Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) vs GeForce RTX 4090
[ VERDICT ]
Winner: GeForce RTX 4090 (89/100)
GeForce RTX 4090 leads overall with a score of 89/100 compared to Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) (44/100), offering superior measured performance and technical specifications.
Benchmark Performance Comparison
Normalized Lab Scores| Benchmark | Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) | GeForce RTX 4090 |
|---|---|---|
| Efficiency | 81.0 Very Good WINNER | 43.0 Poor |
| Gaming | 33.0 Poor | 93.0 Excellent WINNER |
Detailed Technical Specifications
3D Mark
| Specification | Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) | GeForce RTX 4090 |
|---|---|---|
| Solar Bay | 49656 | 187525 |
| Wild Life Extreme | 30893 | 85218 |
| Fire Strike | — | 72432 |
| Night Raid | — | 195813 |
| Port Royal | — | 26127 |
| Time Spy | — | 36299 |
API
| Specification | Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) | GeForce RTX 4090 |
|---|---|---|
| DLSS | No | DLSS 3 |
| Ray Tracing | Yes | Yes |
| CUDA | — | 8.9 |
| DirectX | — | 12 |
| DisplayPort | — | 1.4a |
| OpenCL | — | 3.0 |
| OpenGL | — | 4.6 |
| Vulkan | — | 1.3 |
GeekBench 6 ML
| Specification | Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) | GeForce RTX 4090 |
|---|---|---|
| Backend | GPU | DirectML |
| Depth Estimation (Q) | 38212 | 75599 |
| Face Detection (HP) | 37676 | 78111 |
| Framework | Core ML | ONNX |
| Image Classification (SP) | 8685 | 15600 |
| Image Segmentation (HP) | 20739 | 36657 |
| Image Super Resolution (Q) | 22775 | 48114 |
| Machine Translation (HP) | 5274 | 6349 |
| Object Detection (SP) | 7480 | 21186 |
| Pose Estimation (Q) | 91609 | 289639 |
| Style Transfer (SP) | 190681 | 601428 |
| Text Classification (SP) | 2909 | 4074 |
GeekBench 6 OpenCL
| Specification | Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) | GeForce RTX 4090 |
|---|---|---|
| API | OpenCL | OpenCL |
| Background Blur | 157.6 img/sec | 318.9 img/sec |
| Edge Detection | 6.04 Gpixels/sec | 21 Gpixels/sec |
| Face Detection | 100.9 img/sec | 222.8 img/sec |
| Feature Matching | 0.84 Gpixels/sec | 2.38 Gpixels/sec |
| Gaussian Blur | 5 Gpixels/sec | 23.9 Gpixels/sec |
| Horizon Detection | 3.99 Gpixels/sec | 14.2 Gpixels/sec |
| Particle Physics | 12226.9 FPS | 48090.4 FPS |
| Stereo Matching | 363.8 Gpixels/sec | 1950 Gpixels/sec |
General
| Specification | Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) | GeForce RTX 4090 |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Apple M GPU | Ada Lovelace |
| Build | Integrated | Discrete |
| Case | Laptop | Desktop |
| Nvidia Equivalent | -GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop | — |
| Purpose | Professional | Gaming |
| Recommended CPU | -Apple M3 Maxor above | -Intel Core i9 14900Kor above |
| Released | October 31, 2023 | September 20, 2022 |
| Segment | High-end | High-end |
| Successor | -Apple M5 Max GPU (40-core) | -GeForce RTX 5090 |
| Used in CPUs | -Apple M3 Max | — |
| Vendor | Apple | Nvidia |
| GPU Codename | — | AD102 |
| Launch price (MSRP) | — | $1599 |
Graphics Processing Unit
| Specification | Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) | GeForce RTX 4090 |
|---|---|---|
| Base Clock | 500 MHz | 2235 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1380 MHz | 2520 MHz |
| Compute Units (Pipelines) | 640 | 128 |
| Instructions Per Cycle | 2 IPC | 2 IPC |
| Render Output Units (ROPs) | 160 | 176 |
| Shading Units | 5120 | 16384 |
| Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) | 320 | 512 |
| L1 Cache | — | 128KB per cluster |
| L2 Cache | — | 72MB shared |
| Ray-tracing Cores | — | 128 |
| Tensor Cores | — | 512 |
Memory
| Specification | Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) | GeForce RTX 4090 |
|---|---|---|
| Bus | 512-bit | 384-bit |
| ECC | No | No |
| Effective Memory Speed | 12800 Mbps | 21000 Mbps |
| Memory Clock | 6400 MHz | 2625 MHz |
| Memory Type | System Shared | GDDR6X |
| Memory Size | — | 24 GB |
Physical
| Specification | Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) | GeForce RTX 4090 |
|---|---|---|
| Fabrication Process | 3 nm | 5 nm |
| Interface | Custom | PCIe 4.0 x16 |
| Manufacturing | TSMC | TSMC |
| Max. Temperature | 100°C | — |
| TGP | 60 W | 450 W |
| Transistor Count | 56 billion | 76.3 billion |
| Die Size | — | 609 mm² |
| Transistor Density | — | 125.29 MTr/mm² |
Raw Performance
| Specification | Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) | GeForce RTX 4090 |
|---|---|---|
| Pixel Fill Rate | 221 GPixel/s | 444 GPixel/s |
| Texture Fill Rate | 442 GTexel/s | 1290 GTexel/s |
Games
| Specification | Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) | GeForce RTX 4090 |
|---|---|---|
| 1080p High | — | 255 |
| 1080p Ultra | — | 217 |
| 1440p Ultra | — | 177 |
| 4K Ultra | — | 106 |
| CoD: Modern Warfare III | — | 266263219151 |
| Counter-Strike 2 | — | 33923818890 |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | — | 22620814366 |
| Far Cry 6 | — | 203179170104 |
| Forza Horizon 5 | — | 275199193155 |
| Ghost of Tsushima | — | 18815213791 |
| Hogwarts Legacy | — | 20016313274 |
| Margin of Error | — | Low |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | — | 302284222118 |
| The Witcher 3 | — | 292268191101 |
Passmark Graphics
| Specification | Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) | GeForce RTX 4090 |
|---|---|---|
| DirectX 11 | — | 323 FPS |
| DirectX 12 | — | 151 FPS |
| G2D Mark | — | 1303 |
| GPU Compute | — | 26022 Ops/s |
Recent User Tests
| Specification | Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) | GeForce RTX 4090 |
|---|---|---|
| Date | — | Benchmark |
| 📘 2026-04-03(afroman420IU) | — | Cinebench 2024 |
Looking for More Comparisons?
Browse all available head-to-head comparisons or select new devices in the comparison hub.