Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU) vs Intel Core i3-8109U Benchmark, comparison and differences


Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU)		Intel Core i3-8109U
CPU comparison In this CPU comparison, we compare the Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU) and the Intel Core i3-8109U and use benchmarks to check which processor is faster. We compare the Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU) 16 core processor released in Q4/2023 with the Intel Core i3-8109U which has 2 CPU cores and was introduced in Q4/2017.

Apple M series (25)	Family	Intel Core i3 (205)
Apple M3 (6)	CPU group	Intel Core i 8000U (8)
3	Generation	8
M3	Architecture	Coffee Lake U
Mobile	Segment	Mobile
Apple M2 Max (30-GPU)	Predecessor	--
--	Successor	--

CPU Cores and Base Frequency The Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU) is a 16 core processor with a clock frequency of 0.70 GHz (4.06 GHz). The processor can compute 16 threads at the same time. The Intel Core i3-8109U clocks with 3.00 GHz (3.60 GHz), has 2 CPU cores and can calculate 4 threads in parallel.
Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU)	Characteristic	Intel Core i3-8109U
16	Cores	2
16	Threads	4
hybrid (big.LITTLE)	Core architecture	normal
No	Hyperthreading	Yes
No	Overclocking ?	No
0.70 GHz (4.06 GHz) 12x P-Core	A-Core	3.00 GHz (3.60 GHz)
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 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU)	Characteristic	Intel Core i3-8109U
Apple Neural Engine	AI hardware	--
16 Neural cores @ 35 TOPS	AI specifications	--

Internal Graphics 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 (40 Core)	GPU	Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655
0.39 GHz	GPU frequency	0.30 GHz
1.40 GHz	GPU (Turbo)	1.05 GHz
--	GPU Generation	9.5
3 nm	Technology	14 nm
5	Max. displays	3
640	Compute units	48
5120	Shader	384
Yes	Hardware Raytracing	No
No	Frame Generation	No
128 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 (40 Core)	GPU	Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655
Decode / Encode	Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit)	Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode	Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit)	Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode	Codec h264	Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode	Codec VP9	Decode / Encode
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 128 GB of memory in a maximum of 4 memory channels is supported by the Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU), while the Intel Core i3-8109U supports a maximum of 32 GB of memory with a maximum memory bandwidth of 38.4 GB/s enabled.
Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU)	Characteristic	Intel Core i3-8109U
LPDDR5-6400	Memory	LPDDR3-2133, DDR4-2400
128 GB	Max. Memory	32 GB
4 (Quad Channel)	Memory channels	2 (Dual Channel)
409.6 GB/s	Max. Bandwidth	38.4 GB/s
No	ECC	Yes
36.00 MB	L2 Cache	--
--	L3 Cache	4.00 MB
4.0	PCIe version	3.0
--	PCIe lanes	16
--	PCIe Bandwidth	15.8 GB/s
Thermal Management The Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU) has a TDP of 57 W. The TDP of the Intel Core i3-8109U is 28 W. System integrators use the TDP of the processor as a guide when dimensioning the cooling solution.
Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU)	Characteristic	Intel Core i3-8109U
57 W	TDP (PL1 / PBP)	28 W
--	TDP (PL2)	--
--	TDP up	--
--	TDP down	20 W
100 °C	Tjunction max.	100 °C
Technical details The Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU) has 36.00 MB cache and is manufactured in 3 nm. The cache of Intel Core i3-8109U is at 4.00 MB. The processor is manufactured in 14 nm.
Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU)	Characteristic	Intel Core i3-8109U
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 1528
Apple Virtualization Framework	Virtualization	VT-x, VT-x EPT, VT-d
Yes	AES-NI	Yes
macOS, iPadOS	Operating systems	Windows 10, Windows 11, Linux
Q4/2023	Release date	Q4/2017
--	Release price	--

show more data		show more data

Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU) 16C 16T @ 0.70 GHz (4.06 GHz) buy now on Amazon and save! Intel Core i3-8109U 2C 4T @ 3.00 GHz (3.60 GHz) buy now on Amazon and save!

