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[IbizaPocholo]

Apple M3 Max rivals RTX 3080 & 7900XT in Cinebench GPU test - Dexerto

Apple M3 Max comes with a solid leap in GPU performance as it scores close to Nvidia’s RTX 3080 and AMD RX 7900XT in the Cinebench GPU test.

www.dexerto.com

YouTuber Jonathan Morrison recently posted the Cinebench GPU scores of the Apple M3 Max chip, which bested the AMD RX 7900XT and rivaled the Nvidia RTX 3080.

In the Cinebench 2024 testing, the Apple M3 Max managed to score 13,328 points, representing a remarkable 114% increase over the M2 Max, which scored 6,211 points.

As pointed out by a redditor, this score is quite close to that of the AMD RX 7900XT GPU, which received 13,664 points. Surprisingly, the Apple M3 Max is not far behind the RTX 3080 either. The latter received a score of 14,138 in Cinebench 2024.

Apple’s M3 Max chip is based on the new 3-nanometer production process and has up to 16 cores, compared to the previous 12.

The chip is impressive in both its GPU and CPU performance, with a Geekbench score of 21,084 points in the multi-core test, which is closer to the more expensive M2 Ultra chip.

 

[ReBurn]

For the price of an M3 Max machine it seems like that's the minimum performance it should deliver.

 

[kikkis]

For the price of an M3 Max machine it seems like that's the minimum performance it should deliver.

I think it still super impressive given that it probably consumes much less power than mobile 4080 and doesn't have gddr6.

 

[MidGenRefresh]

That's pretty insane, right?

 

[winjer]

Geekbench and cinebench are synthetic benchmarks. We need real world benchmarks to draw conclusions.

 

[RoboFu]

For the price of an M3 Max machine it seems like that's the minimum performance it should deliver.

What? Lol it’s a slim laptop with the performance of a huge pc with the price plus higher quality parts like thunderbolt ports where PCs get cheap usb 3 ports as default.

The price is not crazy.

 

[Xdrive05]

Well there's no doubt that tech like this could lend itself very well to a console, especially where power consumption is concerned. With, say, a 170w power budget, right?

Of course they would have to figure out how to make it cheap enough for mass market, which is not at all in their company culture. If they wanted to become early 2000's Microsoft and go hard on the console market, they probably could with silicon like this.

 

[T4keD0wN]

Any kind of competition is good. Still too limited results, but this is good for laptop space.

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

Baldurs Gate 1440p same performance as a 4080 is pretty solid.

 

[Eotheod]

For the price of an M3 Max machine it seems like that's the minimum performance it should deliver.

That's the biggest element stopping Mac's being anywhere near comparable to a PC. For just over half the price of a M3 Max 14" Pro Macbook laptop, I can purchase a complete PC setup with a 1440p monitor.

 

[ReBurn]

What? Lol it’s a slim laptop with the performance of a huge pc with the price plus higher quality parts like thunderbolt ports where PCs get cheap usb 3 ports as default.

The price is not crazy.

I didn't say the price was crazy. For the job it was built to do it's not crazy at all. With Apple also advertising it as a gaming platform and the entry level price of the M3 Max being $3,200 for the lowest configuration I am saying that it better at least meet or exceed performance of a high quality gaming rig.

 

[Mr Moose]

Matches a 4080 laptop but is twice the price of the 4080 laptop.

 

[Dream-Knife]

It would be a real temping piece of hardware if it could run linux.

 

[poppabk]

Feel like we have been here before. Let's wait for some more impartial testing.

 

[RoboFu]

I didn't say the price was crazy. For the job it was built to do it's not crazy at all. With Apple also advertising it as a gaming platform and the entry level price of the M3 Max being $3,200 for the lowest configuration I am saying that it better at least meet or exceed performance of a high quality gaming rig.

Apple isn’t advertising it as a gaming rig though.

The inevitable m3max macstudio for $1999 will be the better choice if you just want a powerful Mac.


If it’s gaming you want there really isn’t any announcements beyond two capcom games that point to any gaming surge.

 

[EDMIX]

Matches a 4080 laptop but is twice the price of the 4080 laptop.

Pretty much.

Be like, pay more, for less support, less games lol

 

[MidGenRefresh]

Pretty much.

Be like, pay more, for less support, less games lol

True but I'm buying Macs for work (as I imagine most people do) so being able to play some games at respectable settings from time to time is a nice perk to have.

