Xeon Platinum 9221 vs Apple M3 Max 16-Core

Primary details

Comparing Apple M3 Max 16-Core and Xeon Platinum 9221 processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.

Place in the ranking189not rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Market segmentLaptopServer
SeriesApple M3Intel Xeon Platinum
Power efficiency31.33no data
Architecture codenameno dataCascade Lake-AP (2019)
Release date30 October 2023 (1 year ago)2 April 2019 (5 years ago)

Detailed specifications

Apple M3 Max 16-Core and Xeon Platinum 9221 basic parameters such as number of cores, number of threads, base frequency and turbo boost clock, lithography, cache size and multiplier lock state. These parameters indirectly say of CPU speed, though for more precise assessment you have to consider their test results.

Physical cores16 (Hexadeca-Core)32 (Dotriaconta-Core)
Threads1664
Base clock speed2.748 GHz2.3 GHz
Boost clock speed4.06 GHz3.7 GHz
Bus typeno dataDMI 3.0
Bus rateno data4 × 8 GT/s
Multiplierno data21
L1 cacheno data64K (per core)
L2 cacheno data1 MB (per core)
L3 cacheno data71.5 MB (shared)
Chip lithography3 nm14 nm
Number of transistors92000 Million8,000 million
64 bit support++
Windows 11 compatibilityno data+

Compatibility

Information on Apple M3 Max 16-Core and Xeon Platinum 9221 compatibility with other computer components: motherboard (look for socket type), power supply unit (look for power consumption) etc. Useful when planning a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. Note that power consumption of some processors can well exceed their nominal TDP, even without overclocking. Some can even double their declared thermals given that the motherboard allows to tune the CPU power parameters.

Number of CPUs in a configurationno data8
Socketno dataIntel BGA5903
Power consumption (TDP)78 Watt250 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Apple M3 Max 16-Core and Xeon Platinum 9221. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensionsno dataIntel® AVX-512
AES-NI-+
AVX-+
vProno data+
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)no data+
Speed Shiftno data+
Turbo Boost Technologyno data2.0
Hyper-Threading Technologyno data+
TSX-+

Security technologies

Apple M3 Max 16-Core and Xeon Platinum 9221 technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.

TXTno data+

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Apple M3 Max 16-Core and Xeon Platinum 9221 are enumerated here.

VT-dno data+
VT-xno data+

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Apple M3 Max 16-Core and Xeon Platinum 9221. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory typesno dataDDR4-2933
Maximum memory sizeno data2 TiB
Max memory channelsno data12
Maximum memory bandwidthno data281.6 GB/s
ECC memory support-+

Graphics specifications

General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.

Integrated graphics cardApple M3 Max 40-Core GPUno data

Peripherals

Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Apple M3 Max 16-Core and Xeon Platinum 9221.

PCIe versionno data3.0

Pros & cons summary


Recency 30 October 2023 2 April 2019
Physical cores 16 32
Threads 16 64
Chip lithography 3 nm 14 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 78 Watt 250 Watt

Apple M3 Max 16-Core has an age advantage of 4 years, a 366.7% more advanced lithography process, and 220.5% lower power consumption.

Xeon Platinum 9221, on the other hand, has 100% more physical cores and 300% more threads.

We couldn't decide between Apple M3 Max 16-Core and Xeon Platinum 9221. We've got no test results to judge.

Be aware that Apple M3 Max 16-Core is a notebook processor while Xeon Platinum 9221 is a server/workstation one.


Should you still have questions on choice between Apple M3 Max 16-Core and Xeon Platinum 9221, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

Vote for your favorite

Do you think we are right or mistaken in our choice? Vote by clicking "Like" button near your favorite CPU.


Apple M3 Max 16-Core
M3 Max 16-Core
Intel Xeon Platinum 9221
Xeon Platinum 9221

Similar processor comparisons

We picked several similar comparisons of processors in the same market segment and performance relatively close to those reviewed on this page.

Community ratings

Here you can see how users rate the processors, as well as rate them yourself.


3 267 votes

Rate Apple M3 Max 16-Core on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
3.4 42 votes

Rate Xeon Platinum 9221 on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Questions & comments

Here you can ask a question about Apple M3 Max 16-Core or Xeon Platinum 9221, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.