Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) vs Intel Core i7-6600U

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) CPU1 vs CPU2 Intel Core i7-6600U
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Intel Core i7-6600U

CPU comparison

In this CPU comparison, we compare the Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) and the Intel Core i7-6600U and use benchmarks to check which processor is faster.

We compare the Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) 14 core processor released in Q4/2023 with the Intel Core i7-6600U which has 2 CPU cores and was introduced in Q3/2015.
Apple M series (25) Family Intel Core i7 (298)
Apple M3 (6) CPU group Intel Core i 6000U (20)
3 Generation 6
M3 Architecture Skylake U
Mobile Segment Mobile
Apple M2 Max (30-GPU) Predecessor Intel Core i7-5600U
-- Successor Intel Core i7-7600U

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) is a 14 core processor with a clock frequency of 0.70 GHz (4.06 GHz). The processor can compute 14 threads at the same time. The Intel Core i7-6600U clocks with 2.60 GHz (3.40 GHz), has 2 CPU cores and can calculate 4 threads in parallel.

Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Characteristic Intel Core i7-6600U
14 Cores 2
14 Threads 4
hybrid (big.LITTLE) Core architecture normal
No Hyperthreading Yes
No Overclocking ? No
0.70 GHz (4.06 GHz)
10x P-Core
A-Core 2.60 GHz (3.40 GHz)
0.74 GHz (2.75 GHz)
4x E-Core
B-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.

Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Characteristic Intel Core i7-6600U
Apple Neural Engine AI hardware --
16 Neural cores @ 35 TOPS AI specifications --
-- 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.

Apple M3 Max (30 Core) GPU Intel HD Graphics 520
0.39 GHz GPU frequency 0.30 GHz
1.40 GHz GPU (Turbo) 1.05 GHz
-- GPU Generation 9
3 nm Technology 14 nm
5 Max. displays 3
480 Compute units 24
3840 Shader 192
Yes Hardware Raytracing No
No Frame Generation No
96 GB Max. GPU Memory 32 GB
-- DirectX Version 12

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 Max (30 Core) GPU Intel HD Graphics 520
Decode / Encode Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) Decode
Decode / Encode Codec h264 Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec VP9 Decode
Decode Codec VP8 Decode / Encode
Decode Codec AV1 No
Decode Codec AVC Decode / Encode
Decode Codec VC-1 Decode
Decode / Encode Codec JPEG Decode / Encode

Memory & PCIe

Up to 96 GB of memory in a maximum of 3 memory channels is supported by the Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU), while the Intel Core i7-6600U supports a maximum of 32 GB of memory with a maximum memory bandwidth of 34.1 GB/s enabled.

Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Characteristic Intel Core i7-6600U
LPDDR5-6400 Memory LPDDR3-1866, DDR4-2133
96 GB Max. Memory 32 GB
3 Memory channels 2 (Dual Channel)
307.2 GB/s Max. Bandwidth 34.1 GB/s
No ECC No
36.00 MB L2 Cache --
-- L3 Cache 4.00 MB
4.0 PCIe version 3.0
-- PCIe lanes 12
-- PCIe Bandwidth 11.8 GB/s

Thermal Management

The Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) has a TDP of 50 W. The TDP of the Intel Core i7-6600U is 15 W. System integrators use the TDP of the processor as a guide when dimensioning the cooling solution.

Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Characteristic Intel Core i7-6600U
50 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 15 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up 25 W
-- TDP down 7.5 W
100 °C Tjunction max. 100 °C

Technical details

The Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) has 36.00 MB cache and is manufactured in 3 nm. The cache of Intel Core i7-6600U is at 4.00 MB. The processor is manufactured in 14 nm.

Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Characteristic Intel Core i7-6600U
3 nm Technology 14 nm
Chiplet Chip design Monolithic
Armv8-A (64 bit) Instruction set (ISA) x86-64 (64 bit)
Rosetta 2 x86-Emulation ISA extensions SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX2
-- Socket BGA 1356
Apple Virtualization Framework Virtualization VT-x, VT-x EPT, VT-d
Yes AES-NI Yes
macOS, iPadOS Operating systems Windows 10, Linux
Q4/2023 Release date Q3/2015
-- Release price 393 $
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Rate these processors

Here you can rate the Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 4.8 stars (148 ratings). Rate now:
Here you can rate the Intel Core i7-6600U to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 3.8 stars (6 ratings). Rate now:


Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 2 CPU benchmarks
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) (100%)
Intel Core i7-6600U (37%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 2 CPU benchmarks
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) (100%)
Intel Core i7-6600U (9%)

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 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 4.06 GHz
2150 (100%)
Intel Core i7-6600U Intel Core i7-6600U
2C 4T @ 3.40 GHz
820 (38%)

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 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 3.60 GHz
20961 (100%)
Intel Core i7-6600U Intel Core i7-6600U
2C 4T @ 3.00 GHz
1513 (7%)

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 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 4.06 GHz
3125 (100%)
Intel Core i7-6600U Intel Core i7-6600U
2C 4T @ 3.40 GHz
1092 (35%)

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 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 3.60 GHz
19404 (100%)
Intel Core i7-6600U Intel Core i7-6600U
2C 4T @ 3.00 GHz
1937 (10%)

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 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
Apple M3 Max (30 Core) @ 1.40 GHz
10650 (100%)
Intel Core i7-6600U Intel Core i7-6600U
Intel HD Graphics 520 @ 1.05 GHz
403 (4%)

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 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 4.06 GHz
141 (100%)
Intel Core i7-6600U Intel Core i7-6600U
2C 4T @ 3.40 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 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 4.06 GHz
1373 (100%)
Intel Core i7-6600U Intel Core i7-6600U
2C 4T @ 3.40 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 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 4.06 GHz
1968 (100%)
Intel Core i7-6600U Intel Core i7-6600U
2C 4T @ 3.40 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 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 3.60 GHz
20983 (100%)
Intel Core i7-6600U Intel Core i7-6600U
2C 4T @ 3.00 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 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 3.60 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i7-6600U Intel Core i7-6600U
2C 4T @ 3.00 GHz
3465 (100%)

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.
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 0.70 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i7-6600U Intel Core i7-6600U
2C 4T @ 2.60 GHz
898 (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.
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 4.06 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i7-6600U Intel Core i7-6600U
2C 4T @ 3.40 GHz
144 (100%)

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.
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 3.60 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i7-6600U Intel Core i7-6600U
2C 4T @ 3.00 GHz
323 (100%)

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).
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 0.70 GHz
35 (100%)
Intel Core i7-6600U Intel Core i7-6600U
2C 4T @ 2.60 GHz
0 (0%)

Devices using this processor

Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Intel Core i7-6600U
Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2023)
Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023)
Unknown

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