M3 Ultra Chip is Only 10% Faster Than M4 Max in Benchmark Results

The first alleged benchmark result for Apple's new M3 Ultra chip has surfaced in the Geekbench 6 database tonight, allowing for more performance comparisons. The high-end chip is available in the new Mac Studio, introduced earlier this week.

M4 Max and M3 Ultra
Apple said the M3 Ultra chip is the "highest-performing chip it has ever created," and the unverified benchmark result seems to confirm that. In the single result, the 32-core M3 Ultra chip achieved a multi-core CPU score of 27,749, which makes it around 8% faster than the 16-core M4 Max chip that previously held the performance record. The result also reveals that the M3 Ultra chip is up to 30% faster than the 24-core M2 Ultra chip.

As expected, the M4 Max chip tops the M3 Ultra chip in terms of single-core CPU performance by nearly 20%, according to the result. This is due in part to the M4 Max chip being manufactured with TSMC's second-generation 3nm process, whereas the M3 Ultra is likely based on TSMC's first-generation 3nm process.

We now await additional M3 Ultra benchmark results to see if these scores are accurate, as they seem to be on the lower side compared to what was expected. For example, Apple advertised the M3 Ultra chip as being up to 1.5x faster than the M2 Ultra chip, so that 30% increase mentioned above should seemingly be closer to the 50% mark. Apple never said how the M3 Ultra chip's performance compares to the M4 Max chip, though.

As always, real-world performance may vary somewhat, but synthetic benchmark tools like Geekbench 6 provide a useful baseline for comparisons.

Watch this space, as we would not be surprised if additional Geekbench 6 results for the M3 Ultra chip end up having higher performance scores.

The benchmark was spotted by @jimmyjames_tech and shared by Vadim Yuryev.

Update: Three more M3 Ultra results have surfaced in the Geekbench 6 database, and the average multi-core CPU score has increased to 28,160. This means the M3 Ultra chip is around 10% faster than the M4 Max chip, up from the original 8% figure. Overall, it looks like the M3 Ultra chip is indeed not much faster than the M4 Max.

Related Roundup: Mac Studio
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Top Rated Comments

EugW Avatar
7 weeks ago

1.5x means 150% faster, not 50%.
Apple's language use here is not accurate.

1.5X = 50% faster or 150% as fast, but not 150% faster.
2.5X = 150% faster.
Score: 55 Votes (Like | Disagree)
joeblow7777 Avatar
7 weeks ago

1.5x means 150% faster, not 50%.
By that math 1x faster (ie. the same speed) would be 100% faster. Am I missing something?
Score: 30 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Chancha Avatar
7 weeks ago

By that math 1x faster (ie. the same speed) would be 100% faster. Am I missing something?
It is a linguistic ambiguity issue. If someone said "1.5x as fast" it is definitely a 150% multiplier, so "50% faster". But the article above chose to say the "x" multiplier and "faster" in the same sentence.
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nathansz Avatar
7 weeks ago
I thought the point was more gpu cores?
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
rhodesy22 Avatar
7 weeks ago
Yeah, this is why I ended up selling the M1 Ultra and then the M2 Ultra, and I won't be buying any more Ultras. The next gen Max chip kept coming out soon after. So really this comes down to if you need more memory, higher memory bandwidth or more GPU cores. Software engineers should just stick with the M4 Max unless they have a specific use case for the extra AI prowess.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
creediddy Avatar
7 weeks ago
Some explaining is needed for $4k starting price.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)