Intel Core i7-4950HQ vs Apple M3 (8-GPU)

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


Intel Core i7-4950HQ CPU1 vs CPU2 Apple M3 (8-GPU)
Intel Core i7-4950HQ Apple M3 (8-GPU)

CPU comparison

Intel Core i7-4950HQ or Apple M3 (8-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 Intel Core i7-4950HQ has 4 cores with 8 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 3.60 GHz. Up to 32 GB of memory is supported in 2 memory channels. The Intel Core i7-4950HQ was released in Q3/2013.

The Apple M3 (8-GPU) has 8 cores with 8 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 4.06 GHz. The CPU supports up to 24 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The Apple M3 (8-GPU) was released in Q4/2023.
Intel Core i7 (298) Family Apple M series (25)
Intel Core i 4000M/4000H (38) CPU group Apple M3 (6)
4 Generation 3
Haswell H Architecture M3
Mobile Segment Mobile
-- Predecessor Apple M2 (8-GPU)
Intel Core i7-5950HQ Successor --

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Intel Core i7-4950HQ is a 4 core processor with a clock frequency of 2.40 GHz (3.60 GHz). The Apple M3 (8-GPU) has 8 CPU cores with a clock frequency of 0.70 GHz (4.06 GHz).
Intel Core i7-4950HQ Characteristic Apple M3 (8-GPU)
4 Cores 8
8 Threads 8
normal Core architecture hybrid (big.LITTLE)
Yes Hyperthreading No
No Overclocking ? No
2.40 GHz (3.60 GHz) A-Core 0.70 GHz (4.06 GHz)
4x P-Core
-- 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.
Intel Core i7-4950HQ Characteristic Apple M3 (8-GPU)
-- AI hardware Apple Neural Engine
-- AI specifications 16 Neural cores @ 35 TOPS

Internal Graphics

The integrated graphics unit of a processor is not only responsible for the pure image output on the system, but can also significantly increase the efficiency of the system with the support of modern video codecs.
Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200 GPU Apple M3 (8 Core)
0.20 GHz GPU frequency 0.39 GHz
1.30 GHz GPU (Turbo) 1.40 GHz
7.5 GPU Generation --
22 nm Technology 3 nm
3 Max. displays 2
40 Compute units 128
320 Shader 1024
No Hardware Raytracing Yes
No Frame Generation No
2 GB Max. GPU Memory 24 GB
11.1 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.
Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200 GPU Apple M3 (8 Core)
No Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) Decode / Encode
No Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec h264 Decode / Encode
No Codec VP9 Decode / Encode
No Codec VP8 Decode
No Codec AV1 Decode
Decode / Encode Codec AVC Decode
Decode Codec VC-1 Decode
Decode Codec JPEG Decode / Encode

Memory & PCIe

The Intel Core i7-4950HQ supports a maximum of 32 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The Apple M3 (8-GPU) can connect up to 24 GB of memory in 2 memory channels.
Intel Core i7-4950HQ Characteristic Apple M3 (8-GPU)
DDR3L-1333, DDR3L-1600 Memory LPDDR5-6400
32 GB Max. Memory 24 GB
2 (Dual Channel) Memory channels 2 (Dual Channel)
25.6 GB/s Max. Bandwidth 102.4 GB/s
No ECC No
-- L2 Cache 20.00 MB
6.00 MB L3 Cache --
3.0 PCIe version 4.0
16 PCIe lanes --
15.8 GB/s PCIe Bandwidth --

Thermal Management

The TDP (Thermal Design Power) of a processor specifies the required cooling solution. The Intel Core i7-4950HQ has a TDP of 47 W, that of the Apple M3 (8-GPU) is 22 W.
Intel Core i7-4950HQ Characteristic Apple M3 (8-GPU)
47 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 22 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
-- TDP down 10 W
100 °C Tjunction max. 100 °C

Technical details

The Intel Core i7-4950HQ has a 6.00 MB cache, while the Apple M3 (8-GPU) cache has a total of 20.00 MB.
Intel Core i7-4950HQ Characteristic Apple M3 (8-GPU)
22 nm Technology 3 nm
Monolithic Chip design Chiplet
x86-64 (64 bit) Instruction set (ISA) Armv8-A (64 bit)
SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX2 ISA extensions Rosetta 2 x86-Emulation
BGA 1364 Socket --
VT-x, VT-x EPT, VT-d Virtualization Apple Virtualization Framework
Yes AES-NI Yes
Windows 10, Linux Operating systems macOS, iPadOS
Q3/2013 Release date Q4/2023
-- Release price --
show more data show more data


Rate these processors

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Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 2 CPU benchmarks
Intel Core i7-4950HQ (36%)
Apple M3 (8-GPU) (100%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 2 CPU benchmarks
Intel Core i7-4950HQ (32%)
Apple M3 (8-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.
Intel Core i7-4950HQ Intel Core i7-4950HQ
4C 8T @ 3.60 GHz
842 (39%)
Apple M3 (8-GPU) Apple M3 (8-GPU)
8C 8T @ 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.
Intel Core i7-4950HQ Intel Core i7-4950HQ
4C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
3317 (32%)
Apple M3 (8-GPU) Apple M3 (8-GPU)
8C 8T @ 4.06 GHz
10450 (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.
Intel Core i7-4950HQ Intel Core i7-4950HQ
4C 8T @ 3.60 GHz
1022 (33%)
Apple M3 (8-GPU) Apple M3 (8-GPU)
8C 8T @ 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.
Intel Core i7-4950HQ Intel Core i7-4950HQ
4C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
3637 (31%)
Apple M3 (8-GPU) Apple M3 (8-GPU)
8C 8T @ 4.06 GHz
11863 (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.
Intel Core i7-4950HQ Intel Core i7-4950HQ
Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200 @ 1.30 GHz
832 (29%)
Apple M3 (8-GPU) Apple M3 (8-GPU)
Apple M3 (8 Core) @ 1.40 GHz
2840 (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.
Intel Core i7-4950HQ Intel Core i7-4950HQ
4C 8T @ 3.60 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M3 (8-GPU) Apple M3 (8-GPU)
8C 8T @ 4.06 GHz
137 (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.
Intel Core i7-4950HQ Intel Core i7-4950HQ
4C 8T @ 3.60 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M3 (8-GPU) Apple M3 (8-GPU)
8C 8T @ 4.06 GHz
659 (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.
Intel Core i7-4950HQ Intel Core i7-4950HQ
4C 8T @ 3.60 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M3 (8-GPU) Apple M3 (8-GPU)
8C 8T @ 4.06 GHz
1965 (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.
Intel Core i7-4950HQ Intel Core i7-4950HQ
4C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M3 (8-GPU) Apple M3 (8-GPU)
8C 8T @ 4.06 GHz
10437 (100%)

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.
Intel Core i7-4950HQ Intel Core i7-4950HQ
4C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
6314 (100%)
Apple M3 (8-GPU) Apple M3 (8-GPU)
8C 8T @ 4.06 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.
Intel Core i7-4950HQ Intel Core i7-4950HQ
2.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M3 (8-GPU) Apple M3 (8-GPU)
10,437 CB R23 MC @ 22 W
474 (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).
Intel Core i7-4950HQ Intel Core i7-4950HQ
4C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M3 (8-GPU) Apple M3 (8-GPU)
8C 8T @ 0.70 GHz
35 (100%)

Devices using this processor
Intel Core i7-4950HQ Apple M3 (8-GPU)
Unknown Apple iMac 24 (2023)

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