Apple M3 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU) vs Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


Apple M3 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU) CPU1 vs CPU2 Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)
Apple M3 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)

CPU comparison

Apple M3 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU) or Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) - 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 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU) has 11 cores with 11 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 4.06 GHz. Up to 36 GB of memory is supported in 2 memory channels. The Apple M3 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU) was released in Q4/2023.

The Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) has 6 cores with 6 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 3.23 GHz. The CPU supports up to 6 GB of memory in 1 memory channels. The Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) was released in Q3/2021.
Apple M series (25) Family Apple A series (22)
Apple M3 (6) CPU group Apple A15 (2)
3 Generation 15
M3 Architecture A15
Mobile Segment Mobile
Apple M2 Pro (10-CPU 16-GPU) Predecessor --
-- Successor --

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Apple M3 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU) has 11 CPU cores and can calculate 11 threads in parallel. The clock frequency of the Apple M3 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU) is 0.70 GHz (4.06 GHz) while the Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) has 6 CPU cores and 6 threads can calculate simultaneously. The clock frequency of the Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) is at 3.23 GHz.

Apple M3 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU) Characteristic Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)
11 Cores 6
11 Threads 6
hybrid (big.LITTLE) Core architecture hybrid (big.LITTLE)
No Hyperthreading No
No Overclocking ? No
0.70 GHz (4.06 GHz)
5x P-Core
A-Core 3.23 GHz
2x Avalanche
0.74 GHz (2.75 GHz)
6x E-Core
B-Core 2.02 GHz
4x Blizzard

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 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU) Characteristic Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)
Apple Neural Engine AI hardware Apple Neural Engine
16 Neural cores @ 35 TOPS AI specifications 16 Neural cores @ 15.8 TOPS
-- NPU + CPU + iGPU --

Integrated graphics (iGPU)

The Apple M3 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU) or Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) 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 Pro (14 Core) GPU Apple A15 (4 GPU Cores)
0.39 GHz GPU frequency 1.34 GHz
1.40 GHz GPU (Turbo) --
-- GPU Generation 12
3 nm Technology 5 nm
3 Max. displays 3
224 Compute units 16
1792 Shader 512
Yes Hardware Raytracing No
No Frame Generation No
36 GB Max. GPU Memory 6 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 Pro (14 Core) GPU Apple A15 (4 GPU Cores)
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
Decode Codec VC-1 Decode
Decode / Encode Codec JPEG Decode / Encode

Memory & PCIe

The Apple M3 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU) can use up to 36 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The maximum memory bandwidth is 153.6 GB/s. The Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) supports up to 6 GB of memory in 1 memory channels and achieves a memory bandwidth of up to 34.1 GB/s.

Apple M3 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU) Characteristic Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)
LPDDR5-6400 Memory LPDDR4X-4266
36 GB Max. Memory 6 GB
2 (Dual Channel) Memory channels 1 (Single Channel)
153.6 GB/s Max. Bandwidth 34.1 GB/s
No ECC No
36.00 MB L2 Cache 16.00 MB
-- L3 Cache 32.00 MB
4.0 PCIe version --
-- PCIe lanes --
-- PCIe Bandwidth --

Thermal Management

The thermal design power (TDP for short) of the Apple M3 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU) is 35 W, while the Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) has a TDP of 7.25 W. The TDP specifies the necessary cooling solution that is required to cool the processor sufficiently.

Apple M3 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU) Characteristic Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)
35 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 7.25 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
-- TDP down --
100 °C Tjunction max. --

Technical details

The Apple M3 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU) is manufactured in 3 nm and has 36.00 MB cache. The Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) is manufactured in 5 nm and has a 48.00 MB cache.

Apple M3 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU) Characteristic Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)
3 nm Technology 5 nm
Chiplet Chip design Chiplet
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 iOS
Q4/2023 Release date Q3/2021
-- Release price --
show more data show more data


Rate these processors

Here you can rate the Apple M3 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU) to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 4.9 stars (223 ratings). Rate now:
Here you can rate the Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 4.4 stars (19 ratings). Rate now:


Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 2 CPU benchmarks
Apple M3 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU) (100%)
Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) (74%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 2 CPU benchmarks
Apple M3 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU) (100%)
Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) (38%)

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 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU)
11C 11T @ 4.06 GHz
2305 (100%)
Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
1745 (76%)

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 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU)
11C 11T @ 3.80 GHz
13255 (100%)
Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
4777 (36%)

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 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU)
11C 11T @ 4.06 GHz
3125 (100%)
Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
2245 (72%)

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 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU)
11C 11T @ 3.80 GHz
13755 (100%)
Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
5402 (39%)

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 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU)
Apple M3 Pro (14 Core) @ 1.40 GHz
4970 (100%)
Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)
Apple A15 (4 GPU Cores) @ 1.34 GHz
1370 (28%)

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 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU)
11C 11T @ 0.70 GHz
35 (100%)
Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
15.8 (45%)

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 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU)
11C 11T @ 4.06 GHz
139 (100%)
Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 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 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU)
11C 11T @ 4.06 GHz
847 (100%)
Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 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 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU)
11C 11T @ 4.06 GHz
1889 (100%)
Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 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 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU)
11C 11T @ 3.80 GHz
13289 (100%)
Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 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 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU)
11C 11T @ 0.70 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
806250 (100%)

Devices using this processor

Apple M3 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)
Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2023)
Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023)
Apple iPhone 13 mini
Apple iPhone 13

News and articles for the Apple M3 Pro (11-CPU 14-GPU) and the Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)


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