Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU) vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU) CPU1 vs CPU2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU) Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3

CPU comparison

In this CPU comparison, we compare the Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU) and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 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 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 which has 8 CPU cores and was introduced in Q4/2023.
Apple M series (25) Family Qualcomm Snapdragon (102)
Apple M3 (6) CPU group Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (2)
3 Generation 3
M3 Architecture --
Mobile Segment Mobile
Apple M2 Max (30-GPU) Predecessor Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
-- 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 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 clocks with 3.40 GHz, has 8 CPU cores and can calculate 8 threads in parallel.

Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU) Characteristic Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
16 Cores 8
16 Threads 8
hybrid (big.LITTLE) Core architecture hybrid (Prime / big.LITTLE)
No Hyperthreading No
No Overclocking ? No
0.70 GHz (4.06 GHz)
12x P-Core
A-Core 3.40 GHz
1x Cortex-X4
0.74 GHz (2.75 GHz)
4x E-Core
B-Core 2.96 GHz (3.15 GHz)
5x Cortex-A720
-- C-Core 2.27 GHz
2x Cortex-A520

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 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
Apple Neural Engine AI hardware Qualcomm AI engine
16 Neural cores @ 35 TOPS AI specifications Hexagon NPU @ 34 TOPS

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 Qualcomm Adreno 750
0.39 GHz GPU frequency 0.90 GHz
1.40 GHz GPU (Turbo) --
-- GPU Generation --
3 nm Technology 4 nm
5 Max. displays 2
640 Compute units --
5120 Shader --
Yes Hardware Raytracing Yes
No Frame Generation No
128 GB Max. GPU Memory 6 GB
-- DirectX Version 12.1

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 Qualcomm Adreno 750
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 Decode
Decode Codec AVC Decode
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 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 supports a maximum of 24 GB of memory with a maximum memory bandwidth of 76.6 GB/s enabled.

Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU) Characteristic Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
LPDDR5-6400 Memory LPDDR5X-9600
128 GB Max. Memory 24 GB
4 (Quad Channel) Memory channels 4 (Quad Channel)
409.6 GB/s Max. Bandwidth 76.6 GB/s
No ECC No
36.00 MB L2 Cache --
-- L3 Cache 12.00 MB
4.0 PCIe version --
-- PCIe lanes --
-- PCIe Bandwidth --

Thermal Management

The Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU) has a TDP of 57 W. The TDP of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is 12.5 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 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
57 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 12.5 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
-- TDP down --
100 °C Tjunction max. --

Technical details

The Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU) has 36.00 MB cache and is manufactured in 3 nm. The cache of Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is at 12.00 MB. The processor is manufactured in 4 nm.

Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU) Characteristic Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
3 nm Technology 4 nm
Chiplet Chip design Chiplet
Armv8-A (64 bit) Instruction set (ISA) Armv9-A (64 bit)
Rosetta 2 x86-Emulation ISA extensions --
-- Socket --
Apple Virtualization Framework Virtualization None
Yes AES-NI No
macOS, iPadOS Operating systems Android, Windows 10/11 (ARM)
Q4/2023 Release date Q4/2023
-- Release price --
show more data show more data


Rate these processors

Here you can rate the Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU) to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 5.0 stars (539 ratings). Rate now:
Here you can rate the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 4.1 stars (88 ratings). Rate now:


Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 2 CPU benchmarks
Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU) (100%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (76%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 2 CPU benchmarks
Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU) (100%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (31%)

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) Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU)
16C 16T @ 4.06 GHz
2150 (100%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
1709 (79%)

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) Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU)
16C 16T @ 3.60 GHz
22736 (100%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
6431 (28%)

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) Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU)
16C 16T @ 4.06 GHz
3125 (100%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
2293 (73%)

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) Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU)
16C 16T @ 3.60 GHz
21045 (100%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
7117 (34%)

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 (16-CPU 40-GPU)
Apple M3 Max (40 Core) @ 1.40 GHz
14200 (100%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
Qualcomm Adreno 750 @ 0.90 GHz
2287 (16%)

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) Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU)
16C 16T @ 0.70 GHz
35 (100%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
34 (97%)

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) Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU)
16C 16T @ 4.06 GHz
141 (100%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 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 (16-CPU 40-GPU) Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU)
16C 16T @ 4.06 GHz
1607 (100%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 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 (16-CPU 40-GPU) Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU)
16C 16T @ 4.06 GHz
1968 (100%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 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 (16-CPU 40-GPU) Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU)
16C 16T @ 3.60 GHz
24028 (100%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
0 (0%)

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) Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU)
16C 16T @ 4.06 GHz
496 (100%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 3.40 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.
Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU) Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU)
16C 16T @ 3.60 GHz
6311 (100%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
0 (0%)

AnTuTu 9 Benchmark

The AnTuTu 9 benchmark is very well suited to measuring the performance of a smartphone. AnTuTu 9 is quite heavy on 3D graphics and can now also use the "Metal" graphics interface. In AnTuTu, memory and UX (user experience) are also tested by simulating browser and app usage. AnTuTu version 9 can compare any ARM CPU running on Android or iOS. Devices may not be directly comparable when benchmarked on different operating systems.

In the AnTuTu 9 benchmark, the single-core performance of a processor is only slightly weighted. The rating is made up of the multi-core performance of the processor, the speed of the working memory, and the performance of the internal graphics.
Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU) Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU)
16C 16T @ 0.70 GHz
0 (0%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
1476480 (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 (16-CPU 40-GPU) Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU)
16C 16T @ 4.06 GHz
266 (100%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 3.40 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.
Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU) Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU)
16C 16T @ 3.60 GHz
3375 (100%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 3.40 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 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU) Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU)
24,028 CB R23 MC @ 57 W
422 (100%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
3.40 GHz
0 (0%)

Devices using this processor

Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU) Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2023)
Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023)
Xiaomi 14
Xiaomi 14 Pro
ASUS ROG Phone 8 Pro
Samsung S24 Ultra

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