AMD A12-9700P vs Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


AMD A12-9700P CPU1 vs CPU2 Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
AMD A12-9700P Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)

CPU comparison

AMD A12-9700P or Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) - which processor is faster? In this comparison we look at the differences and analyze which of these two CPUs is better. We compare the technical data and benchmark results.

The AMD A12-9700P has 4 cores with 4 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 3.40 GHz. Up to 64 GB of memory is supported in 2 memory channels. The AMD A12-9700P was released in Q4/2016.

The Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) has 12 cores with 12 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 4.06 GHz. The CPU supports up to 36 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) was released in Q4/2023.
AMD A (112) Family Apple M series (25)
AMD A12-9700 (2) CPU group Apple M3 (6)
6 Generation 3
Excavator (Bristol Ridge) Architecture M3
Mobile Segment Mobile
-- Predecessor Apple M2 Pro (12-CPU 19-GPU)
-- Successor --

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The AMD A12-9700P is a 4 core processor with a clock frequency of 2.50 GHz (3.40 GHz). The Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) has 12 CPU cores with a clock frequency of 0.70 GHz (4.06 GHz).

AMD A12-9700P Characteristic Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
4 Cores 12
4 Threads 12
normal Core architecture hybrid (big.LITTLE)
No Hyperthreading No
No Overclocking ? No
2.50 GHz (3.40 GHz)
4x Excavator
A-Core 0.70 GHz (4.06 GHz)
6x P-Core
-- B-Core 0.74 GHz (2.75 GHz)
6x E-Core

NPU AI performance

The performance values of the processor's AI unit. The isolated NPU performance is specified here, the total AI performance (NPU+CPU+iGPU) can be higher. Processors with support for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can process many calculations, especially audio, image and video processing, much faster than classic processors.

AMD A12-9700P Characteristic Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
-- AI hardware Apple Neural Engine
-- AI specifications 16 Neural cores @ 35 TOPS
-- NPU + CPU + iGPU --

Integrated graphics (iGPU)

The integrated graphics unit of a processor is not only responsible for the pure image output on the system, but can also significantly increase the efficiency of the system with the support of modern video codecs.

AMD Radeon R7 - 512 (Bristol Ridge) GPU Apple M3 Pro (18 Core)
0.76 GHz GPU frequency 0.39 GHz
-- GPU (Turbo) 1.40 GHz
6 GPU Generation --
28 nm Technology 3 nm
2 Max. displays 3
8 Compute units 288
512 Shader 2304
No Hardware Raytracing Yes
No Frame Generation No
2 GB Max. GPU Memory 36 GB
12 DirectX Version --

Hardware codec support

A photo or video codec that is accelerated in hardware can greatly accelerate the working speed of a processor and extend the battery life of notebooks or smartphones when playing videos.

AMD Radeon R7 - 512 (Bristol Ridge) GPU Apple M3 Pro (18 Core)
No Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) Decode / Encode
No Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) Decode / Encode
Decode Codec h264 Decode / Encode
No Codec VP9 Decode / Encode
No Codec VP8 Decode
No Codec AV1 Decode
Decode Codec AVC Decode
Decode Codec VC-1 Decode
Decode / Encode Codec JPEG Decode / Encode

Memory & PCIe

The AMD A12-9700P supports a maximum of 64 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) can connect up to 36 GB of memory in 2 memory channels.

AMD A12-9700P Characteristic Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
DDR4-1866 Memory LPDDR5-6400
64 GB Max. Memory 36 GB
2 (Dual Channel) Memory channels 2 (Dual Channel)
29.9 GB/s Max. Bandwidth 153.6 GB/s
No ECC No
2.00 MB L2 Cache 36.00 MB
-- L3 Cache --
3.0 PCIe version 4.0
8 PCIe lanes --
7.9 GB/s PCIe Bandwidth --

Thermal Management

The TDP (Thermal Design Power) of a processor specifies the required cooling solution. The AMD A12-9700P has a TDP of 15 W, that of the Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) is 35 W.

AMD A12-9700P Characteristic Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
15 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 35 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
-- TDP down --
90 °C Tjunction max. 100 °C

Technical details

The AMD A12-9700P has a 2.00 MB cache, while the Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) cache has a total of 36.00 MB.