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Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 5 CPU benchmarks

Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU) (100%)

Intel Core i3-8109U (50%)

⌀ Multi core performance in 5 CPU benchmarks

Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU) (100%)

Intel Core i3-8109U (11%)

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 (16-CPU 40-GPU) 16C 16T @ 4.06 GHz	141 (100%)
	Intel Core i3-8109U 2C 4T @ 3.60 GHz	55 (39%)

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 (16-CPU 40-GPU) 16C 16T @ 4.06 GHz	1607 (100%)
	Intel Core i3-8109U 2C 4T @ 3.60 GHz	107 (7%)

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 (16-CPU 40-GPU) 16C 16T @ 4.06 GHz	2150 (100%)
	Intel Core i3-8109U 2C 4T @ 3.60 GHz	881 (41%)

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 (16-CPU 40-GPU) 16C 16T @ 3.60 GHz	22736 (100%)
	Intel Core i3-8109U 2C 4T @ 3.20 GHz	2021 (9%)

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 (16-CPU 40-GPU) 16C 16T @ 4.06 GHz	3125 (100%)
	Intel Core i3-8109U 2C 4T @ 3.60 GHz	1185 (38%)

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 (16-CPU 40-GPU) 16C 16T @ 3.60 GHz	21045 (100%)
	Intel Core i3-8109U 2C 4T @ 3.20 GHz	2524 (12%)

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.


	Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU) 16C 16T @ 4.06 GHz	496 (100%)
	Intel Core i3-8109U 2C 4T @ 3.60 GHz	366 (74%)

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.


	Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU) 16C 16T @ 3.60 GHz	6311 (100%)
	Intel Core i3-8109U 2C 4T @ 3.20 GHz	916 (15%)

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 (16-CPU 40-GPU) Apple M3 Max (40 Core) @ 1.40 GHz	14200 (100%)
	Intel Core i3-8109U Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 @ 1.05 GHz	806 (6%)

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 (16-CPU 40-GPU) 16C 16T @ 4.06 GHz	266 (100%)
	Intel Core i3-8109U 2C 4T @ 3.60 GHz	153 (58%)

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 (16-CPU 40-GPU) 16C 16T @ 3.60 GHz	3375 (100%)
	Intel Core i3-8109U 2C 4T @ 3.20 GHz	381 (11%)

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 (16-CPU 40-GPU) 16C 16T @ 4.06 GHz	1968 (100%)
	Intel Core i3-8109U 2C 4T @ 3.60 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 (16-CPU 40-GPU) 16C 16T @ 3.60 GHz	24028 (100%)
	Intel Core i3-8109U 2C 4T @ 3.20 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 (16-CPU 40-GPU) 16C 16T @ 3.60 GHz	0 (0%)
	Intel Core i3-8109U 2C 4T @ 3.20 GHz	4268 (100%)

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 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU) 24,028 CB R23 MC @ 57 W	422 (100%)
	Intel Core i3-8109U 3.00 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 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU) 16C 16T @ 0.70 GHz	35 (100%)
	Intel Core i3-8109U 2C 4T @ 3.00 GHz	0 (0%)

Devices using this processor
Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU)	Intel Core i3-8109U
Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2023) Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023)	Unknown


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5.		Intel Core i3-8109U vs Intel Core i3-10110U
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7.		Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU) vs Intel Core i9-13980HX
8.		AMD Ryzen 3 3300U vs Intel Core i3-8109U
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10.		Intel Celeron N5095 vs Intel Core i3-8109U

Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU) vs Intel Core i3-8109U

CPU comparison with benchmarks

CPU comparison

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Internal Graphics

Hardware codec support

Memory & PCIe

Thermal Management

Technical details