Home / CPU Comparison / Apple M3 or Intel Core i7-4790K: What's better?

Apple M3

vs

Intel Core i7-4790K

CPU Comparison Result

Below are the results of a comparison of Apple M3 and Intel Core i7-4790K processors based on key performance characteristics, as well as power consumption and much more.

Advantages

Apple M3

More Total Cores: 8 (8 vs 4)
Higher Technology: 3 nm (3 nm vs 22 nm)
Higher Memory Type: Unified LPDDR5-6400 (Unified LPDDR5-6400 vs DDR3)
Newer Launch Date: October 2023 (October 2023 vs May 2014)

Basic

Apple

Label Name

Intel

October 2023

Launch Date

May 2014

Laptop

Platform

Desktop

Apple M3 performance cores + efficiency cores

CPU Architecture

Apple M3

CPU Name

Apple M3

Model Name

Core i7-4790K

Code Name

Haswell

TSMC

Foundry

Apple M3 series

Generation

Core i7 (Haswell)

CPU Specifications

Total Cores

Cores is a hardware term that describes the number of independent central processing units in a single computing component (die or chip).

Total Threads

Performance-cores

Efficient-cores

Basic Frequency

4 GHz

Max Turbo Frequency

up to 4.4 GHz

2.75 GHz

Efficient-core Max Turbo Frequency

NEON

Instruction Set Extensions

4.06 GHz

Performance-core Max Turbo Frequency

ARMv8.6-A, NEON

Extended Instruction Set

P-cores: 192 KB instruction + 128 KB data per core; E-cores: 128 KB instruction + 64 KB data per core

L1 Cache

64 KB (per core)

P-core cluster: 16 MB; E-core cluster: 4 MB

L2 Cache

256 KB (per core)

L3 Cache

8 MB (shared)

Bus Frequency

100 MHz

CPU Socket

The socket is the component that provides the mechanical and electrical connections between the processor and motherboard.

Intel Socket 1150

Multiplier

40.0x

Multiplier Unlocked

Yes

3 nm

Technology

Lithography refers to the semiconductor technology used to manufacture an integrated circuit, and is reported in nanometer (nm), indicative of the size of features built on the semiconductor.

22 nm

TDP

88 W

PCI Express Version

PCI Express Revision is the supported version of the PCI Express standard. Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (or PCIe) is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard for attaching hardware devices to a computer. The different PCI Express versions support different data rates.

Gen 3, 16 Lanes (CPU only)

ARMv8.6-A

Instruction Set

An instruction set architecture (ISA) defines the instructions a processor can execute. Common architectures include x86-64, ARM and RISC-V. The ISA determines software compatibility, while optional instruction extensions add specialized capabilities.

25 billion

Transistor Count

1,400 million

Memory Specifications

128-bit

Memory Bus Width

Unified LPDDR5-6400

Memory Type

DDR3

LPDDR5-6400

LPDDR5 Speed

24 GB

Max Memory Size

Max memory size refers to the maximum memory capacity supported by the processor.

Memory Channels

The number of memory channels refers to the bandwidth operation for real world application.

Dual-channel

100 GB/s

Max Memory Bandwidth

Max Memory bandwidth is the maximum rate at which data can be read from or stored into a semiconductor memory by the processor (in GB/s).

6400 MT/s

Maximum Memory Speed

ECC Memory Support

ECC Memory Supported indicates processor support for Error-Correcting Code memory. ECC memory is a type of system memory that can detect and correct common kinds of internal data corruption. Note that ECC memory support requires both processor and chipset support.

GPU Specifications

Thunderbolt 3 / USB4 with DisplayPort, HDMI

External Display Standard

Apple M3 GPU

GPU Name

Up to 6K 60Hz external display; up to 5K 60Hz second external display with lid closed; HDMI up to 4K 120Hz

Max External Display Resolution

Hardware-accelerated video encode/decode; AV1 decode

Video Concurrency

H.264, HEVC, ProRes, ProRes RAW, AV1 decode

Video Decode

H.264, HEVC, ProRes, ProRes RAW

Video Encode

Apple media engine with ProRes acceleration and AV1 decode

Video Processing Unit

Integrated Graphics Model

An integrated GPU refers to the graphics core that is integrated into the CPU processor. Leveraging the processor's powerful computational capabilities and intelligent power efficiency management, it delivers outstanding graphics performance and a smooth application experience at a lower power consumption.

Intel HD 4600

1400 MHz

GPU Max Dynamic Frequency

8/9/10

Graphics Core Count

Up to 2 external displays with lid closed

Number of Displays Supported

Metal, OpenCL

GPU APIs

Up to 3.55 TFLOPS FP32

Graphics Performance

Hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes, ProRes RAW, and AV1 decode