Nvidia RTX 3090 vs Apple M1 Ultra GPU: Did Apple overhype by claiming their latest M1 Ultra chip, equipped with a 64-core GPU is as good as Nvidia RTX 3090 GPU? According to Apple at the event held on March 8, 2022, the M1 Ultra 64-core GPU is offering identical performance in ‘industry-standard’ benchmarks while consuming less power. That was a bold claim by Apple.
Maybe Apple didn’t lie but at the same time didn’t tell the whole truth. In this article, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 will be compared to the Apple M1 Ultra’s 64-core GPU. Make sure to read to the end as we pass our verdict.
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Nvidia RTX 3090 vs Apple M1 Ultra GPU: Price
The most powerful M1 Ultra Apple Mac Studio desktop computer with a 64-core GPU will cost you about $5,999. That’s the configuration of a 20-core CPU, 64-core GPU, and 128 GB of memory. In contrast, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 is far lesser in price.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 vs Apple M1 Ultra GPU: Performance
Apple made the M1 Ultra by combining two M1 Max chips, offering 21 TFLOPs of graphics compute power. The M1 Ultra has access to a bigger cache of 128GB of unified memory, which is 5x times more than NVIDIA’s RTX 3090 GPU. But that doesn’t mean real-time performance tests will favor the M1 Ultra.
The test carried out by The Verge revealed that the Apple M1 Ultra is no match for RTX 3090 system. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 offers better performance in gaming and compute tests featuring OpenCL API just as you can see below.
What the above infographics are showing, gives clear evidence that the Mac Studio M1 Ultra is powerful but still falls behind the high-end desktop GPU – RTX 3090.
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Nvidia RTX 3090 vs Apple M1 Ultra GPU: Power Efficiency and Mobility
Apple M1 Ultra needs less than 100W to reach the peak performance of the competing desktop processors. By comparison, Nvidia RTX 3090 uses more and needs greater power to reach zenith performance. Thus, the power efficiency made it possible for Apple to put the M1 Ultra in the compact Mac Studio.
Moreover, the compact size is a selling point for the Mac studio computer. What Apple did by making a powerful PC like that mobile, has never been done before by anyone else.
Nvidia RTX 3090 vs Apple M1 Ultra GPU: Verdict
The brutal truth is that Apple M1 Ultra with 64-core GPU is powerful but not untouchable. When compared to the RTX 3090 GPU, Nvidia’s high-end graphics remain superior both in gaming and performance.
Buy Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 and Apple M1 Ultra
RTX 3090 | Buy | M1 Ultra | Price |
Buy on Amazon | $2,916 | Buy on Apple | $3,999 |
Buy on Amazon | £2,500 |