 

[Topher]

Apple isn’t advertising it as a gaming rig though.

The inevitable m3max macstudio for $1999 will be the better choice if you just want a powerful Mac.


If it’s gaming you want there really isn’t any announcements beyond two capcom games that point to any gaming surge.

Hasn't Apple developed their own "Proton" compatibilty layer to run Windows games though? Seems like the gaming market is definitely part of their strategy.

 

[SlimySnake]

Those are cpu tests.

They should do timespy.

 

[Jinzo Prime]

It would be a real temping piece of hardware if it could run linux.

Well, there is Asahi Linux. Don't know how good the support is yet.

 

[EDMIX]

True but I'm buying Macs for work (as I imagine most people do) so being able to play some games at respectable settings from time to time is a nice perk to have.

Truth, but it depends on the work tbh. As an artist, I use PC based on modularity and I want the most powerful parts, freedom to replace parts etc.
If someone is forced to use a Mac for some company (I don't know many IT companies that require that btw, but I'm sure some do), then I could see this being useful.

 

[DryvBy]

What? Lol it’s a slim laptop with the performance of a huge pc with the price plus higher quality parts like thunderbolt ports where PCs get cheap usb 3 ports as default.

The price is not crazy.

APPLE FANBOY ALERT!!

APPLE FANBOY ALERT!!

 

[mrBarrelNut]

It's difficult to know if those game scenarios were CPU bound or GPU bound. Also, at which settings? Is DLSS used on nv cards or not?

 

[Ozriel]

What? Lol it’s a slim laptop with the performance of a huge pc with the price plus higher quality parts like thunderbolt ports where PCs get cheap usb 3 ports as default.

The price is not crazy.

Which laptop in that price range is getting cheap ports as default?

You can buy a premium RTX 4090 laptop for $2500.

 

[//DEVIL//]

True but I'm buying Macs for work (as I imagine most people do) so being able to play some games at respectable settings from time to time is a nice perk to have.

That is the most bs line excuse people use. No offense. Because a windows laptop is just fine as well for half the price for work ( no matter what work you do too aside from maybe developing for apple ? Maybe ? )

Now come at me with some better excuse like iPhone integration. Seamless integrations you have with other apple devices at home because your whole home setup is apple. Maybe you will have a better excuse

 

[Jibran#one]

I can bet my house a 4080 would demolish this in 10 12 real world game tests.
+ The price to performance ratio is horrendous

 

[MidGenRefresh]

That is the most bs line excuse people use. No offense. Because a windows laptop is just fine as well for half the price for work ( no matter work you do too )

Quiet, fanless operation, same performance on battery and when plugged-in, longer battery life, best trackpad in the business. These are the reasons why I use Mac over PC in a laptop space.

 

[Zathalus]

Come on now, it's not as powerful as a 4080. It matches the 4080 mobile, which is weaker then a desktop 4060ti.

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

It would be a real temping piece of hardware if it could run linux.

arm linux is a thing and you can run it on vms or install asahi linux

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

Come on now, it's not as powerful as a 4080. It matches the 4080 mobile, which is weaker then a desktop 4060ti.

Benchmarks do not say that... 4080 mobile with full wattage is about 20-30% faster. Using benchmarks from notebookcheck.

 

[Topher]

Which laptop in that price range is getting cheap ports as default?

You can buy a premium RTX 4090 laptop for $2500.

Curious. Where are you seeing that price? Best price I'm seeing is $3200 at Best Buy

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage.jsp?_dyncharset=UTF-8&browsedCategory=pcmcat287600050003&id=pcat17071&iht=n&ks=960&list=y&qp=graphicscardsv_facet%3DVideo%20Card~NVIDIA%20GeForce%20RTX%204090&sc=Global&st=categoryid%24pcmcat287600050003&type=page&usc=All%20Categories

 

[ReBurn]

I think it still super impressive given that it probably consumes much less power than mobile 4080 and doesn't have gddr6.

It will be interesting to see benchmarks and power consumption metrics. The M2 Max has a high power mode that allows power consumption to increase and stay high for long periods of time. It's one of the reasons for the asterisk on the battery life claims. High power mode makes the thing burn enough power to turn the fans into jet engines and drain the battery in a couple of hours. Still good, all things considered. But still an asterisk.

