Home / CPU Comparison / Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite or Apple M3: What's better?

Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite

vs

Apple M3

CPU Comparison Result

Below are the results of a comparison of Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite and Apple M3 processors based on key performance characteristics, as well as power consumption and much more.

Advantages

Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite

More Total Cores: 12 (12 vs 8)
Higher Performance-core Max Turbo Frequency: 4.2 GHz (4.2 GHz vs 4.06 GHz)

Apple M3

Higher Technology: 3 nm (4 nm vs 3 nm)
Newer Launch Date: October 2023 (October 2023 vs October 2023)

Basic

Qualcomm

Label Name

Apple

October 2023

Launch Date

October 2023

Laptop

Platform

Laptop

CPU Architecture

Apple M3 performance cores + efficiency cores

CPU Name

Apple M3

X1E-84-100

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 M3

Oryon

Code Name

Samsung TSMC

Foundry

TSMC

Oryon

Generation

Apple M3 series

CPU Specifications

Performance Cores

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

Where applicable, Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology is only available on Performance-cores.

Performance-cores

Efficient-cores

3.8 GHz

Performance-core Base Frequency

Efficient-core Max Turbo Frequency

Maximum E-core turbo frequency derived from Intel® Turbo Boost Technology.

2.75 GHz

Instruction Set Extensions

NEON

4.2 GHz

Performance-core Max Turbo Frequency

Maximum P-core turbo frequency derived from Intel® Turbo Boost Technology.

4.06 GHz

Extended Instruction Set

ARMv8.6-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: 16 MB; E-core cluster: 4 MB

42MB

L3 Cache

100MHz

Bus Frequency

Unlocked Multiplier

4 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

23-65 W

TDP

4.0

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.

4.0

PCIe Version

PCI Express is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard used for connecting high-speed components, replacing older standards such as AGP, PCI, and PCI-X. It has gone through multiple revisions and improvements since its initial release. PCIe 1.0 was first introduced in 2002, and in order to meet the growing demand for higher bandwidth, subsequent versions have been released over time.

Arm-64

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.

ARMv8.6-A

Transistor Count

25 billion

Memory Specifications

Memory Bus Width

128-bit

LPDDR5x-8448

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

LPDDR5 Speed

LPDDR5-6400

64GB

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.

135 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

GPU Specifications

External Display Standard

Thunderbolt 3 / USB4 with DisplayPort, HDMI

Qualcomm Adreno

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

True

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.

GPU Max Dynamic Frequency

1400 MHz

Graphics Core Count

Number of Displays Supported

Up to 2 external displays with lid closed

GPU APIs

Metal, OpenCL

4.6 TFLOPS

Graphics Performance

Up to 3.55 TFLOPS FP32

Media Engine

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