Apple M3 Pro 18-Core GPU vs GeForce GTX 870M

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Primary details

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

Place in the ranking489not rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Power efficiency6.14no data
ArchitectureKepler (2012−2018)no data
GPU code nameGK104no data
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date12 March 2014 (10 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 cores134418
Core clock speed941 MHzno data
Boost clock speed967 MHzno data
Number of transistors3,540 millionno data
Manufacturing process technology28 nm5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)100 Wattno data
Texture fill rate108.3no data
Floating-point processing power2.599 TFLOPSno data
ROPs24no data
TMUs112no 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 sizelargemedium sized
Bus supportPCI Express 2.0, PCI Express 3.0no data
InterfaceMXM-B (3.0)no data
Supplementary power connectorsNoneno data
SLI options+-

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 typeGDDR5LPDDR5-6400
Maximum RAM amount3 GBno data
Standard memory configurationGDDR5no data
Memory bus width192 Bitno data
Memory clock speedUp to 2500 MHzno data
Memory bandwidth120.0 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
eDP 1.2 signal supportUp to 3840x2160no data
LVDS signal supportUp to 1920x1200no data
VGA аnalog display supportUp to 2048x1536no data
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) supportUp to 3840x2160no data
HDMI+-
HDCP content protection+-
7.1 channel HD audio on HDMI+-
TrueHD and DTS-HD audio bitstreaming+-

Supported technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder+-
Optimus+-

API compatibility

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

DirectX12 (11_0)no data
Shader Model5.1no data
OpenGL4.5no data
OpenCL1.1no data
Vulkan1.1.126-
CUDA+-

Pros & cons summary


Recency 12 March 2014 31 October 2023
Chip lithography 28 nm 5 nm

Apple M3 Pro 18-Core GPU has an age advantage of 9 years, and a 460% more advanced lithography process.

We couldn't decide between GeForce GTX 870M and 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 GTX 870M
GeForce GTX 870M
Apple M3 Pro 18-Core GPU
M3 Pro 18-Core GPU

Comparisons with similar GPUs

We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.

Community ratings

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3.9 106 votes

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3.1 171 vote

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Questions & comments

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