Apple M3 Pro 18-Core GPU vs GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q Refresh

Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in the rankingnot ratednot rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
ArchitectureTuring (2018−2022)no data
GPU code nameTU106Bno data
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date29 January 2019 (5 years ago)31 October 2023 (1 year ago)

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores192018
Core clock speed960 MHzno data
Boost clock speed1200 MHzno data
Number of transistors10,800 millionno data
Manufacturing process technology12 nm5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)115 Wattno data
Texture fill rate144.0no data
Floating-point processing power4.608 TFLOPSno data
ROPs48no data
TMUs120no data
Tensor Cores240no data
Ray Tracing Cores30no data

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Laptop sizeno datamedium sized
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16no data
Supplementary power connectorsNoneno data

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory typeGDDR6LPDDR5-6400
Maximum RAM amount6 GBno data
Memory bus width192 Bitno data
Memory clock speed1353 MHzno data
Memory bandwidth259.8 GB/sno data
Shared memory--

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display ConnectorsNo outputsno data

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX12 Ultimate (12_2)no data
Shader Model6.5no data
OpenGL4.6no data
OpenCL1.2no data
Vulkan1.2.140-
CUDA7.5-

Pros & cons summary


Recency 29 January 2019 31 October 2023
Chip lithography 12 nm 5 nm

Apple M3 Pro 18-Core GPU has an age advantage of 4 years, and a 140% more advanced lithography process.

We couldn't decide between GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q Refresh and Apple M3 Pro 18-Core GPU. We've got no test results to judge.


Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

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NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q Refresh
GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q Refresh
Apple M3 Pro 18-Core GPU
M3 Pro 18-Core GPU

Comparisons with similar GPUs

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Community ratings

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2.8 57 votes

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3.1 169 votes

Rate Apple M3 Pro 18-Core GPU on a scale of 1 to 5:

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Questions & comments

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