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Apple M3 (8-core)
The first 3nm PC chip still holds up: the base M3's single-core speed and efficiency made the MacBook Air a default recommendation through 2024.
Pros
- Strong single-core performance
- Superb efficiency, fanless in MacBook Air
- Hardware ray tracing debut on Mac
- Dynamic Caching GPU architecture
Cons
- 8-core layout trails the newer 10-core M4
- 24GB memory ceiling
- Launched with 8GB in base configurations
- 100GB/s memory bandwidth is modest
Average
Computed from specs & benchmarks via our public methodology.
Full specifications
Everything we track for the Apple M3 (8-core)
General
- Announced
- 2023
- Process
- 3 nm
Cores & Clocks
- Cores
- 8
- Performance cores
- 4
- Efficiency cores
- 4
- Threads
- 8
- Boost clock
- 4.1 GHz
Integrated GPU
- iGPU
- Apple 10-core GPU
Memory
- Memory support
- LPDDR5-6400
- Max memory
- 24 GB
Benchmarks
- Geekbench 6 (single)
- 3,090Top 16%
- Geekbench 6 (multi)
- 11,700Top 48%
- Cinebench R23 (single)
- 1,900Top 29%
- Cinebench R23 (multi)
- 10,400Bottom 42%
- PassMark
- 19,056Bottom 48%
Quick answers
Is the Apple M3 (8-core) good in 2026?
The Apple M3 (8-core) earns an Inno Score of 57.6/100 (“Average”) based on its specs and benchmark results. The first 3nm PC chip still holds up: the base M3's single-core speed and efficiency made the MacBook Air a default recommendation through 2024.
Does the Apple M3 (8-core) count as "Core i7 or equivalent"?
Its PassMark CPU Mark average is 19,056 (cpubenchmark.net, retrieved Sep 26, 2026), which puts it in Tier B of our CPU tier checker: recent mainstream Core i7 / Ryzen 7, plus older H-series chips. It is an Arm-based chip, so a requirement that asks specifically for an Intel or AMD (x86-64) processor excludes it. Requirement pages word this differently, so check the exact wording with your department.
What are the key specs of the Apple M3 (8-core)?
Cores: 8 · Threads: 8 · Boost clock: 4.1 GHz
What are the closest alternatives to the Apple M3 (8-core)?
Its closest rivals on InnoReviews are AMD Ryzen 7 8840U, Intel Core Ultra 7 256V, Intel Core Ultra 7 258V — open the comparison pages for a spec-by-spec breakdown.