AMD A12-9700P Characteristic Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
28 nm Technology 3 nm
Unknown Chip design Chiplet
x86-64 (64 bit) Instruction set (ISA) Armv8-A (64 bit)
SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX, AVX2, FMA3, FMA4 ISA extensions Rosetta 2 x86-Emulation
FP4 Socket --
AMD-V Virtualization Apple Virtualization Framework
Yes AES-NI Yes
Operating systems macOS, iPadOS
Q4/2016 Release date Q4/2023
-- Release price --
show more data show more data


Rate these processors

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Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
AMD A12-9700P (21%)
Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) (100%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
AMD A12-9700P (8%)
Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) (100%)

Geekbench 5, 64bit (Single-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.
AMD A12-9700P AMD A12-9700P
4C 4T @ 3.40 GHz
481 (21%)
Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 4.06 GHz
2314 (100%)

Geekbench 5, 64bit (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.
AMD A12-9700P AMD A12-9700P
4C 4T @ 2.70 GHz
1239 (8%)
Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 3.80 GHz
15235 (100%)

iGPU - FP32 Performance (Single-precision GFLOPS)

The theoretical computing performance of the internal graphics unit of the processor with simple accuracy (32 bit) in GFLOPS. GFLOPS indicates how many billion floating point operations the iGPU can perform per second.
AMD A12-9700P AMD A12-9700P
AMD Radeon R7 - 512 (Bristol Ridge) @ 0.76 GHz
782 (12%)
Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
Apple M3 Pro (18 Core) @ 1.40 GHz
6390 (100%)

Cinebench 2024 (Single-Core)

The Cinebench 2024 benchmark is based on the Redshift rendering engine, which is also used in Maxon's 3D program Cinema 4D. The benchmark runs are each 10 minutes long to test whether the processor is limited by its heat generation.
AMD A12-9700P AMD A12-9700P
4C 4T @ 3.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 4.06 GHz
142 (100%)

Cinebench 2024 (Multi-Core)

The Multi-Core test of the Cinebench 2024 benchmark uses all cpu cores to render using the Redshift rendering engine, which is also used in Maxons Cinema 4D. The benchmark run is 10 minutes long to test whether the processor is limited by its heat generation.
AMD A12-9700P AMD A12-9700P
4C 4T @ 3.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 4.06 GHz
1059 (100%)

Cinebench R23 (Single-Core)

Cinebench R23 is the successor of Cinebench R20 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.
AMD A12-9700P AMD A12-9700P
4C 4T @ 3.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 4.06 GHz
1928 (100%)

Cinebench R23 (Multi-Core)

Cinebench R23 is the successor of Cinebench R20 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.
AMD A12-9700P AMD A12-9700P
4C 4T @ 2.70 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 3.80 GHz
15061 (100%)

Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The single-core benchmark only evaluates the performance of the fastest CPU core, the number of CPU cores in a processor is irrelevant here.
AMD A12-9700P AMD A12-9700P
4C 4T @ 3.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 4.06 GHz
3152 (100%)

Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The multi-core benchmark evaluates the performance of all of the processor's CPU cores. Virtual thread improvements such as AMD SMT or Intel's Hyper-Threading have a positive impact on the benchmark result.
AMD A12-9700P AMD A12-9700P
4C 4T @ 2.70 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 3.80 GHz
15619 (100%)

Estimated results for PassMark CPU Mark

Some of the CPUs listed below have been benchmarked by CPU-monkey. However the majority of CPUs have not been tested and the results have been estimated by a CPU-monkey’s secret proprietary formula. As such they do not accurately reflect the actual Passmark CPU mark values and are not endorsed by PassMark Software Pty Ltd.
AMD A12-9700P AMD A12-9700P
4C 4T @ 2.70 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 3.80 GHz
27304 (100%)

Cinebench R15 (Single-Core)

Cinebench R15 is the successor of Cinebench 11.5 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.
AMD A12-9700P AMD A12-9700P
4C 4T @ 3.40 GHz
72 (100%)
Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 4.06 GHz
0 (0%)

Cinebench R15 (Multi-Core)

Cinebench R15 is the successor of Cinebench 11.5 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.
AMD A12-9700P AMD A12-9700P
4C 4T @ 2.70 GHz
223 (100%)
Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 3.80 GHz
0 (0%)

AI performance (NPU)

The performance values of the processor's AI unit. The isolated NPU performance is given here, the total AI performance (NPU+CPU+iGPU) can be higher.

Processors with the support of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can process many calculations, especially audio, image and video processing, much faster than classic processors. The performance is given in the number (trillions) of arithmetic operations per second (TOPS).
AMD A12-9700P AMD A12-9700P
4C 4T @ 2.50 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 0.70 GHz
35 (100%)

Devices using this processor

AMD A12-9700P Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
Unknown Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2023)
Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023)

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