Apple M3 vs Raspberry Pi 4 B (Broadcom BCM2711)

Last updated: 2024-03-22

CPU comparison with benchmarks


Apple M3		Raspberry Pi 4 B (Broadcom BCM2711)
CPU comparison Apple M3 or Raspberry Pi 4 B (Broadcom BCM2711) - 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 Apple M3 has 8 cores with 8 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 4.06 GHz. Up to 24 GB of memory is supported in 2 memory channels. The Apple M3 was released in Q4/2023. The Raspberry Pi 4 B (Broadcom BCM2711) has 4 cores with 4 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 1.50 GHz. The CPU supports up to 8 GB of memory in 1 memory channels. The Raspberry Pi 4 B (Broadcom BCM2711) was released in 06/2019.

Apple M series (25)	Family	Broadcom BCM (3)
Apple M3 (6)	CPU group	Broadcom BCM2711 (1)
3	Generation	4
M3	Architecture	Cortex-A72
Mobile	Segment	Desktop / Server
Apple M2	Predecessor	Raspberry Pi 3 B+ (Broadcom BCM2837B0)
Apple M4	Successor	Raspberry Pi 5 B (Broadcom BCM2712)

CPU Cores and Base Frequency The Apple M3 has 8 CPU cores and can calculate 8 threads in parallel. The clock frequency of the Apple M3 is 0.70 GHz (4.06 GHz) while the Raspberry Pi 4 B (Broadcom BCM2711) has 4 CPU cores and 4 threads can calculate simultaneously. The clock frequency of the Raspberry Pi 4 B (Broadcom BCM2711) is at 1.50 GHz.
Apple M3	Characteristic	Raspberry Pi 4 B (Broadcom BCM2711)
8	Cores	4
8	Threads	4
hybrid (big.LITTLE)	Core architecture	normal
No	Hyperthreading	No
No	Overclocking ?	Yes
0.70 GHz (4.06 GHz) 4x P-Core	A-Core	1.50 GHz 4x Cortex-A72
0.74 GHz (2.75 GHz) 4x E-Core	B-Core	--
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning 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. Algorithms for ML improve their performance the more data they have collected via software. ML tasks can be processed up to 10,000 times faster than with a classic processor.
Apple M3	Characteristic	Raspberry Pi 4 B (Broadcom BCM2711)
Apple Neural Engine	AI hardware	--
16 Neural cores @ 35 TOPS	AI specifications	--

Internal Graphics The Apple M3 or Raspberry Pi 4 B (Broadcom BCM2711) has integrated graphics, called iGPU for short. The iGPU uses the system's main memory as graphics memory and sits on the processor's die.
Apple M3 (10 Core)	GPU	Broadcom VideoCore VI
0.39 GHz	GPU frequency	0.50 GHz
1.40 GHz	GPU (Turbo)	--
3	GPU Generation	6
3 nm	Technology	28 nm
2	Max. displays	2
160	Compute units	4
1280	Shader	64
Yes	Hardware Raytracing	No
No	Frame Generation	No
24 GB	Max. GPU Memory	2 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.
Apple M3 (10 Core)	GPU	Broadcom VideoCore VI
Decode / Encode	Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit)	Decode
Decode / Encode	Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit)	Decode
Decode / Encode	Codec h264	Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode	Codec VP9	Decode
Decode	Codec VP8	Decode
Decode	Codec AV1	No
Decode	Codec AVC	Decode
Decode	Codec VC-1	Decode
Decode / Encode	Codec JPEG	Decode / Encode

