Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) vs Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405)
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CPU comparison with benchmarks
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| Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) | Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) | |
CPU comparisonApple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) or Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) - 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 (12-CPU 18-GPU) has 12 cores with 12 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 (12-CPU 18-GPU) was released in Q4/2023. The Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) has 4 cores with 8 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 3.50 GHz. The CPU supports up to 16 GB of memory in 4 memory channels. The Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) was released in Q4/2021. |
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| Apple M series (25) | Family | AMD Ryzen 5 (84) |
| Apple M3 (6) | CPU group | AMD Aerith (Steam Deck) (1) |
| 3 | Generation | 3 |
| M3 | Architecture | Aerith (Zen 2) |
| Mobile | Segment | Mobile |
| Apple M2 Pro (12-CPU 19-GPU) | Predecessor | -- |
| -- | Successor | Valve Steam Deck (2023 Refresh) |
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CPU Cores and Base FrequencyThe Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) has 12 CPU cores and can calculate 12 threads in parallel. The clock frequency of the Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) is 0.70 GHz (4.06 GHz) while the Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) has 4 CPU cores and 8 threads can calculate simultaneously. The clock frequency of the Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) is at 2.40 GHz (3.50 GHz). |
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| Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) | Characteristic | Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) |
| 12 | Cores | 4 |
| 12 | Threads | 8 |
| hybrid (big.LITTLE) | Core architecture | normal |
| No | Hyperthreading | Yes |
| No | Overclocking ? | No |
| 0.70 GHz (4.06 GHz) 6x P-Core |
A-Core | 2.40 GHz (3.50 GHz) |
| 0.74 GHz (2.75 GHz) 6x E-Core |
B-Core | -- |
Artificial Intelligence and Machine LearningProcessors 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. |
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| Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) | Characteristic | Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) |
| Apple Neural Engine | AI hardware | -- |
| 16 Neural cores @ 35 TOPS | AI specifications | -- |
Internal GraphicsThe Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) or Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) 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. |
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| Apple M3 Pro (18 Core) | GPU | AMD Custom Radeon Graphics (Steam Deck) |
| 0.39 GHz | GPU frequency | 1.00 GHz |
| 1.40 GHz | GPU (Turbo) | 1.60 GHz |
| -- | GPU Generation | -- |
| 3 nm | Technology | 7 nm |
| 3 | Max. displays | 2 |
| 288 | Compute units | 8 |
| 2304 | Shader | 512 |
| Yes | Hardware Raytracing | No |
| No | Frame Generation | No |
| 36 GB | Max. GPU Memory | 8 GB |
| -- | DirectX Version | 12 |
Hardware codec supportA 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. |
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| Apple M3 Pro (18 Core) | GPU | AMD Custom Radeon Graphics (Steam Deck) |
| 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 & PCIeThe Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) can use up to 36 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The maximum memory bandwidth is 153.6 GB/s. The Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) supports up to 16 GB of memory in 4 memory channels and achieves a memory bandwidth of up to 88.0 GB/s. |
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| Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) | Characteristic | Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) |
| LPDDR5-6400 | Memory | LPDDR5-5500 |
| 36 GB | Max. Memory | 16 GB |
| 2 (Dual Channel) | Memory channels | 4 (Quad Channel) |
| 153.6 GB/s | Max. Bandwidth | 88.0 GB/s |
| No | ECC | No |
| 36.00 MB | L2 Cache | 2.00 MB |
| -- | L3 Cache | 4.00 MB |
| 4.0 | PCIe version | 3.0 |
| -- | PCIe lanes | 8 |
| -- | PCIe Bandwidth | 7.9 GB/s |
Thermal ManagementThe thermal design power (TDP for short) of the Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) is 35 W, while the Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) has a TDP of 15 W. The TDP specifies the necessary cooling solution that is required to cool the processor sufficiently. |
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| Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) | Characteristic | Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) |
| 35 W | TDP (PL1 / PBP) | 15 W |
| -- | TDP (PL2) | -- |
| -- | TDP up | -- |
| -- | TDP down | 4 W |
| 100 °C | Tjunction max. | 100 °C |
Technical detailsThe Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) is manufactured in 3 nm and has 36.00 MB cache. The Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) is manufactured in 7 nm and has a 6.00 MB cache. |
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| Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) | Characteristic | Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) |
| 3 nm | Technology | 7 nm |
| Chiplet | Chip design | Monolithic |
| Armv8-A (64 bit) | Instruction set (ISA) | x86-64 (64 bit) |
| Rosetta 2 x86-Emulation | ISA extensions | SSE4a, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX2, FMA3 |
| -- | Socket | FF3 |
| Apple Virtualization Framework | Virtualization | AMD-V, SVM |
| Yes | AES-NI | Yes |
| macOS, iPadOS | Operating systems | SteamOS (Arch Linux) |
| Q4/2023 | Release date | Q4/2021 |
| -- | Release price | -- |
| show more data | show more data | |
12C 12T @ 0.70 GHz (4.06 GHz) buy now on Amazon and save!
4C 8T @ 2.40 GHz (3.50 GHz) buy now on Amazon and save!
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Rate these processors
Average performance in benchmarks
⌀ Single core performance in 4 CPU benchmarks
⌀ Multi core performance in 4 CPU benchmarks
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.
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Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 4.06 GHz |
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Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405)
4C 8T @ 3.50 GHz |
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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.
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Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 4.06 GHz |
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Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405)
4C 8T @ 3.50 GHz |
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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.
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Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 4.06 GHz |
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Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405)
4C 8T @ 3.50 GHz |
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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.
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Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 3.80 GHz |
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Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405)
4C 8T @ 2.80 GHz |
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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.
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Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 4.06 GHz |
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Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405)
4C 8T @ 3.50 GHz |
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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.
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Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 3.80 GHz |
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Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405)
4C 8T @ 2.80 GHz |
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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.
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Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 4.06 GHz |
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Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405)
4C 8T @ 3.50 GHz |
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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.
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Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 3.80 GHz |
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Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405)
4C 8T @ 2.80 GHz |
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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.
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Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
Apple M3 Pro (18 Core) @ 1.40 GHz |
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Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405)
AMD Custom Radeon Graphics (Steam Deck) @ 1.60 GHz |
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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.
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Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 3.80 GHz |
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Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405)
4C 8T @ 2.80 GHz |
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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).
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Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 0.70 GHz |
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Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405)
4C 8T @ 2.40 GHz |
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Devices using this processor |
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| Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) | Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) |
| Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2023) Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) |
Valve Steam Deck |
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