
FLOPS (FP32)
RTX 4080 +245%
48.7 TFLOPS
14.1 TFLOPS

Physical

Interface PCIe 4.0 x16 Custom
TGP 320 W 60 W
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Fabrication Process 5 nm 3 nm
Die Size 379 mm² -
Transistor Count 45 billion 56 billion
Transistor Density 118.73 MTr/mm² -
Max. Temperature - 100°C

Memory

Memory Type GDDR6X System Shared
Memory Size 16 GB -
Memory Clock 1400 MHz 6400 MHz
Effective Memory Speed 22400 Mbps 12800 Mbps
Bus 256-bit 512-bit
ECC No No
Memory Bandwidth
RTX 4080 +75%
716.8 GB/s

API

DirectX 12 -
Vulkan 1.3 -
OpenGL 4.6 -
OpenCL 3.0 -
CUDA 8.9 -
Ray Tracing Yes Yes
DLSS DLSS 3 No
DisplayPort 1.4a -

Cast your vote

Choose between two graphics cards
19 (79.2%)
5 (20.8%)
Total votes: 24

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