HiSilicon Kirin 659 vs Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)

Last updated:

CPU comparison with benchmarks


HiSilicon Kirin 659 CPU1 vs CPU2 Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
HiSilicon Kirin 659 Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)

CPU comparison

HiSilicon Kirin 659 or Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-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 HiSilicon Kirin 659 has 8 cores with 8 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 2.36 GHz. Up to GB of memory is supported in 2 memory channels. The HiSilicon Kirin 659 was released in Q2/2016.

The Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) has 14 cores with 14 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 4.06 GHz. The CPU supports up to 96 GB of memory in 3 memory channels. The Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) was released in Q4/2023.
HiSilicon Kirin (29) Family Apple M series (25)
HiSilicon Kirin 650 (4) CPU group Apple M3 (6)
4 Generation 3
Cortex-A53 / Cortex-A53 Architecture M3
Mobile Segment Mobile
-- Predecessor Apple M2 Max (30-GPU)
-- Successor --

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The HiSilicon Kirin 659 has 8 CPU cores and can calculate 8 threads in parallel. The clock frequency of the HiSilicon Kirin 659 is 2.36 GHz while the Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) has 14 CPU cores and 14 threads can calculate simultaneously. The clock frequency of the Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) is at 0.70 GHz (4.06 GHz).
HiSilicon Kirin 659 Characteristic Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
8 Cores 14
8 Threads 14
hybrid (big.LITTLE) Core architecture hybrid (big.LITTLE)
No Hyperthreading No
No Overclocking ? No
2.36 GHz
4x Cortex-A53		 A-Core 0.70 GHz (4.06 GHz)
10x P-Core
1.70 GHz
4x Cortex-A53		 B-Core 0.74 GHz (2.75 GHz)
4x E-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.
HiSilicon Kirin 659 Characteristic Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
-- AI hardware Apple Neural Engine
-- AI specifications 16 Neural cores @ 35 TOPS

Internal Graphics

The HiSilicon Kirin 659 or Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-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.
ARM Mali-T830 MP2 GPU Apple M3 Max (30 Core)
0.90 GHz GPU frequency 0.39 GHz
-- GPU (Turbo) 1.40 GHz
Midgard 4 GPU Generation --
28nm Technology 3 nm
2 Max. displays 5
2 Compute units 480
32 Shader 3840
No Hardware Raytracing Yes
No Frame Generation No
-- Max. GPU Memory 96 GB
11 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.
ARM Mali-T830 MP2 GPU Apple M3 Max (30 Core)
Decode / Encode Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) Decode / Encode
Decode Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec h264 Decode / Encode
No Codec VP9 Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec VP8 Decode
No Codec AV1 Decode
No Codec AVC Decode
No Codec VC-1 Decode
Decode / Encode Codec JPEG Decode / Encode

Memory & PCIe

The HiSilicon Kirin 659 can use up to GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The maximum memory bandwidth is --. The Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) supports up to 96 GB of memory in 3 memory channels and achieves a memory bandwidth of up to 307.2 GB/s.
HiSilicon Kirin 659 Characteristic Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
LPDDR3-933 Memory LPDDR5-6400
Max. Memory 96 GB
2 (Dual Channel) Memory channels 3
-- Max. Bandwidth 307.2 GB/s
No ECC No
-- L2 Cache 36.00 MB
-- L3 Cache --
-- PCIe version 4.0
-- PCIe lanes --
-- PCIe Bandwidth --

Thermal Management

The thermal design power (TDP for short) of the HiSilicon Kirin 659 is --, while the Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) has a TDP of 50 W. The TDP specifies the necessary cooling solution that is required to cool the processor sufficiently.
HiSilicon Kirin 659 Characteristic Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
-- TDP (PL1 / PBP) 50 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
-- TDP down --
-- Tjunction max. 100 °C

Technical details

The HiSilicon Kirin 659 is manufactured in 16 nm and has 0.00 MB cache. The Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) is manufactured in 3 nm and has a 36.00 MB cache.
HiSilicon Kirin 659 Characteristic Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
16 nm Technology 3 nm
Chiplet Chip design Chiplet
Armv8-A (64 bit) Instruction set (ISA) Armv8-A (64 bit)
-- ISA extensions Rosetta 2 x86-Emulation
-- Socket --
None Virtualization Apple Virtualization Framework
No AES-NI Yes
Android Operating systems macOS, iPadOS
Q2/2016 Release date Q4/2023
-- Release price --
show more data show more data


Rate these processors

Here you can rate the HiSilicon Kirin 659 to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 0 stars (0 ratings). Rate now:
Here you can rate the Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 4.9 stars (144 ratings). Rate now:


Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
HiSilicon Kirin 659 (9%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) (100%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
HiSilicon Kirin 659 (4%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) (100%)

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.
HiSilicon Kirin 659 HiSilicon Kirin 659
8C 8T @ 2.36 GHz
193 (9%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 4.06 GHz
2150 (100%)

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.
HiSilicon Kirin 659 HiSilicon Kirin 659
8C 8T @ 2.36 GHz
893 (4%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 3.60 GHz
20961 (100%)

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.
HiSilicon Kirin 659 HiSilicon Kirin 659
ARM Mali-T830 MP2 @ 0.90 GHz
61 (1%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
Apple M3 Max (30 Core) @ 1.40 GHz
10650 (100%)

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.
HiSilicon Kirin 659 HiSilicon Kirin 659
8C 8T @ 2.36 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 4.06 GHz
141 (100%)

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.
HiSilicon Kirin 659 HiSilicon Kirin 659
8C 8T @ 2.36 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 4.06 GHz
1373 (100%)

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.
HiSilicon Kirin 659 HiSilicon Kirin 659
8C 8T @ 2.36 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 4.06 GHz
1968 (100%)

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.
HiSilicon Kirin 659 HiSilicon Kirin 659
8C 8T @ 2.36 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 3.60 GHz
20983 (100%)

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.
HiSilicon Kirin 659 HiSilicon Kirin 659
8C 8T @ 2.36 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 4.06 GHz
3125 (100%)

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.
HiSilicon Kirin 659 HiSilicon Kirin 659
8C 8T @ 2.36 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 3.60 GHz
19404 (100%)

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).
HiSilicon Kirin 659 HiSilicon Kirin 659
8C 8T @ 2.36 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 0.70 GHz
35 (100%)

Devices using this processor
HiSilicon Kirin 659 Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
Unknown Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2023)
Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023)

Popular comparisons containing this CPUs

1. Qualcomm Snapdragon 662HiSilicon Kirin 659 Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 vs HiSilicon Kirin 659
2. Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)Intel Core i9-14900K Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) vs Intel Core i9-14900K
3. Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 4GHiSilicon Kirin 659 Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 4G vs HiSilicon Kirin 659
4. Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) vs Apple M3 Max (16-CPU 40-GPU)
5. Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)Apple M2 Max (38-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) vs Apple M2 Max (38-GPU)
6. Intel Core Ultra 9 185HApple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Intel Core Ultra 9 185H vs Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
7. HiSilicon Kirin 659Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 HiSilicon Kirin 659 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 665
8. HiSilicon Kirin 710HiSilicon Kirin 659 HiSilicon Kirin 710 vs HiSilicon Kirin 659
9. Qualcomm Snapdragon 765GHiSilicon Kirin 659 Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G vs HiSilicon Kirin 659
10. HiSilicon Kirin 659Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 5G HiSilicon Kirin 659 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 5G


back to index