Home > Smartphone processors comparison > M3 (iPad) vs A18 Pro – what's better?

M3 (iPad) vs A18 Pro

M3 (iPad)
VS
A18 Pro
M3 (iPad)
A18 Pro

We compared the 8-core Apple M3 (iPad) (Apple M3 GPU) with the newer 6-core A18 Pro (Apple A18 Pro GPU) SoC. Here you will find the pros and cons of each chip, technical specs, and comprehensive tests in benchmarks, like AnTuTu and Geekbench.

  1. Review
  2. Differences
  3. Benchmarks
  4. AnTuTu v11
  5. GeekBench 6
  6. Specs
  7. Comments (4)

Review

General comparison of performance, power consumption, and other indicators
CPU Performance
Single and multi-core processor tests
Gaming Performance
GPU performance in games and OpenCL/Vulkan
Battery life
Efficiency of battery consumption
NanoReview Score
Overall chip score

Key Differences

Main differences and advantages of each chip
Pros of Apple M3 (iPad)
  • Supports 71% higher memory bandwidth (102.4 against 60 GB/s)
  • Shows significantly better (up to 56%) AnTuTu 11 score – 2777K vs 1782K
  • Performs 39% better in floating-point computations
  • Has 2 more cores
Pros of Apple A18 Pro
  • Better instruction set architecture
  • Higher GPU frequency (~8%)

Benchmarks

Performance tests in popular benchmarks
SoC:
M3 (iPad)
vs
A18 Pro

AnTuTu 11

The AnTuTu Benchmark measures CPU, GPU, RAM, and I/O performance in different scenarios
M3 (iPad) +56%
2777287
A18 Pro
1782199
CPU 782907 521852
GPU 1029236 562674
Memory 305749 187942
UX 659395 509731
Total score 2777287 1782199
Samples [8 tests] [15 tests]
Submit your AnTuTu result

GeekBench 6

The GeekBench test shows raw single-threaded and multithreaded CPU performance
Single-Core Score
M3 (iPad)
3113
A18 Pro +15%
3570
Multi-Core Score
M3 (iPad) +32%
11795
A18 Pro
8923
Asset compression 458.1 MB/sec 299.9 MB/sec
HTML 5 Browser 270.6 pages/sec 191.2 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 299.9 Mpixels/sec 196.8 Mpixels/sec
Image detection 287.2 images/sec 319.6 images/sec
HDR 422.1 Mpixels/sec 289.5 Mpixels/sec
Background blur 48.2 images/sec 37.6 images/sec
Photo processing 116.1 images/sec 91 images/sec
Ray tracing 13.4 Mpixels/sec 9.03 Mpixels/sec
Samples 4 tests 14 tests
Compute Score (GPU)
M3 (iPad) +39%
46172
A18 Pro
33278
Background blur 86.1 images/sec 62.5 images/sec
Face detection 108.3 images/sec 78.2 images/sec
Horizon detection 1.43 Gpixels/sec 0.98 Gpixels/sec
Edge detection 1.93 Gpixels/sec 1.3 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian blur 2.41 Gpixels/sec 1.5 Gpixels/sec
Feature matching 0.62 Gpixels/sec 0.49 Gpixels/sec
Stereo matching 128.9 Gpixels/sec 100 Gpixels/sec
Particle physics 4690 FPS 3659.7 FPS
API Metal Metal
Samples 3 tests 7 tests

3DMark

A cross-platform benchmark that assesses graphics performance in Vulkan (Metal)
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
M3 (iPad) +56%
2695
A18 Pro
1732
Score 2695 1732
Stability 70% 71%
Graphics test 20 FPS 13 FPS
3DMark Solar Bay
M3 (iPad) +37%
10356
A18 Pro
7585
Score 10356 7585
Graphics test 39 FPS 29 FPS
Section 1 52 FPS 35 FPS
Section 2 38 FPS 30 FPS
Section 3 28 FPS 21 FPS

