Apple M3 vs Apple M3 Max

The M3 Max delivers 4.6x the FP32 throughput of the M3 (16 vs 3.5 TFLOPS dense). The M3 Max also carries 104 GB more memory (128 GB vs 24 GB).

M3: Apple M3, 2023 M3 Max: Apple M3, 2023
FP32 dense lead
4.6x
M3 Max: 16 vs 3.5 TFLOPS
VRAM
24 vs 128 GB
104 GB more for the M3 Max
Bandwidth
100 GB/s vs 400 GB/s
M3 Max moves data faster

Specifications

M3
M3 Max
Architecture
Apple M3Apple M3
Launch Year
20232023
Form Factor
SoCSoC
VRAM
24 GB128 GB
Memory Bandwidth
100 GB/s400 GB/s
TDP
Process Node
3nm3nm

Performance (TFLOPS)

M3
M3 Max
FP32
3.5 TFlops 16.4 TFlops

FLOPS by Precision

What actually differs

Both GPUs launched in 2023: the M3 on Apple M3 and the M3 Max on Apple M3.

Dense throughput for the M3 against the M3 Max: FP32 3.5 vs 16 TFLOPS. Sparse figures, where the vendor publishes them, appear under each dense number in the performance table.

Memory is 24 GB against 128 GB, fed at 100 GB/s versus 400 GB/s. More memory per GPU means larger models fit before you have to shard across cards, which often matters more than raw TFLOPS for inference.

For LLM training and inference, weight the FP8 and FP16 rows and memory capacity most heavily. For scientific and HPC workloads, the FP64 row is the one to read.

Frequently asked questions

Is the M3 faster than the M3 Max?

At FP32 precision the M3 Max reaches 16 TFLOPS dense against 3.5 TFLOPS for the M3. The performance table on this page lists every published precision for both GPUs.

Which has more memory, the M3 or the M3 Max?

The M3 Max carries 128 GB of VRAM versus 24 GB for the M3. Memory bandwidth is 100 GB/s for the M3 and 400 GB/s for the M3 Max.

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