Apple M3 Pro 11-Core vs Intel Core i5-8400
Apple M3 Pro 11-Core
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The Apple M3 Pro 11 Core is a system on a chip (SoC) from Apple for notebooks that was introduced late 2023. It integrates 11 of the 12 CPU cores with 5 of 6 performance cores with up to 4.06 GHz and 6 efficiency cores with 2.8 GHz.
Compared to the M2 Pro the M3 Pro has been slimmed down somewhat and swaps two performance cores for efficiency cores. This is due to the changed core configuration, as 6 cores are now used per cluster (the M2 Pro and M3 still have 4 cores per cluster). Furthermore, the memory bus has been reduced from 256 bits to 192 bits (150 GB/s vs. 200 GB/s). Thanks to the new architecture and higher clock rates, the new M3 Pro is still slightly faster.
The M3 Pro also integrates a new graphics card with dynamic caching, mesh shading and ray tracing acceleration via hardware. In the entry-level model, only 14 of the chip's 18 cores are used and support up to 3 displays simultaneously (internal and 2 external).
GPU and CPU can jointly access the shared memory on the package (unified memory). This is available in 18 or 36 GB variants and offers 150 GB/s maximum bandwidth (192 bit bus).
The integrated 16-core Neural Engine has also been revised and now offers 18 TOPS peak performance (compared to 15.8 TOPS in the M2 but 35 TOPS in the new A17 Pro). The video engine now also supports AV1 decoding in hardware. H.264, HEVC and ProRes (RAW) can still be decoded and encoded.
Unfortunately, the integrated WLAN only continues to support WiFi 6E (no WiFi 7), unlike the small M3 SoC thunderbolt 4 is also supported (max 40 Gbit/s).
The chip is manufactured in the current 3nm process (N3B) at TSMC and contains 37 billion transistors (-7.5% vs. Apple M2 Pro).
Intel Core i5-8400
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The Intel Core i5-8400 is a mid-range 6-core CPU. The processor belongs to the Coffee Lake generation and was presented in September 2017. It does not support Hyper-Threading, which means it can run six threads simultaneously. The base clock rate is 2.8 GHz and the CPU can speed up to 4.0 GHz under high load. Despite belonging to the new generation of CPUs, the Core i5-8400 is manufactured in an improved 14nm process.
Performance
The processor offers a strong performance increase compared to the Core i5-7400 due to its two additional cores. Single-core performance has not improved significantly compared to its Kaby Lake predecessor. As a mid-range model, the Core i5-8400 should be suitable for demanding games and programs.
Graphics
The integrated Intel UHD Graphics 630 iGPU is supposed to offer higher performance as its clock rate has been increased by 50 MHz. The build is identical to that of the Intel HD Graphics 630. We do expect a performance improvement, but as a low-end solution it will probably only display current games smoothly at reduced details - if at all.
Power Consumption
Intel specifies the TDP with 65 watts. Therefore, well-dimensioned cooling systems should easily manage to deal with the created heat. We expect increased efficiency due to the higher performance.
| Model | Apple M3 Pro 11-Core | Intel Core i5-8400 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Series | Apple M3 | Intel Coffee Lake | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Series: Coffee Lake Coffee Lake-S |
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| Clock | 2748 - 4056 MHz | 2800 - 4000 MHz | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cores / Threads | 11 / 11 5 x 4.1 GHz Apple M3 P-Core 6 x 2.7 GHz Apple M3 E-Core | 6 / 6 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| TDP | 27 Watt | 65 Watt | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Transistors | 37000 Million | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Technology | 3 nm | 14 nm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Features | ARMv8 Instruction Set | Dual-Channel DDR3(L)-1600/DDR4-2666 Memory Controller, HyperThreading, AVX, AVX2, AES-NI, TSX-NI, Quick Sync, Virtualization, vPro | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| iGPU | Apple M3 Pro 14-Core GPU | Intel UHD Graphics 630 (350 - 1050 MHz) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| NPU / AI | 18 TOPS INT8 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Architecture | ARM | x86 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Announced | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Manufacturer | www.apple.com | ark.intel.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Codename | Coffee Lake-S | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| L1 Cache | 384 KB | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| L2 Cache | 1.5 MB | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| L3 Cache | 9 MB | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Socket | FCLGA1151 |
Benchmarks
Average Benchmarks Apple M3 Pro 11-Core → 100% n=5
Average Benchmarks Intel Core i5-8400 → 54% n=5
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance
1 This benchmark is not used for the average calculation
