Processors/Apple M6
Apple · Apple M6 · Laptop
Apple M6
The Apple M6 is Apple’s Apple M6 mobile processor with 12 cores.
Drawn from this part’s own specifications. No openly-licensed photograph of the Apple M6 exists, so this is an illustration rather than a photograph.
Overview
The Apple M6 is Apple’s Apple M6 mobile processor with 12 cores. These are the manufacturer’s published figures. They describe what the chip is designed to do, not what your particular machine does with it, and the gap between those two is usually cooling. A boost clock is a ceiling rather than a promise, and how long a processor holds it under continuous load is the one thing no specification sheet can tell you.
Specifications
- Cores
- 12
- Threads
- Not published by Apple
- Base clock
- Not published by Apple
- Boost clock
- Not published by Apple
- L3 cache
- Not published by Apple
- TDP
- Not published by Apple
- Core layout
- 2 super, 4 performance, 6 efficiency
- Memory bandwidth
- 170 GB/s
- Socket
- Not published by Apple
- Process
- Not published by Apple
- Integrated graphics
- Apple GPU, 12-core
- Launched
- Not verified
Physical cores. More helps sustained multi-threaded work, not single-task responsiveness.
The floor the vendor guarantees under load. Often closer to reality than boost.
A ceiling, not a promise. How long a chip holds it is the thing a spec sheet cannot tell you.
Design power, not measured draw. Where a range is shown, the manufacturer allows the laptop maker to choose within it, and the choice materially changes sustained performance.
The maker's figure. Where two are shown, the chip ships in configurations with different memory systems.
Sources
Each figure, the label its source printed beside it, and the day it was read.
| Figure | As printed | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cores12 | CPUunder Apple M6 chip 12-core CPU | apple.comSpecification page | |
| Core layout2 super, 4 performance, 6 efficiency | CPU withunder Apple M6 chip 12-core CPU | apple.comSpecification page | |
| Memory bandwidth170 GB/s | memory bandwidthunder Apple M6 chip 12-core CPU | apple.comSpecification page | |
| Integrated graphicsApple GPU, 12-core | GPUunder Apple M6 chip 12-core CPU | apple.comSpecification page |
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Compare
The 6 nearest processors in the same segment, each with a published side-by-side.
What these numbers mean
Every figure on this sheet is a design target. None of it is a measurement.
Nothing above describes how a processor behaves twenty minutes into a sustained workload, which is where two chips with nearly identical specifications routinely diverge. A boost clock is a ceiling the vendor permits, not a rate the chip sustains, and whether it holds depends on the cooling, the case, the power profile and the room. None of those appear on a specification sheet.
We deliberately do not reduce these figures to a single score. A composite invented from specifications would look authoritative and measure nothing, and choosing the weights would be choosing the winner.