Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 vs Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 CPU1 vs CPU2 Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)

CPU comparison

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 or Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-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 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 has 8 cores with 8 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 3.40 GHz. Up to 24 GB of memory is supported in 4 memory channels. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 was released in Q4/2023.

The Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) has 12 cores with 12 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 4.06 GHz. The CPU supports up to 36 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) was released in Q4/2023.
Qualcomm Snapdragon (102) Family Apple M series (25)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (2) CPU group Apple M3 (6)
3 Generation 3
-- Architecture M3
Mobile Segment Mobile
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Predecessor Apple M2 Pro (12-CPU 19-GPU)
-- Successor --

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is a 8 core processor with a clock frequency of 3.40 GHz. The Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) has 12 CPU cores with a clock frequency of 0.70 GHz (4.06 GHz).

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Characteristic Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
8 Cores 12
8 Threads 12
hybrid (Prime / big.LITTLE) Core architecture hybrid (big.LITTLE)
No Hyperthreading No
No Overclocking ? No
3.40 GHz
1x Cortex-X4
A-Core 0.70 GHz (4.06 GHz)
6x P-Core
2.96 GHz (3.15 GHz)
5x Cortex-A720
B-Core 0.74 GHz (2.75 GHz)
6x E-Core
2.27 GHz
2x Cortex-A520
C-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.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Characteristic Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
Qualcomm AI engine AI hardware Apple Neural Engine
Hexagon NPU @ 34 TOPS 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.

Qualcomm Adreno 750 GPU Apple M3 Pro (18 Core)
0.90 GHz GPU frequency 0.39 GHz
-- GPU (Turbo) 1.40 GHz
-- GPU Generation --
4 nm Technology 3 nm
2 Max. displays 3
-- Compute units 288
-- Shader 2304
Yes Hardware Raytracing Yes
No Frame Generation No
6 GB Max. GPU Memory 36 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 750 GPU Apple M3 Pro (18 Core)
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 / Encode Codec VP8 Decode
Decode Codec AV1 Decode
Decode Codec AVC Decode
Decode Codec VC-1 Decode
Decode / Encode Codec JPEG Decode / Encode

Memory & PCIe

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 supports a maximum of 24 GB of memory in 4 memory channels. The Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) can connect up to 36 GB of memory in 2 memory channels.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Characteristic Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
LPDDR5X-9600 Memory LPDDR5-6400
24 GB Max. Memory 36 GB
4 (Quad Channel) Memory channels 2 (Dual Channel)
76.6 GB/s Max. Bandwidth 153.6 GB/s
No ECC No
-- L2 Cache 36.00 MB
12.00 MB L3 Cache --
-- PCIe version 4.0
-- PCIe lanes --
-- PCIe Bandwidth --

Thermal Management

The TDP (Thermal Design Power) of a processor specifies the required cooling solution. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 has a TDP of 12.5 W, that of the Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) is 35 W.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Characteristic Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12.5 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 35 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
-- TDP down --
-- Tjunction max. 100 °C

Technical details

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 has a 12.00 MB cache, while the Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) cache has a total of 36.00 MB.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Characteristic Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
4 nm Technology 3 nm
Chiplet Chip design Chiplet
Armv9-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, Windows 10/11 (ARM) Operating systems macOS, iPadOS
Q4/2023 Release date Q4/2023
-- Release price --
show more data show more data


Rate these processors

Here you can rate the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 4.0 stars (108 ratings). Rate now:
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Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 2 CPU benchmarks
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (74%)
Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) (100%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 2 CPU benchmarks
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (44%)
Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-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 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
1709 (74%)
Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 4.06 GHz
2314 (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 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
6431 (42%)
Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 3.80 GHz
15235 (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 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
2293 (73%)
Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 4.06 GHz
3152 (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 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
7117 (46%)
Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 3.80 GHz
15619 (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 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
Qualcomm Adreno 750 @ 0.90 GHz
2287 (36%)
Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
Apple M3 Pro (18 Core) @ 1.40 GHz
6390 (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).
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
34 (97%)
Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 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 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 4.06 GHz
142 (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 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 4.06 GHz
1059 (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 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 4.06 GHz
1928 (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 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 3.80 GHz
15061 (100%)

AnTuTu 10 Benchmark

The AnTuTu 10 benchmark is one of the best-known benchmarks for mobile processors, which is now available in version 10. There is a version for Android-based smartphones and tablets, as well as a version for Apple mobile devices, i.e. iPhones and iPads.

The Antutu 10 benchmark has 3 phases. In the first phase, the device's RAM is tested, in phase 2 the graphics are tested and in the final phase the entire device is pushed to its performance limits by rendering 3D graphics.

Antutu 10 is therefore ideal for comparing the performance of different devices.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
1949480 (100%)
Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 0.70 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.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
1476480 (100%)
Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 0.70 GHz
0 (0%)

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.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU) Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
12C 12T @ 3.80 GHz
27304 (100%)

Devices using this processor

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Apple M3 Pro (12-CPU 18-GPU)
Xiaomi 14
Xiaomi 14 Pro
ASUS ROG Phone 8 Pro
Samsung S24 Ultra
Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2023)
Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023)

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