Apple M3 (iPad) vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 860
[ VERDICT ]
Winner: Apple M3 (iPad) (97/100)
Apple M3 (iPad) leads overall with a score of 97/100 compared to Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 (38/100), offering superior measured performance and technical specifications.
Benchmark Performance Comparison
Normalized Lab Scores| Benchmark | Apple M3 (iPad) | Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 |
|---|---|---|
| NanoReview Score | 97.0 Excellent WINNER | 38.0 Poor |
| Performance | 98.0 Excellent WINNER | 35.0 Poor |
Detailed Technical Specifications
3DMark
| Specification | Apple M3 (iPad) | Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 |
|---|---|---|
| Graphics test | 20 FPS | 5 FPS |
| Section 1 | 52 FPS | — |
| Section 2 | 38 FPS | — |
| Section 3 | 28 FPS | — |
| Stability | 70% | 91% |
AI Accelerator
| Specification | Apple M3 (iPad) | Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 |
|---|---|---|
| NPU theoretical performance | 18 TOPS | — |
| Neural processor (NPU) | Apple Neural Engine | Hexagon 690 |
AnTuTu 11
| Specification | Apple M3 (iPad) | Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | 782907 | 299294 |
| GPU | 1029236 | 119740 |
| Memory | 305749 | 162141 |
| Total score | 2777287 | 822433 |
| UX | 659395 | 241258 |
CPU
| Specification | Apple M3 (iPad) | Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | 4x 4.05 GHz –4x 2.75 GHz – | 1x 2.96 GHz – Cortex-A76 (Kryo 485 Prime)3x 2.42 GHz – Cortex-A76 (Kryo 485 Gold)4x 1.8 GHz – Cortex-A55 (Kryo 485 Silver) |
| Cores | 8 | 8 |
| Frequency | 4050 MHz | 2960 MHz |
| Instruction set | ARMv8.6-A | ARMv8.2-A |
| L1 cache | 256 KB | 512 KB |
| L2 cache | 16 MB | 1 MB |
| Manufacturing | TSMC | TSMC |
| Process | 3 nanometers | 7 nanometers |
| TDP (Sustained Power Limit) | 20 W | 6 W |
| Transistor count | 25 billion | 6.7 billion |
| L3 cache | — | 2 MB |
Connectivity
| Specification | Apple M3 (iPad) | Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 |
|---|---|---|
| 5G support | Yes | Yes |
| Bluetooth | 5.3 | 5.1 |
| Download speed | Up to 7500 Mbps | Up to 5000 Mbps |
| Navigation | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, SBAS |
| Upload speed | Up to 3500 Mbps | Up to 1240 Mbps |
| Wi-Fi | 6 | 6 |
| 4G support | — | LTE Cat. 20 |
| Modem | — | X24 LTE, X50 5G |
GeekBench 6
| Specification | Apple M3 (iPad) | Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 |
|---|---|---|
| API | Metal | OpenCL |
| Asset compression | 458.1 MB/sec | 122.6 MB/sec |
| Background blur | 48.2 images/sec | 8.45 images/sec |
| Edge detection | 1.93 Gpixels/sec | 0.21 Gpixels/sec |
| Face detection | 108.3 images/sec | 2.01 images/sec |
| Feature matching | 0.62 Gpixels/sec | 0.02 Gpixels/sec |
| Gaussian blur | 2.41 Gpixels/sec | 0.17 Gpixels/sec |
| HDR | 422.1 Mpixels/sec | 85.4 Mpixels/sec |
| HTML 5 Browser | 270.6 pages/sec | 70.8 pages/sec |
| Horizon detection | 1.43 Gpixels/sec | 0.17 Gpixels/sec |
| Image detection | 287.2 images/sec | 57.3 images/sec |
| PDF Renderer | 299.9 Mpixels/sec | 85.4 Mpixels/sec |
| Particle physics | 4690 FPS | 512.2 FPS |
| Photo processing | 116.1 images/sec | 22.8 images/sec |
| Ray tracing | 13.4 Mpixels/sec | 3.72 Mpixels/sec |