The gddr6 thing shows a fundamental difference between how Apple PC's are engineered vs. a standard Windows laptop. With a standard PC build your overall performance is only as good as the weakest component. They're usually assembled with components that haven't been purposefully engineered to work together, only to be mostly compatible with one another.

While a MacBook is still only as good as its weakest component, the Apple-engineered pieces and lack of variability are designed to make everything operate together as efficiently as possible. It's the difference between what the hardware can actually do as a whole vs. the sum of the theoretical max of each part. It's why a MacBook with 8 GB RAM can be fast for general computing tasks where a Windows laptop would be slow out of the box. It's exceedingly efficient at shuttling process memory off to SSD for non-active apps to keep your active app supplied with memory and it can do it well because that's what every part of the system was built to do.

 

[Ozriel]

Curious. Where are you seeing that price? Best price I'm seeing is $3200 at Best Buy

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage.jsp?_dyncharset=UTF-8&browsedCategory=pcmcat287600050003&id=pcat17071&iht=n&ks=960&list=y&qp=graphicscardsv_facet%3DVideo%20Card~NVIDIA%20GeForce%20RTX%204090&sc=Global&st=categoryid%24pcmcat287600050003&type=page&usc=All%20Categories

Lenovo Legion Pro 7i: 16" QHD+ 240Hz, i9-13900HX, RTX 4090, 32GB DDR5, 1TB SSD $2499.99

Lowest price so far SPECS:16" QHD+ (2560x1600, WQXGA+) 16:10, 240Hz, 500-nits, 100% DCI-P3, DisplayHDR 400, Dolby Vision, G-SYNC, Low Blue Light, High Gaming Performance, Anti-glare, IPS Di

slickdeals.net

These pop up on Slickdeals every so often. There’s an Alienware m16 4090 for the same
Price range too.

 

[calistan]

Which laptop in that price range is getting cheap ports as default?

You can buy a premium RTX 4090 laptop for $2500.

No you can't. Maybe you can find the absolute shittest laptop with a 4090 crowbarred into it for that price on black friday if you're first in line, but that does not suggest 'premium' to me.

Edit: if the one you just posted above is what you consider to be a premium alternative to a Macbook, then fine. Carry on.

 

[Ozriel]

No you can't. Maybe you can find the absolute shittest laptop with a 4090 crowbarred into it for that price on black friday if you're first in line, but that does not suggest 'premium' to me.

The Lenovo Legion 7i gaming laptops are very well regarded as some of the best gaming laptops you can buy.

Look above. Deal’s valid, right now. And it’s hovered close to this price for weeks (about $100 higher before)

Launch MSRP is $3200, but prices change.

 

[Ozriel]

Edit: if the one you just posted above is what you consider to be a premium alternative to a Macbook, then fine. Carry on.

Who said anything about ‘alternative to MacBook’?
It’s a high end Windows gaming laptop. High resolution display, faster refresh rate than the MacBook. Very solid port lineup, including Thunderbolt and 40Gbps USB C ports.

It won’t match the MacBook for battery and weight, but that’s not what the discussion was about. This is a thread about gaming benchmarks and system power.

 

[Sleepwalker]

Wow that's incredible

*checks price*

Oh...

 

[Shtef]

That is the most bs line excuse people use. No offense. Because a windows laptop is just fine as well for half the price for work ( no matter work you do too )

Ios and macos development cannot be done on windows, thats why i use macbook. And not to mention long battery life, amazing screen and total silence.

 

[calistan]

Who said anything about ‘alternative to MacBook’?
It’s a high end Windows gaming laptop. High resolution display, faster refresh rate than the MacBook. Very solid port lineup, including Thunderbolt and 40Gbps USB C ports.

It won’t match the MacBook for battery and weight, but that’s not what the discussion was about. This is a thread about gaming benchmarks and system power.

Not entirely gaming, the OP has one gaming benchmark, some synthetic benchmarks, and a 3D rendering test.

 

[Mattyp]

That people are down playing their third Gen chip being this good already is fucking nuts, look at the weight, look at the battery, the two most important features of a laptop then compare it to a three times the weight 6kg 16” plastic chassis shit. BUT YOU SEE THIS 4080 STILL BENCHES HIGHER.

I would fucking hope so, that is not the win you think it is.

 

[ripjoel]

Could apple fit the m3 max in the 24 inch imac?

