Apple M3 Max (128GB UMA, 3nm)
Overview
Apple M3 Max is Apple Silicon's 3rd-generation Max chip, released 2023-10-30 for the MacBook Pro 14"/16" 2023. It is Apple's first Max chip on TSMC 3nm, featuring a 16-core CPU (12P+4E), 40-core GPU, 128GB LPDDR5 unified memory, 400 GB/s bandwidth, and 18 TOPS Neural Engine. Key innovations include Dynamic Caching, hardware ray tracing, and mesh shading.
Core Specifications
| Item | Parameter |
|---|
| Architecture | Apple Silicon (M3 Max single die) |
| Process | TSMC 3nm (N3) |
| CPU Cores | 16 (12P + 4E) |
| GPU Cores | 40 |
| GPU Architecture | Dynamic Caching, HW ray tracing, mesh shading |
| Neural Engine | 16-core, 18 TOPS |
| Unified Memory | 36GB / 64GB / 128GB LPDDR5 |
| Memory Bandwidth | 400 GB/s |
| TDP | 56-78W (laptop) |
| Launch Date | 2023-10-30 |
| MacBook Pro 16" M3 Max 128GB | $5,799 |
Comparison with M2 Max
| Metric | M3 Max | M2 Max | Improvement |
|---|
| Process | 3nm (N3) | 5nm (N5P) | New node |
| CPU Cores | 16 (12P+4E) | 12 (8P+4E) | +33% |
| GPU Cores | 40 | 38 | +5% |
| Neural Engine | 18 TOPS | 15.8 TOPS | +14% |
| Memory | 128GB | 96GB | +33% |
| GPU Architecture | Dynamic Caching + RT | Standard | New features |
| CPU Performance | +15% | Baseline | Significant |
| Model | Quantization | Performance (tok/s) |
|---|
| Llama 2 70B | Q4_K_M | ~7-8 tok/s |
| Llama 2 13B | Q4_K_M | ~20 tok/s |
| Mistral 7B | Q4_K_M | ~40 tok/s |
| Mixtral 8x7B | Q4_K_M | ~16 tok/s |
| Item | Details |
|---|
| Vendor | Apple Inc. |
| Product | MacBook Pro 14"/16" 2023 |
| MBP 16" M3 Max 128GB | $5,799 |
| Discontinued | 2024-10 (M4 Max) |
Use Cases
- Creative professional (video, 3D, music)
- Local 70B LLM inference (128GB)
- AAA gaming with hardware ray tracing
- On-device AI development
Key Features
- 3nm: first Apple Silicon on 3nm
- Dynamic Caching: revolutionary GPU memory management
- Hardware ray tracing: first on Mac
- 128GB UMA: fits large models
- Drawbacks: Discontinued, 400 GB/s bandwidth