Home / CPU Comparison / Intel Core i5-10400F or Apple M3: What's better?

Intel Core i5-10400F

vs

Apple M3

CPU Comparison Result

Below are the results of a comparison of Intel Core i5-10400F and Apple M3 processors based on key performance characteristics, as well as power consumption and much more.

Advantages

Apple M3

More Total Cores: 8 (6 vs 8)
Higher Technology: 3 nm (14 nm vs 3 nm)
Higher Memory Type: Unified LPDDR5-6400 (DDR4-2666 vs Unified LPDDR5-6400)
Newer Launch Date: October 2023 (April 2020 vs October 2023)

Basic

Intel

Label Name

Apple

April 2020

Launch Date

October 2023

Desktop

Platform

Laptop

CPU Architecture

Apple M3 performance cores + efficiency cores

CPU Name

Apple M3

i5-10400F

Model Name

Apple M3

Comet Lake

Code Name

Foundry

TSMC

Generation

Apple M3 series

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

2.90 GHz

Basic Frequency

Yes

Intel Virtualization Technology (VT-x)

Yes

Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d)

4.30 GHz

Max Turbo Frequency

Efficient-core Max Turbo Frequency

2.75 GHz

Instruction Set Extensions

NEON

Performance-core Max Turbo Frequency

4.06 GHz

Yes

Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology

Extended Instruction Set

ARMv8.6-A, NEON

Yes

Intel Hyper-Threading Technology

Intel Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0

2.0

Intel Turbo Boost Technology

4.30 GHz

Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 Frequency

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: 16 MB; E-core cluster: 4 MB

12 MB

L3 Cache

12 MB Intel® Smart Cache

Cache

FCLGA1200

CPU Socket

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

Yes

Intel AES New Instructions

14 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.

3 nm

65 W

TDP

100°C

Max. Operating Temperature

Junction Temperature is the maximum temperature allowed at the processor die.

3.0

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.

Max Number of PCI Express Lanes

A PCI Express (PCIe) lane consists of two differential signaling pairs, one for receiving data, one for transmitting data, and is the basic unit of the PCIe bus. Max # of PCI Express Lanes is the total number of supported lanes.

64-bit

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.

ARMv8.6-A

Yes

Intel 64

Yes

Intel VT-x with Extended Page Tables (EPT)

Up to 1x16 | 2x8 | 1x8+2x4

PCI Express Configurations

PCI Express (PCIe) Configurations describe the available PCIe lane configurations that can be used to link to PCIe devices.

Transistor Count

25 billion

Memory Specifications

Memory Bus Width

128-bit

DDR4-2666

Memory Type

Unified LPDDR5-6400

LPDDR5 Speed

LPDDR5-6400

128 GB

Max Memory Size

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

24 GB

Memory Channels

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

8 GT/s

Bus Speed

41.6 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).

100 GB/s

Maximum Memory Speed

6400 MT/s

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

External Display Standard

Thunderbolt 3 / USB4 with DisplayPort, HDMI

GPU Name

Apple M3 GPU

Max External Display Resolution

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

Video Concurrency

Hardware-accelerated video encode/decode; AV1 decode

Video Decode

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

Video Encode

H.264, HEVC, ProRes, ProRes RAW

Video Processing Unit

Apple media engine with ProRes acceleration and AV1 decode

GPU Max Dynamic Frequency

1400 MHz

Graphics Core Count

8/9/10

Number of Displays Supported

Up to 2 external displays with lid closed

GPU APIs

Metal, OpenCL

Graphics Performance

Up to 3.55 TFLOPS FP32

Media Engine

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

Video Decode Engines

Video Encode Engines

ProRes Encode/Decode Engines

OpenCL Support

OpenCL (Open Computing Language) is a multi-platform API (Application Programming Interface) for heterogeneous parallel programming.

Yes

AI Specifications

AI Engine

16-core Apple Neural Engine

Neural Engine Core Count

NPU Name

Apple Neural Engine

NPU Performance

18 TOPS

Connectivity

Bluetooth Support

Yes

Interfaces and Ports

Thunderbolt Support

Yes, Thunderbolt 3 up to 40 Gb/s

USB Version

USB4

USB4 Support

Yes, USB4 up to 40 Gb/s

Miscellaneous

Hardware-Verified Secure Boot

Yes, Apple silicon secure boot chain of trust

Runtime Anti-Exploitation

Kernel Integrity Protection, Pointer Authentication Codes, Fast Permission Restrictions

Intel® SSE4.1 | Intel® SSE4.2 | Intel® AVX2

Intel Standard Manageability (ISM)

Yes

Execute Disable Bit

Execute Disable Bit is a hardware-based security feature that can reduce exposure to viruses and malicious-code attacks and prevent harmful software from executing and propagating on the server or network.

Yes

Intel Boot Guard

Yes

Intel OS Guard