Intel Xe3 Graphics (4-Core) vs Apple M5 Pro GPU (20-core)

We compared two integrated laptop graphics cards: the Intel Xe3 Graphics (4-Core) with 4 pipelines and 512 shaders against the Apple M5 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

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 M5 Pro GPU (20-core) over Xe3 Graphics (4-Core)
Reasons to consider the Apple M5 Pro GPU (20-core)
  • 3.2x higher maximum theoretical performance (8.3 vs 2.6 TFLOPS)
  • Achieves 3.8x more points in the GeekBench 6 Compute test (87K vs 23K)
  • Has 5x more shading units (2560 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 - 46856
Wild Life Extreme - 23747
Sources: 3DMark [1]

GeekBench 6 OpenCL

GPU test for computational tasks (image processing, photography, computer vision, and ML)
GB6 Compute Score
Background Blur 57.6 img/sec 177.6 img/sec
Face Detection 29.1 img/sec 114.5 img/sec
Horizon Detection 0.79 Gpixels/sec 3.19 Gpixels/sec
Edge Detection 1.02 Gpixels/sec 4.45 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian Blur 1.02 Gpixels/sec 4.59 Gpixels/sec
Feature Matching 0.34 Gpixels/sec 0.96 Gpixels/sec
Stereo Matching 61.2 Gpixels/sec 250.4 Gpixels/sec
Particle Physics 3352.7 FPS 12529.9 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
Sources: Blender [9] – 113 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) 4265 8870
Image Segmentation (HP) 11549 28795
Image Super Resolution (Q) 4466 34820
Face Detection (HP) 16012 55699
Pose Estimation (Q) 8425 212347
Text Classification (SP) 1380 3018
Machine Translation (HP) 4037 9102
Object Detection (SP) 4026 8163
Depth Estimation (Q) 10708 70908
Style Transfer (SP) 35823 152297
Framework ONNX Core ML
Backend DirectML GPU
Sources: Geekbench [9], [10]
Results were compared using different ML frameworks

Specifications

Technical specifications of Intel Xe3 Graphics (4-Core) and Apple M5 Pro GPU (20-core)

General

Vendor Intel Apple
Build Integrated Integrated
Released January 5, 2026 March 3, 2026
Case Laptop Laptop
Purpose Generic Professional
Segment Entry-level Mid-range
Architecture Celestial Apple M GPU
GPU Codename Panther Lake Custom
Recommended CPU - Intel Core Ultra 9 386H or above - Apple M5 Pro (18-Core) or above
Used in CPUs - Intel Core Ultra 9 386H
- Intel Core Ultra 7 366H
- Intel Core Ultra 7 365
- Intel Core Ultra 7 356H
- Intel Core Ultra 7 355
- Intel Core Ultra 5 336H
- Intel Core Ultra 5 335
- Intel Core Ultra 5 325
- Apple M5 Pro (18-Core)
Laptop GPU ranking (75th and 22nd place)

Graphics Processing Unit

Base Clock 300 MHz -
Boost Clock 2500 MHz 1620 MHz
Shading Units 512 2560
Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) 32 160
Render Output Units (ROPs) 16 80
Compute Units (Pipelines) 4 320
Tensor Cores 32 -
Ray-tracing Cores 4 -
L1 Cache 64KB per cluster -
L2 Cache 4MB shared -
Instructions Per Cycle 2 IPC 2 IPC

Raw Performance

Pixel Fill Rate 40 GPixel/s 130 GPixel/s
Texture Fill Rate 80 GTexel/s 259 GTexel/s
FLOPS (FP32)
8.3 TFLOPS

Physical

Interface PCIe 5.0 Custom
TGP 25 W 28 W
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Fabrication Process 3 nm 3 nm
Transistor Count - 28 billion
Max. Temperature 100°C 100°C

Memory

Memory Type System Shared System Shared
Memory Clock - 9600 MHz
Bus - 256-bit
ECC No No
Memory Bandwidth

API

DirectX 12.1 -
Vulkan 1.4 -
OpenGL 4.6 -
OpenCL 3.0 -
Ray Tracing Yes Yes
DLSS No No
DisplayPort 2.1 -

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