 

[Topher]

Lenovo Legion Pro 7i: 16" QHD+ 240Hz, i9-13900HX, RTX 4090, 32GB DDR5, 1TB SSD $2499.99

Lowest price so far SPECS:16" QHD+ (2560x1600, WQXGA+) 16:10, 240Hz, 500-nits, 100% DCI-P3, DisplayHDR 400, Dolby Vision, G-SYNC, Low Blue Light, High Gaming Performance, Anti-glare, IPS Di

slickdeals.net

These pop up on Slickdeals every so often. There’s an Alienware m16 4090 for the same
Price range too.

Ah....ok. To be fair, Macbooks do go on sale as well from time to time. Not sure if they get down that far or not, but base price they are in the same ballpark. And build quality is far superior with Macbooks.

 

[Ozriel]

That people are down playing their third Gen chip being this good already is fucking nuts,

I don’t see any ‘downplaying’. This is posted in the gaming section, and people are quite reasonably pointing out that the gaming performance per dollar can still be quite high compared to the 40xx series.
t.

look at the weight, look at the battery, the two most important features of a laptop

This is very subjective, though.

 

[Bernardougf]

Lenovo Legion Pro 7i: 16" QHD+ 240Hz, i9-13900HX, RTX 4090, 32GB DDR5, 1TB SSD $2499.99

Lowest price so far SPECS:16" QHD+ (2560x1600, WQXGA+) 16:10, 240Hz, 500-nits, 100% DCI-P3, DisplayHDR 400, Dolby Vision, G-SYNC, Low Blue Light, High Gaming Performance, Anti-glare, IPS Di

slickdeals.net

These pop up on Slickdeals every so often. There’s an Alienware m16 4090 for the same
Price range too.

How is the perfomance equivalent to a PC of this laptop ? 4080 range ? 4070 ?

 

[Zathalus]

Benchmarks do not say that... 4080 mobile with full wattage is about 20-30% faster. Using benchmarks from notebookcheck.

I'm referring to the BG3 benchmark in the OP.

 

[RoboFu]

Lenovo Legion Pro 7i: 16" QHD+ 240Hz, i9-13900HX, RTX 4090, 32GB DDR5, 1TB SSD $2499.99

Lowest price so far SPECS:16" QHD+ (2560x1600, WQXGA+) 16:10, 240Hz, 500-nits, 100% DCI-P3, DisplayHDR 400, Dolby Vision, G-SYNC, Low Blue Light, High Gaming Performance, Anti-glare, IPS Di

slickdeals.net

These pop up on Slickdeals every so often. There’s an Alienware m16 4090 for the same
Price range too.

cheap plastic
cheap display
bad batery life

 

[rodrigolfp]

Matches a 4080 laptop but is twice the price of the 4080 laptop.

 

[systemr123]

Quiet, fanless operation, same performance on battery and when plugged-in, longer battery life, best trackpad in the business. These are the reasons why I use Mac over PC in a laptop space.

Exactly, any arguments here about how a crappy built laptop for 2500 dollars is cheaper with the same performance totally miss the point.

Once you go Mac for work, you never can go back really. And now you can play games on it with good graphic settings, all while quiet, using low power and you can play like 4 hours straight without ever plugging in the charger.

Also, the screen is super high quality and the sound for a laptop is amazing.

The 2500 dollar laptop has the power, but everything else sucks. Very noisy, maybe 45 minutes of playtime on battery, much less better screen and sound and go on with that list. Also probably fatter and bigger and heavier.

What apple does here with their chips is simply amazing and can’t be denied.

 

[Zathalus]

I'm all for dunking on Apple, but can anyone actually link a PC laptop that matches a new MacBook Pro in the following:

Screen Quality (so full HDR, 1000nit + brightness).
Build Quality (metal design, no cheap plastic).
Performance (top tier CPU performance, 4070 mobile + GPU performance).
Battery life.

As far as I can find, build quality and performance is the easiest to March or exceed but screen quality and battery life is far trickier. I can't find anything that matches it all. The best I could do was the Razer Blade 16, but that is heavier, has way worse battery life, and actually costs more. It does have better performance though.

 

[Skifi28]

I've never cared for apple, but they've completely embarrassed the laptop market. There's just nothing else that can compete and that's on battery life alone. Still not buying though, I'd rather play on desktop/console and just get a cheap laptop or steam deck.