Apple recently unveiled its new Mac Studio featuring M4 Max and M3 Ultra chips, marking another step forward in its silicon evolution. However, early benchmark results suggest that the performance gap between the M3 Ultra and M4 Max might not be as significant as expected.
First Geekbench 6 Benchmark for M3 Ultra
A Geekbench 6 listing for the Mac Studio (Mac15,14) with the M3 Ultra chip has surfaced, providing the first real-world look at Apple’s most powerful M-series chip. The benchmark results are as follows:
- Single-core score: 3,221
- Multi-core score: 27,749
- Configuration: 32-core CPU, 256GB unified memory
How Does the M3 Ultra Compare?
M3 Ultra vs. M4 Max (MacBook Pro 16″)
🔹 Single-core performance: M3 Ultra is 20% slower than M4 Max.
🔹 Multi-core performance: M3 Ultra is 8% faster than M4 Max.
The fact that M3 Ultra lags behind the M4 Max in single-core tests is surprising, given its status as the top-tier Ultra chip. This is likely due to the M4-series leveraging TSMC’s second-generation 3nm process, making it more efficient and faster per core than the first-gen 3nm M3 Ultra.
M3 Ultra vs. M2 Ultra (Previous Mac Studio Model)
🔹 Single-core performance: 13% gain over M2 Ultra.
🔹 Multi-core performance: 25% gain over M2 Ultra.
While these results show a decent improvement, they fall well short of Apple’s marketing claim of 50% better CPU performance over the M2 Ultra. This suggests that Apple’s performance uplift estimates are likely based on specific workloads that take advantage of GPU and machine learning improvements.
Why Is the M3 Ultra Underwhelming?
A few possible explanations exist for these less-than-expected gains:
1️⃣ Chip Architecture Differences – The M3 Ultra is essentially two M3 Max chips fused together, whereas the M4 Max benefits from a newer, more efficient single-chip design with architectural enhancements.
2️⃣ TSMC 3nm Process Discrepancy – The M3 Ultra is built on TSMC’s first-generation 3nm process, whereas the M4 Max uses TSMC’s second-generation 3nm node, making the M4 Max more power-efficient per core.
3️⃣ Early Benchmark Results – These scores reflect CPU performance only. The M3 Ultra’s true strength may lie in GPU performance and machine learning tasks, which haven’t been benchmarked yet.
What’s Next?
While these early results raise questions about the value of the M3 Ultra upgrade, further testing—especially in GPU-heavy workflows—is needed to determine its real-world performance in creative applications.
If you prioritize single-core performance, an M4 Max MacBook Pro might be the better choice. However, for multi-core workloads and GPU-intensive tasks, the M3 Ultra Mac Studio could still be the more capable machine.
More comprehensive benchmarks will ultimately determine whether the M3 Ultra is a worthy upgrade or if users should wait for the M4 Ultra, which will likely bring a more significant leap in performance.
