AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X vs Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X CPU1 vs CPU2 Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)

CPU comparison

In this CPU comparison, we compare the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X and the Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) and use benchmarks to check which processor is faster.

We compare the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X 24 core processor released in Q4/2019 with the Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) which has 14 CPU cores and was introduced in Q4/2023.
AMD Ryzen Threadripper (13) Family Apple M series (25)
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3000 (3) CPU group Apple M3 (6)
3 Generation 3
Castle Peak (Zen 2) Architecture M3
Desktop / Server Segment Mobile
-- Predecessor Apple M2 Max (30-GPU)
-- Successor --

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X is a 24 core processor with a clock frequency of 3.80 GHz (4.50 GHz). The processor can compute 48 threads at the same time. The Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) clocks with 0.70 GHz (4.06 GHz), has 14 CPU cores and can calculate 14 threads in parallel.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X Characteristic Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
24 Cores 14
48 Threads 14
normal Core architecture hybrid (big.LITTLE)
Yes Hyperthreading No
Yes Overclocking ? No
3.80 GHz (4.50 GHz) A-Core 0.70 GHz (4.06 GHz)
10x P-Core
-- B-Core 0.74 GHz (2.75 GHz)
4x 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 Ryzen Threadripper 3960X Characteristic Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
-- AI hardware Apple Neural Engine
-- AI specifications 16 Neural cores @ 35 TOPS
-- NPU + CPU + iGPU --

Integrated graphics (iGPU)

Graphics (iGPU) integrated into the processor not only enable image output without having to rely on a dedicated graphics solution, but can also efficiently accelerate video playback.

no iGPU GPU Apple M3 Max (30 Core)
GPU frequency 0.39 GHz
-- GPU (Turbo) 1.40 GHz
-- GPU Generation --
Technology 3 nm
Max. displays 5
-- Compute units 480
-- Shader 3840
No Hardware Raytracing Yes
No Frame Generation No
-- Max. GPU Memory 96 GB
-- 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.

no iGPU GPU Apple M3 Max (30 Core)
No Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) Decode / Encode
No Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) Decode / Encode
No Codec h264 Decode / Encode
No Codec VP9 Decode / Encode
No Codec VP8 Decode
No Codec AV1 Decode
No Codec AVC Decode
No Codec VC-1 Decode
No Codec JPEG Decode / Encode

Memory & PCIe

Up to 2048 GB of memory in a maximum of 4 memory channels is supported by the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X, while the Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) supports a maximum of 96 GB of memory with a maximum memory bandwidth of 307.2 GB/s enabled.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X Characteristic Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
DDR4-3200 Memory LPDDR5-6400
2048 GB Max. Memory 96 GB
4 (Quad Channel) Memory channels 3
51.2 GB/s Max. Bandwidth 307.2 GB/s
Yes ECC No
12.00 MB L2 Cache 36.00 MB
128.00 MB L3 Cache --
4.0 PCIe version 4.0
64 PCIe lanes --
126.0 GB/s PCIe Bandwidth --

Thermal Management

The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X has a TDP of 280 W. The TDP of the Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) is 50 W. System integrators use the TDP of the processor as a guide when dimensioning the cooling solution.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X Characteristic Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
280 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 50 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
-- TDP down --
95 °C Tjunction max. 100 °C

Technical details

The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X has 140.00 MB cache and is manufactured in 7 nm. The cache of Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) is at 36.00 MB. The processor is manufactured in 3 nm.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X Characteristic Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
7 nm Technology 3 nm
Chiplet Chip design Chiplet
x86-64 (64 bit) Instruction set (ISA) Armv8-A (64 bit)
SSE4a, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX2, FMA3 ISA extensions Rosetta 2 x86-Emulation
TRX4 (sTRX4) Socket --
AMD-V, SVM Virtualization Apple Virtualization Framework
Yes AES-NI Yes
Windows 10, Windows 11, Linux Operating systems macOS, iPadOS
Q4/2019 Release date Q4/2023
1435 $ Release price --
show more data show more data


Rate these processors

Here you can rate the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 3.0 stars (1 ratings). Rate now:
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Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 4 CPU benchmarks
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X (59%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) (100%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 4 CPU benchmarks
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X (93%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) (82%)

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 Ryzen Threadripper 3960X AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X
24C 48T @ 4.50 GHz
81 (57%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 4.06 GHz
141 (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 Ryzen Threadripper 3960X AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X
24C 48T @ 4.50 GHz
2011 (100%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 4.06 GHz
1373 (68%)

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 Ryzen Threadripper 3960X AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X
24C 48T @ 4.50 GHz
1270 (65%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 4.06 GHz
1968 (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 Ryzen Threadripper 3960X AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X
24C 48T @ 4.00 GHz
34255 (100%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 3.60 GHz
20983 (61%)

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 Ryzen Threadripper 3960X AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X
24C 48T @ 4.50 GHz
1274 (59%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 4.06 GHz
2150 (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 Ryzen Threadripper 3960X AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X
24C 48T @ 4.00 GHz
21436 (100%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 3.60 GHz
20961 (98%)

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 Ryzen Threadripper 3960X AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X
24C 48T @ 4.50 GHz
1684 (54%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 4.06 GHz
3125 (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 Ryzen Threadripper 3960X AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X
24C 48T @ 4.00 GHz
13875 (72%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 3.60 GHz
19404 (100%)

Cinebench R20 (Single-Core)

Cinebench R20 is the successor of Cinebench R15 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 Ryzen Threadripper 3960X AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X
24C 48T @ 4.50 GHz
509 (100%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 4.06 GHz
0 (0%)

Cinebench R20 (Multi-Core)

Cinebench R20 is the successor of Cinebench R15 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 Ryzen Threadripper 3960X AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X
24C 48T @ 4.00 GHz
13552 (100%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 3.60 GHz
0 (0%)

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 Ryzen Threadripper 3960X AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X
@ 0.00 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
Apple M3 Max (30 Core) @ 1.40 GHz
10650 (100%)

Blender 3.1 Benchmark

In the Blender Benchmark 3.1, the scenes "monster", "junkshop" and "classroom" are rendered and the time required by the system is measured. In our benchmark we test the CPU and not the graphics card. Blender 3.1 was presented as a standalone version in March 2022.
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X
24C 48T @ 4.00 GHz
542 (100%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 3.60 GHz
0 (0%)

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 Ryzen Threadripper 3960X AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X
24C 48T @ 4.00 GHz
54800 (100%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 3.60 GHz
0 (0%)

Blender 2.81 (bmw27)

Blender is a free 3D graphics software for rendering (creating) 3D bodies, which can also be textured and animated in the software. The Blender benchmark creates predefined scenes and measures the time (s) required for the entire scene. The shorter the time required, the better. We selected bmw27 as the benchmark scene.
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X
24C 48T @ 4.00 GHz
59.2 (100%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 3.60 GHz
0 (0%)

CPU-Z Benchmark 17 (Multi-Core)

The CPU-Z benchmark measures a processor's performance by measuring the time it takes the system to complete all benchmark calculations. The faster the benchmark is completed, the higher the score.
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X
24C 48T @ 3.80 GHz
16082 (100%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 0.70 GHz
0 (0%)

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 Ryzen Threadripper 3960X AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X
24C 48T @ 4.50 GHz
209 (100%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 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 Ryzen Threadripper 3960X AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X
24C 48T @ 4.00 GHz
5933 (100%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 3.60 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 Ryzen Threadripper 3960X AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X
24C 48T @ 3.80 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 0.70 GHz
35 (100%)

Devices using this processor

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
Unknown Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2023)
Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023)

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