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Apple M3 (iPad)
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-04-17 (Jacob)AnTuTu 112015536
πŸ“˜ 2026-04-12 (Kaimen)AnTuTu 112811760
πŸ“˜ 2026-04-08 (Bearry)AnTuTu 112838721
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-22 (Noora)AnTuTu 112779459
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-21 (Noora)AnTuTu 112708158
Add View all (10)
Apple A18 Pro
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-23 -> RappzzzzAnTuTu 112043169
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-20 (thuanday)AnTuTu 112043169
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-17 (Jonibek)AnTuTu 111692383
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-21 (Neuron)AnTuTu 111500141
πŸ“˜ 2026-07-21 (l1tsemerr)AnTuTu 111650968
Add View all (33)

Specifications

Full list of technical specifications of M3 (iPad) and A18 Pro

CPU

Architecture 4x 4.05 GHz –
4x 2.75 GHz – 		2x 4.05 GHz – Everest
4x 2.42 GHz – Sawtooth
Cores 8 6
Frequency 4050 MHz 4050 MHz
Instruction set ARMv8.6-A ARMv9.2-A
L1 cache 256 KB 192 KB
L2 cache 16 MB 16 MB
Process 3 nanometers 3 nanometers
Transistor count 25 billion -
TDP (Sustained Power Limit) 20 W 10 W
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC

Graphics

GPU name Apple M3 GPU Apple A18 Pro GPU
Architecture Apple GPU Apple Bionic GPU
GPU frequency 1380 MHz 1490 MHz
Pipelines 9 6
Shading units 128 128
Total shaders 1152 768
FLOPS 3179.5 Gigaflops 2289 Gigaflops

AI Accelerator

Neural processor (NPU) Apple Neural Engine Neural Engine
NPU theoretical performance 18 TOPS 35 TOPS

Memory

Memory type LPDDR5 LPDDR5X
Memory frequency 3200 MHz 3750 MHz
Bus 8x 16 Bit 4x 16 Bit
Max bandwidth 102.4 Gb/s 60 Gb/s
Max size 24 GB 8 GB

Multimedia (ISP)

Storage type NVMe NVMe
Max display resolution 2732 x 2048 -
Max camera resolution 1x 48MP 1x 48MP
Video capture 4K at 60FPS 4K at 120FPS
Video playback 4K at 60FPS 4K at 120FPS
Video codecs - H.264
- H.265
- AV1
- VP9		 - H.264
- H.265
- AV1
- VP8
- VP9
- Motion JPEG
Audio codecs - AAC
- AIFF
- CAF
- MP3
- MP4
- WAV		 - AAC
- AAX
- AAX+
- AC-3
- AIFF
- CAF
- E-AC-3
- MP3
- MP4
- WAV

Connectivity

Modem - Snapdragon X71 5G
4G support - LTE Cat. 24
5G support Yes Yes
Download speed Up to 7500 Mbps Up to 10000 Mbps
Upload speed Up to 3500 Mbps Up to 3500 Mbps
Wi-Fi 6 7
Bluetooth 5.3 5.3
Navigation GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC

Info

Announced October 2023 September 2024
Class Flagship Flagship
Model number - APL1V07
Successor - - Apple A19 Pro

Cast your vote

So, which SoC would you choose?
164 (85%)
29 (15%)
Total votes: 193

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Comments

Please give your opinion on the comparison of A18 Pro and M3 (iPad), or ask any questions
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Avatar
LGs but fake June 5, 2025 at 03:56 PM
The AnTuTu score for the M3 is inaccurate. If it’s the gaming performance, it should be lower than the A18 Pro or at least equal to it, considering its lower scores.
+1 Reply
Avatar
babayaga November 16, 2025 at 08:40 PM
nope, M3 is better than A18 Pro for gaming and graphics.
+3 Reply
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Nanorsview March 22, 2025 at 08:28 PM
It's not real: The real: A18 Pro GPU frequency is 1680MHz not 1490MHz
+6 Reply
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Serhii March 23, 2025 at 11:20 AM
Please share source of this info.
+13 Reply
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