Intel Arc iGPU (4-Cores) vs Apple M3 Pro GPU (18-core)

We compared two integrated laptop graphics cards: the Intel Arc iGPU (4-Cores) with 64 pipelines and 512 shaders against the Apple M3 Pro GPU (18-core) that utilizes 288 pipelines and 2304 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

Key differences

Key distinctions and advantages of M3 Pro GPU (18-core) over Arc iGPU (4-Cores)
Reasons to consider the Apple M3 Pro GPU (18-core)
  • 3.2x higher maximum theoretical performance (6.4 vs 2 TFLOPS)
  • Manufactured using a more efficient 3 nm process technology
  • Achieves 2.6x more points in the GeekBench 6 Compute test (43K vs 16K)
  • Has 4.5x more shading units (2304 vs 512)

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
Solar Bay - 22637
Wild Life Extreme - 14021
Sources: 3DMark [1]

GeekBench 6 OpenCL

GPU test for computational tasks (image processing, photography, computer vision, and ML)
GB6 Compute Score
Background Blur 37.6 img/sec 82.1 img/sec
Face Detection 17.2 img/sec 53.6 img/sec
Horizon Detection 0.3 Gpixels/sec 1.82 Gpixels/sec
Edge Detection 0.63 Gpixels/sec 2.59 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian Blur 0.94 Gpixels/sec 1.84 Gpixels/sec
Feature Matching 0.22 Gpixels/sec 0.48 Gpixels/sec
Stereo Matching 60 Gpixels/sec 148.6 Gpixels/sec
Particle Physics 3695.9 FPS 4893.9 FPS
API OpenCL OpenCL
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]

Cinebench 2024 GPU

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

Blender

Rendering performance test for 3D modeling
Blender GPU
Sources: Blender [9] – 237 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) 2902 5578
Image Segmentation (HP) 5473 9924
Image Super Resolution (Q) 2967 13323
Face Detection (HP) 6068 19900
Pose Estimation (Q) 8220 35730
Text Classification (SP) 609 2904
Machine Translation (HP) 1146 4985
Object Detection (SP) 2766 5496
Depth Estimation (Q) 6405 23344
Style Transfer (SP) 26796 78342
Framework ONNX Core ML
Backend DirectML GPU
Sources: Geekbench [9], [10]
Results were compared using different ML frameworks

Specifications

Technical specifications of Intel Arc iGPU (4-Cores) and Apple M3 Pro GPU (18-core)

General

Vendor Intel Apple
Build Integrated Integrated
Released December 14, 2023 October 31, 2023
Case Laptop Laptop
Purpose Generic Professional
Segment Mid-range Mid-range
Architecture Xe LPG Apple M GPU
GPU Codename - Custom
Rival Equivalent - Radeon 740M - GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop
Successor - - Apple M5 Pro GPU (20-core)
Recommended CPU - Intel Core Ultra 5 125U or above - Apple M3 Pro or above
Used in CPUs - Intel Core Ultra 7 251HX
- Intel Core Ultra 7 270HX Plus
- Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus
- Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus
- Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus
- Intel Core Ultra 5 225U
- Intel Core Ultra 5 235U
- Intel Core Ultra 7 255U
- and 12 more
- Apple M3 Pro
Laptop GPU ranking (97th and 61st place)

Graphics Processing Unit

Base Clock 300 MHz 500 MHz
Boost Clock 1750-2000 MHz (configurable) 1380 MHz
Shading Units 512 2304
Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) 32 144
Render Output Units (ROPs) 16 72
Compute Units (Pipelines) 64 288
Ray-tracing Cores 4 -
L1 Cache 768KB shared -
Instructions Per Cycle 2 IPC 2 IPC

Raw Performance

Pixel Fill Rate 28-32 GPixel/s 99 GPixel/s
Texture Fill Rate 56-64 GTexel/s 199 GTexel/s
FLOPS (FP32)
1.8-2 TFLOPS
6.4 TFLOPS

Physical

Interface Ring Bus Custom
TGP 14 W 30 W
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Fabrication Process 5 nm 3 nm
Transistor Count - 25.2 billion
Max. Temperature - 100°C

Memory

Memory Type System Shared System Shared
Memory Clock - 6400 MHz
Effective Memory Speed - 12800 Mbps
Bus - 192-bit
ECC - No
Memory Bandwidth

API

DirectX 12 -
Vulkan 1.3 -
OpenGL 4.6 -
OpenCL 3.0 -
Ray Tracing Yes Yes
DLSS No No
DisplayPort 2.1 -

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