Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G vs Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)

Last updated:

CPU comparison with benchmarks


Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G CPU1 vs CPU2 Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)

CPU comparison

In this CPU comparison, we compare the Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G and the Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) and use benchmarks to check which processor is faster.

We compare the Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G 8 core processor released in Q1/2021 with the Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) which has 14 CPU cores and was introduced in Q4/2023.
Qualcomm Snapdragon (104) Family Apple M series (25)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 (2) CPU group Apple M3 (6)
6 Generation 3
Kryo 460 Architecture M3
Mobile Segment Mobile
-- Predecessor Apple M2 Max (30-GPU)
-- Successor --

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G is a 8 core processor with a clock frequency of 2.00 GHz. The processor can compute 8 threads at the same time. The Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) clocks with 0.70 GHz (4.06 GHz), has 14 CPU cores and can calculate 14 threads in parallel.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G Characteristic Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
8 Cores 14
8 Threads 14
normal Core architecture hybrid (big.LITTLE)
No Hyperthreading No
No Overclocking ? No
2.00 GHz
8x Kryo 460 Gold
A-Core 0.70 GHz (4.06 GHz)
10x P-Core
1.80 GHz
6x Kryo 460 Silver
B-Core 0.74 GHz (2.75 GHz)
4x E-Core

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.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G Characteristic Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
Qualcomm AI engine AI hardware Apple Neural Engine
Hexagon 686 @ 3.3 TOPS AI specifications 16 Neural cores @ 35 TOPS
-- NPU + CPU + iGPU --

Integrated graphics (iGPU)

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.

Qualcomm Adreno 619 GPU Apple M3 Max (30 Core)
0.95 GHz GPU frequency 0.39 GHz
-- GPU (Turbo) 1.40 GHz
6 GPU Generation --
8 nm Technology 3 nm
2 Max. displays 5
-- Compute units 480
128 Shader 3840
No Hardware Raytracing Yes
No Frame Generation No
4 GB Max. GPU Memory 96 GB
12.1 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.

Qualcomm Adreno 619 GPU Apple M3 Max (30 Core)
Decode Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) Decode / Encode
Decode Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec h264 Decode / Encode
Decode Codec VP9 Decode / Encode
Decode Codec VP8 Decode
No Codec AV1 Decode
Decode Codec AVC Decode
Decode Codec VC-1 Decode
Decode / Encode Codec JPEG Decode / Encode

Memory & PCIe

Up to 8 GB of memory in a maximum of 2 memory channels is supported by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G, while the Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) supports a maximum of 96 GB of memory with a maximum memory bandwidth of 307.2 GB/s enabled.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G Characteristic Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
LPDDR4X-4266 Memory LPDDR5-6400
8 GB Max. Memory 96 GB
2 (Dual Channel) Memory channels 3
17.1 GB/s 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 Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G has a TDP of --. The TDP of the Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) is 50 W. System integrators use the TDP of the processor as a guide when dimensioning the cooling solution.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G 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 Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G has 0.00 MB cache and is manufactured in 8 nm. The cache of Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) is at 36.00 MB. The processor is manufactured in 3 nm.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G Characteristic Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
8 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
Q1/2021 Release date Q4/2023
-- Release price --
show more data show more data


Rate these processors

Here you can rate the Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 3.6 stars (5 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 4.8 stars (151 ratings). Rate now:


Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G (23%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) (100%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G (8%)
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.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G
8C 8T @ 2.00 GHz
503 (23%)
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.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G
8C 8T @ 2.00 GHz
1643 (8%)
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.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G
Qualcomm Adreno 619 @ 0.95 GHz
536 (5%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
Apple M3 Max (30 Core) @ 1.40 GHz
10650 (100%)

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).
Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G
8C 8T @ 2.00 GHz
3.3 (9%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 0.70 GHz
35 (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.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G
8C 8T @ 2.00 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.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G
8C 8T @ 2.00 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.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G
8C 8T @ 2.00 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.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G
8C 8T @ 2.00 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.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G
8C 8T @ 2.00 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.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G
8C 8T @ 2.00 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 3.60 GHz
19404 (100%)

AnTuTu 8 Benchmark

The AnTuTu 8 Benchmark measures the performance of a SoC. AnTuTu benchmarks the CPU, GPU, Memory as well as the UX (User Experience) by simulating browser and app usage. AnTuTu can benchmark any ARM CPU that runs under Android or iOS. Devices may not be directly compareable if the benchmark has been performed under different operating systems.

In the AnTuTu 8 benchmark, the single-core performance of a processor is only slightly weighted. The evaluation consists of the multi-core performance of the processor, the speed of the RAM and the performance of the internal graphics.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G
8C 8T @ 2.00 GHz
260173 (100%)
Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
14C 14T @ 0.70 GHz
0 (0%)

Devices using this processor

Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)
Oppo A74 5G
Oppo A5 5G
OnePlus Nord 200
Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2023)
Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023)

Popular comparisons containing this CPUs

1. Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 4GQualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 4G vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G
2. Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5GMediaTek Dimensity 700 Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G vs MediaTek Dimensity 700
3. Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 5GQualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 5G vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G
4. Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5GMediaTek Helio G85 Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G vs MediaTek Helio G85
5. Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5GQualcomm Snapdragon 720G Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G
6. Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5GQualcomm Snapdragon 662 Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 662
7. Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5GQualcomm Snapdragon 665 Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 665
8. Qualcomm Snapdragon 732GQualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G Qualcomm Snapdragon 732G vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G
9. Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU)Intel Core i9-14900K Apple M3 Max (14-CPU 30-GPU) vs Intel Core i9-14900K
10. 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)


back to index