Memory & PCIe The Apple M3 can use up to 24 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The maximum memory bandwidth is 102.4 GB/s. The Raspberry Pi 4 B (Broadcom BCM2711) supports up to 8 GB of memory in 1 memory channels and achieves a memory bandwidth of up to 12.8 GB/s.
Apple M3	Characteristic	Raspberry Pi 4 B (Broadcom BCM2711)
LPDDR5-6400	Memory	LPDDR4-3200
24 GB	Max. Memory	8 GB
2 (Dual Channel)	Memory channels	1 (Single Channel)
102.4 GB/s	Max. Bandwidth	12.8 GB/s
No	ECC	No
20.00 MB	L2 Cache	1.00 MB
--	L3 Cache	--
4.0	PCIe version	--
--	PCIe lanes	--
--	PCIe Bandwidth	--
Thermal Management The thermal design power (TDP for short) of the Apple M3 is 22 W, while the Raspberry Pi 4 B (Broadcom BCM2711) has a TDP of 7.5 W. The TDP specifies the necessary cooling solution that is required to cool the processor sufficiently.
Apple M3	Characteristic	Raspberry Pi 4 B (Broadcom BCM2711)
22 W	TDP (PL1 / PBP)	7.5 W
--	TDP (PL2)	--
--	TDP up	--
15 W	TDP down	3 W
100 °C	Tjunction max.	--
Technical details The Apple M3 is manufactured in 3 nm and has 20.00 MB cache. The Raspberry Pi 4 B (Broadcom BCM2711) is manufactured in 28 nm and has a 1.00 MB cache.
Apple M3	Characteristic	Raspberry Pi 4 B (Broadcom BCM2711)
3 nm	Technology	28 nm
Chiplet	Chip design	Monolithic
Armv8-A (64 bit)	Instruction set (ISA)	Armv8-A (64 bit)
Rosetta 2 x86-Emulation	ISA extensions	--
--	Socket	--
Apple Virtualization Framework	Virtualization	None
Yes	AES-NI	No
macOS, iPadOS	Operating systems	Windows 11 (ARM), Linux
Q4/2023	Release date	06/2019
--	Release price	35 $

show more data		show more data

Apple M3 8C 8T @ 0.70 GHz (4.06 GHz) buy now on Amazon and save! Raspberry Pi 4 B (Broadcom BCM2711) 4C 4T @ 1.50 GHz buy now on Amazon and save!

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Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks

Apple M3 (100%)

Raspberry Pi 4 B (Broadcom BCM2711) (9%)

⌀ Multi core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks

Apple M3 (100%)

Raspberry Pi 4 B (Broadcom BCM2711) (6%)

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.


	Apple M3 8C 8T @ 4.06 GHz	2150 (100%)
	Raspberry Pi 4 B (Broadcom BCM2711) 4C 4T @ 1.50 GHz	202 (9%)

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.


	Apple M3 8C 8T @ 4.06 GHz	10450 (100%)
	Raspberry Pi 4 B (Broadcom BCM2711) 4C 4T @ 1.50 GHz	601 (6%)

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.


	Apple M3 Apple M3 (10 Core) @ 1.40 GHz	3550 (100%)
	Raspberry Pi 4 B (Broadcom BCM2711) Broadcom VideoCore VI @ 0.50 GHz	32 (1%)

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.


	Apple M3 8C 8T @ 4.06 GHz	137 (100%)
	Raspberry Pi 4 B (Broadcom BCM2711) 4C 4T @ 1.50 GHz	0 (0%)

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.


	Apple M3 8C 8T @ 4.06 GHz	659 (100%)
	Raspberry Pi 4 B (Broadcom BCM2711) 4C 4T @ 1.50 GHz	0 (0%)

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.


	Apple M3 8C 8T @ 4.06 GHz	1965 (100%)
	Raspberry Pi 4 B (Broadcom BCM2711) 4C 4T @ 1.50 GHz	0 (0%)

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.


	Apple M3 8C 8T @ 4.06 GHz	10437 (100%)
	Raspberry Pi 4 B (Broadcom BCM2711) 4C 4T @ 1.50 GHz	0 (0%)

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.


	Apple M3 8C 8T @ 4.06 GHz	3125 (100%)
	Raspberry Pi 4 B (Broadcom BCM2711) 4C 4T @ 1.50 GHz	0 (0%)

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.


	Apple M3 8C 8T @ 4.06 GHz	11863 (100%)
	Raspberry Pi 4 B (Broadcom BCM2711) 4C 4T @ 1.50 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.


	Apple M3 8C 8T @ 4.06 GHz	18951 (100%)
	Raspberry Pi 4 B (Broadcom BCM2711) 4C 4T @ 1.50 GHz	0 (0%)

CPU performance per watt (efficiency)

Efficiency of the processor under full load in the Cinebench R23 (multi-core) benchmark. The benchmark result is divided by the average energy required (CPU package power in watts). The higher the value, the more efficient the CPU is under full load.


	Apple M3 10,437 CB R23 MC @ 22 W	474 (100%)
	Raspberry Pi 4 B (Broadcom BCM2711) 1.50 GHz	0 (0%)

Performance for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)

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).


	Apple M3 8C 8T @ 0.70 GHz	35 (100%)
	Raspberry Pi 4 B (Broadcom BCM2711) 4C 4T @ 1.50 GHz	0 (0%)

Devices using this processor
Apple M3	Raspberry Pi 4 B (Broadcom BCM2711)
Apple iMac 24 (2023)	Raspberry Pi 4 B

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