Apple M3 Max 40-Core GPU vs Steam Deck GPU

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
ArchitectureRDNA 2.0 (2020−2024)no data
GPU code nameVan Goghno data
Market segmentDesktopLaptop
Release date25 February 2022 (2 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 cores51240
Core clock speed1000 MHzno data
Boost clock speed1600 MHzno data
Number of transistors2,400 millionno data
Manufacturing process technology7 nm5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)15 Watt53 Watt
Texture fill rate51.20no data
Floating-point processing power1.638 TFLOPSno data
ROPs16no data
TMUs32no data
Ray Tracing Cores8no 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
Length298 mmno 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 typeLPDDR5LPDDR5-6400
Maximum RAM amount16 GBno data
Memory bus width128 Bitno data
Memory clock speed1375 MHzno data
Memory bandwidth88 GB/sno data
Shared memoryno data-

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 Connectors1x USB Type-Cno data

API compatibility

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

DirectX12 (12_1)no data
Shader Model6.5no data
OpenGL4.6no data
OpenCL2.0no data
Vulkan1.2-

Pros & cons summary


Recency 25 February 2022 31 October 2023
Chip lithography 7 nm 5 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 15 Watt 53 Watt

Steam Deck GPU has 253.3% lower power consumption.

Apple M3 Max 40-Core GPU, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 1 year, and a 40% more advanced lithography process.

We couldn't decide between Steam Deck GPU and Apple M3 Max 40-Core GPU. We've got no test results to judge.

Be aware that Steam Deck GPU is a desktop card while Apple M3 Max 40-Core GPU is a notebook one.


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

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AMD Steam Deck GPU
Steam Deck GPU
Apple M3 Max 40-Core GPU
M3 Max 40-Core GPU

Comparisons with similar GPUs

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Community ratings

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Questions & comments

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