| Samples | 4 tests | 21 tests |
| Stereo matching | 128.9 Gpixels/sec | 9.94 Gpixels/sec |
Graphics
| Specification | Apple M3 (iPad) | Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 |
|---|---|---|
| FLOPS | 3179.5 Gigaflops | 1036.8 Gigaflops |
| GPU frequency | 1380 MHz | 675 MHz |
| Pipelines | 9 | 3 |
| Shading units | 128 | 256 |
| Total shaders | 1152 | 768 |
| DirectX version | — | 12.1 |
| OpenCL version | — | 2.0 |
| Vulkan version | — | 1.1 |
Info
| Specification | Apple M3 (iPad) | Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 |
|---|---|---|
| Announced | October 2023 | April 2019 |
| Class | Flagship | Flagship |
| Model number | — | SM8150-AC |
| Official page | — | Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 official site |
Memory
| Specification | Apple M3 (iPad) | Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 |
|---|---|---|
| Bus | 8x 16 Bit | 4x 16 Bit |
| Max bandwidth | 102.4 Gb/s | 34.13 Gb/s |
| Max size | 24 GB | 16 GB |
| Memory frequency | 3200 MHz | 2133 MHz |
| Memory type | LPDDR5 | LPDDR4X |
Multimedia (ISP)
| Specification | Apple M3 (iPad) | Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 |
|---|---|---|
| Audio codecs | - AAC- AIFF- CAF- MP3- MP4- WAV | - AAC- AIFF- CAF- MP3- MP4- WAV |
| Max camera resolution | 1x 48MP | 1x 192MP, 2x 22MP |
| Max display resolution | 2732 x 2048 | 3840 x 2160 |
| Storage type | NVMe | UFS 3.0, UFS 3.1 |
| Video capture | 4K at 60FPS | 4K at 120FPS |
| Video codecs | - H.264- H.265- AV1- VP9 | - H.264- H.265- VP8- VP9 |
| Video playback | 4K at 60FPS | 8K at 30FPS, 4K at 120FPS |
Recent User Tests
| Specification | Apple M3 (iPad) | Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 |
|---|---|---|
| Date | Benchmark | Benchmark |
| 📘 2025-09-28->will09 | GeekBench CPU | — |
| 📘 2026-01-26(Bearry) | AnTuTu | — |
| 📘 2026-03-03(Bearry) | AnTuTu | — |
| 📘 2026-03-21(Noora) | AnTuTu | — |
| 📘 2026-03-22(Noora) | AnTuTu | — |
| 📘 2026-04-08(Bearry) | AnTuTu | — |
| 📘 2026-04-12(Kaimen) | AnTuTu | — |
| 📘 2026-04-17(Jacob) | AnTuTu | — |
| 📘 2026-04-23(Joe) | — | CPU Throttle |
| 📘 2026-04-27->Nat_KL | — | AnTuTu |
| 📘 2026-06-30(Zeta) | — | AnTuTu |
| 📘 2026-07-04(Nafez De Vonsera) | — | AnTuTu |
| 📘 2026-07-06(Aren) | — | AnTuTu |
| 📘 2026-07-21(Tymanovik) | — | AnTuTu |
Gaming
| Specification | Apple M3 (iPad) | Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 |
|---|---|---|
| Call of Duty: Mobile | — | 54 FPS[Ultra] |
| Device | — | Xiaomi Poco X3 Pro1080 x 2400 |
| Fortnite | — | 26 FPS[Low] |
| Mobile Legends: Bang Bang | — | 56 FPS[Ultra] |
| PUBG Mobile | — | 58 FPS[Ultra] |
| Shadowgun Legends | — | 56 FPS[Ultra] |
| World of Tanks Blitz | — | 98 FPS[Ultra] |
PCMark 3.0
| Specification | Apple M3 (iPad) | Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 |
|---|---|---|
| Data manipulation score | — | 8724 |
| Phones tested | — | Less than 3 |
| Photo editing score | — | 22475 |
| Video editing score | — | 6020 |
| Web score | — | 8774 |
| Writing score | — | 13390 |
Smartphones
| Specification | Apple M3 (iPad) | Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 |
|---|---|---|
| 1.Xiaomi Poco X3 Pro | — | 822433 |
| Phones with Snapdragon 860 | — | AnTuTu v11 |
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