Apple's M3 Pro disappoints in Geekbench 6's CPU test, only 6% ahead of M2 Pro in multi-core

After Apple unveiled its highly-anticipated M3 series of chips during their recent 'Scary Fast' Mac event, early benchmark results have surfaced for the M3 and M3 Max processors, portraying commendable performance improvements, particularly with the M3 Max when compared to its predecessor.

However, the story takes a different turn when it comes to the M3 Pro. Spotted by Vadim Yuryev, the M3 Pro achieved a single-core score of 3,035 and a multi-core score of 15,173 in Geekbench 6's CPU test. This represents a rather modest 6% increase over the previous-generation M2 Pro, which scored 14,229 on the same test. This outcome is certainly underwhelming, especially when considering the substantial 45% multi-core performance boost that the M3 Max demonstrated over the previous-generation M2 Max.

The M3 Pro chip now comes equipped with a configuration of 6 high-performance and 6 efficiency cores, which marks a departure from its predecessor by featuring 2 fewer high-performance cores but an additional 2 efficiency cores. While Apple has indeed achieved significant per-core performance enhancements with this new generation, it appears that these gains might not have been sufficient to deliver the expected leap in overall multi-core performance. 

Further, while memory support has been expanded across the M3 Pro range, Apple has made a controversial choice by reducing the memory bandwidth from the previous 200GB/s in the M2 Pro to 150GB/s in the new M3 Pro. How these changes are reflected in real-world performance, remains to be seen.