Apple M6 12 Cores
vs
Apple M1 Pro

vs

CPU Comparison Result

Below are the results of a comparison of Apple M6 12 Cores and Apple M1 Pro processors based on key performance characteristics, as well as power consumption and much more.

Advantages

  • More Total Cores: 12 (12 vs 10)
  • Higher Technology: 2 nm (2 nm vs 5 nm)
  • Newer Launch Date: August 2026 (August 2026 vs October 2021)
  • Higher Memory Type: Unified LPDDR5-6400 (Unified memory vs Unified LPDDR5-6400)

Basic

Apple
Label Name
Apple
August 2026
Launch Date
October 2021
Laptop
Platform
Laptop
-
CPU Architecture
Apple Firestorm + Apple Icestorm
Apple M6
CPU Name
Apple M1 Pro
-
Part Number
T6000
Apple M6 12 Cores
Model Name
The Intel processor number is just one of several factors - along with processor brand, system configurations, and system-level benchmarks - to be considered when choosing the right processor for your computing needs.
Apple M1 Pro
TSMC N2
Foundry
TSMC
M6
Generation
Apple M1 series

CPU Specifications

4.61 GHz
Performance-core Multi-Core Max Frequency
-
4.80 GHz
Super-core Max Frequency
-
12
Total Cores
Cores is a hardware term that describes the number of independent central processing units in a single computing component (die or chip).
10
12
Total Threads
Where applicable, Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology is only available on Performance-cores.
10
4
Performance-cores
8
6
Efficient-cores
2
2
Super-cores
-
3.20 GHz
Efficient-core Max Turbo Frequency
Maximum E-core turbo frequency derived from Intel® Turbo Boost Technology.
2.064 GHz
-
Instruction Set Extensions
NEON
-
Performance-core Max Turbo Frequency
Maximum P-core turbo frequency derived from Intel® Turbo Boost Technology.
3.228 GHz
-
Extended Instruction Set
ARMv8-A, NEON
-
L1 Cache
P-cores: 192 KB instruction + 128 KB data per core; E-cores: 128 KB instruction + 64 KB data per core
-
L2 Cache
P-core cluster: 24 MB; E-core cluster: 4 MB
-
L3 Cache
24 MB system level cache
2 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.
5 nm
-
Instruction Set
The instruction set is a hard program stored inside the CPU that guides and optimizes CPU operations. With these instruction sets, the CPU can run more efficiently. There are many manufacturers that design CPUs, which results in different instruction sets, such as the 8086 instruction set for the Intel camp and the RISC instruction set for the ARM camp. x86, ARM v8, and MIPS are all codes for instruction sets. Instruction sets can be extended; for example, x86 added 64-bit support to create x86-64. Manufacturers developing CPUs that are compatible with a certain instruction set need authorization from the instruction set patent holder. A typical example is Intel authorizing AMD, enabling the latter to develop CPUs compatible with the x86 instruction set.
ARMv8-A
-
Transistor Count
33.7 billion

Memory Specifications

-
Memory Bus Width
256-bit
Unified memory
Memory Type
Intel® processors come in four different types: Single Channel, Dual Channel, Triple Channel, and Flex Mode. Maximum supported memory speed may be lower when populating multiple DIMMs per channel on products that support multiple memory channels.
Unified LPDDR5-6400
10667 MT/s
LPDDR5 Speed
LPDDR5-6400
32 GB
Max Memory Size
Max memory size refers to the maximum memory capacity supported by the processor.
32 GB
170 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).
200 GB/s
-
Maximum Memory Speed
6400 MT/s

GPU Specifications

DisplayPort 1.4 over Thunderbolt 4; HDMI
External Display Standard
-
Apple M6 12-core GPU
GPU Name
Apple M1 Pro GPU
Supported
Hardware-accelerated ray tracing
-
Up to 8K at 60Hz or 5K at 120Hz or 4K at 240Hz
Max External Display Resolution
-
-
Video Concurrency
Multiple streams of 4K and 8K ProRes video
H.264, HEVC, ProRes, ProRes RAW, AV1
Video Decode
H.264, HEVC, ProRes, ProRes RAW
H.264, HEVC, ProRes, ProRes RAW
Video Encode
H.264, HEVC, ProRes, ProRes RAW
-
Video Processing Unit
Apple media engine with ProRes acceleration
-
GPU Max Dynamic Frequency
1296 MHz
-
Graphics Base Frequency
Graphics Base frequency refers to the rated/guaranteed graphics render clock frequency in MHz.
389 MHz
12
Graphics Core Count
16
Up to 8K at 60Hz or 5K at 120Hz or 4K at 240Hz
Max Resolution
-
3
Number of Displays Supported
Up to 2 external displays
-
GPU APIs
Metal, OpenCL
-
Graphics Performance
Up to 5.3 TFLOPS FP32
Hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAW; AV1 decode
Media Engine
Hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes, and ProRes RAW
1
Video Decode Engines
1
1
Video Encode Engines
1
1
ProRes Encode/Decode Engines
1
-
OpenCL Support
OpenCL (Open Computing Language) is a multi-platform API (Application Programming Interface) for heterogeneous parallel programming.
Yes

AI Specifications

Dual 16-core Neural Engine; Neural Accelerators in each GPU core
AI Engine
16-core Apple Neural Engine
32
Neural Engine Core Count
16
Dual 16-core Neural Engine
NPU Name
Apple Neural Engine
-
NPU Performance
11 TOPS INT8

Connectivity

-
Bluetooth Support
Yes
-
Bluetooth Version
Bluetooth 5.0
-
Wi-Fi Standard
Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax)

Interfaces and Ports

Thunderbolt 4
Thunderbolt Support
Yes, Thunderbolt 4 up to 40 Gb/s
-
USB Version
USB4
Supported
USB4 Support
Yes, USB4 up to 40 Gb/s

Miscellaneous

-
Hardware-Verified Secure Boot
Yes, Apple silicon secure boot chain of trust
-
Image Signal Processor
Apple image signal processor
-
Runtime Anti-Exploitation
Kernel Integrity Protection, Pointer Authentication Codes, Fast Permission Restrictions

Benchmarks

Geekbench 6 Single Core
Apple M6 12 Cores
4698 +97%
Apple M1 Pro
2386
Geekbench 6 Multi Core
Apple M6 12 Cores
21302 +72%
Apple M1 Pro
12359
Cinebench 2024 Single Core
Apple M6 12 Cores
221 +97%
Apple M1 Pro
112
Cinebench 2024 Multi Core
Apple M6 12 Cores
1468 +78%
Apple M1 Pro
824