Home > CPU Comparison > Core i5 12400 or Apple M3: what's better?

Intel Core i5 12400 vs Apple M3

49 out of 100
Intel Core i5 12400
VS
65 out of 100
Apple M3
Intel Core i5 12400
Apple M3

We compared two CPUs: the 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 12400 (desktop) with 6-cores against the 4.05 GHz Apple M3 (laptop) with 8-cores. On this page, you'll find out which processor has better performance in benchmarks, games and other useful information.

  1. Review
  2. Differences
  3. Performance
  4. Specs
  5. Comments

Review

General overview and comparison of the processors
Single-Core Performance
Performance in single-threaded apps and benchmarks
Multi-Core Performance
Measure performance when all cores are involved
Power Efficiency
The efficiency score of power consumption
Integrated Graphics
iGPU capabilities for gaming and 3D-intensive tasks
The "iGPU" and "Power Efficiency" have a minor impact on the DeviceFacts Score for desktop CPU.
DeviceFacts Final Score
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Value for money (Beta)

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Currency
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Key Differences

What are the key differences between M3 and 12400
Advantages of Intel Core i5 12400
  • Supports up to 128 GB DDR5-4800 RAM
  • Newer PCI Express version – 5.0
Advantages of Apple M3
  • More powerful Apple M3 GPU integrated graphics: 3.5 vs 0.6 TFLOPS
  • More modern manufacturing process – 3 versus 10 nanometers
  • Newer - released 1 year and 10 months later
  • Has 2 more physical cores
  • Around 25.6 GB/s (33%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • 34% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 3009 vs 2245 points

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core i5 12400
vs
Apple M3

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Core i5 12400
99
Apple M3 +41%
140
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Core i5 12400
598
Apple M3 +19%
712
Cinebench 2026 (Single) 295 -
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) 1710 2341
Submit your benchmark results

GeekBench v6

The new version of this benchmark emulates common operations often used in real-world apps
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Core i5 12400
2245
Apple M3 +34%
3009
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Core i5 12400
9788
Apple M3 +21%
11815
File compression 879.2 MB/sec 1260 MB/sec
Clang compilation 65.6 Klines/sec 94.7 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 223.7 pages/sec 264.5 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 275.6 Mpixels/sec 313.9 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 225.9 pages/sec 297 pages/sec
Background blur 49.5 images/sec 50.2 images/sec
Photo processing 81.2 images/sec 114.8 images/sec
Ray tracing 15.1 Mpixels/sec 12.9 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 1015 & 438 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Core i5 12400
3464
Apple M3 +36%
4707
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core i5 12400
18816
Apple M3 +1%
19065
Integer math 58.9 GOps/sec 42.6 GOps/sec
Floating point math 45.9 GOps/sec 48.3 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 67M Primes/sec 231M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 22.6M Strings/sec 27.3M Strings/sec
Data encryption 11.5 GBytes/sec 11.5 GBytes/sec
Data compression 228 MBytes/sec 225 MBytes/sec
Physics 1090 Frames/sec 1867 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 15.5B Matrices/sec 10B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 6661 & 1563 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core i5 12400 +4%
166.74
Apple M3
160.35

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 9.2 PPW 35.6 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 150.6 PPW 590.8 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 289.5 PPW 953.3 PPW
Blender / Watt 2.57 PPW 8.02 PPW
These are rough calculations, as most CPUs surpass PL1 TDP wattage even in multicore workloads.

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Intel Core i5 12400
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-05-24 (MortalMech)Cinebench 2026295 / 1710
📘 2024-06-27 (Renni)Cinebench 202499 / 598
Add View all (2)
Apple M3
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-08-22 (doannguyenmfs)Geekbench 6 CPU2991 / 11735
📘 2026-06-16 (darkknightSup)Geekbench 6 CPU2990 / 11498
Add View all (2)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i5 12400 and Apple M3

General

Vendor Intel Apple
Released January 4, 2022 October 30, 2023
Type Desktop Laptop
Instruction Set x86-64 ARMv8
Codename Alder Lake Apple M3
Model number i5-12400 -
Integrated GPU UHD Graphics 730 Apple M3 GPU
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 5 225 - Apple M5 (10-Core)
Intel CPU rating (#163rd place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 6 4
P-Threads 12 4
Base Frequency (P) 2.5 GHz 4.05 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 4.4 GHz -
Efficient Cores
E-Cores - 4
E-Threads - 4
Base Frequency (E) - 2.75 GHz
Total
Total Cores 6 8
Total Threads 12 8
Bus Frequency 100 MHz -
Multiplier 25x 40x
L1 Cache 80K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 1280K (per core) 16MB (shared)
L3 Cache 18MB (shared) -
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Transistors - 25 billions
Fabrication Process 10 nm 3 nm
TDP (PL1) 65 W 20 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) 117 W -
Socket LGA-1700 Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100°C 100°C
Desktop CPU ranking (#109th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 730 Apple M3 GPU
GPU Base Clock 300 MHz 500 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1450 MHz 1380 MHz
Shading Units 192 1280
TMUs 48 80
ROPs 24 40
Execution Units 24 160
TGP 15 W 15 W
iGPU FLOPS
Core i5 12400
0.6 TFLOPS
Apple M3 +483%
3.5 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M3 GPU (10-core) compared to UHD Graphics 730

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR5-4800
- DDR4-3200		 - LPDDR5-6400
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 24 GB
Memory Channels 2 8
Max. Memory Bandwidth 76.8 GB/s 102.4 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

Official Site Intel Core i5 12400 official page -
PCI Express Version 5.0 4.0
PCI Express Lanes 20 -

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
7 (46.7%)
8 (53.3%)
Total votes: 15

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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M3 or Intel Core i5 12400?
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