Home > CPU Comparison > Core i5 12600K or M3 Max: what's better?

Intel Core i5 12600K vs Apple M3 Max

58 out of 100
Intel Core i5 12600K
VS
83 out of 100
Apple M3 Max
Intel Core i5 12600K
Apple M3 Max

We compared two CPUs: the 3.7 GHz Intel Core i5 12600K (desktop) with 10-cores against the 4.05 GHz Apple M3 Max (laptop) with 16-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
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
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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 Max and 12600K
Advantages of Intel Core i5 12600K
  • Unlocked multiplier
  • Newer PCI Express version โ€“ 5.0
Advantages of Apple M3 Max
  • More powerful Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) integrated graphics: 14.1 vs 0.7 TFLOPS
  • Around 332.8 GB/s (433%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • More modern manufacturing process โ€“ 3 versus 10 nanometers
  • Newer - released 2 years later
  • Has 6 more physical cores
  • 27% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 3227 vs 2547 points

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core i5 12600K
vs
M3 Max

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Core i5 12600K
109
M3 Max +30%
142
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Core i5 12600K
950
M3 Max +79%
1698
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) - 5133
Cinebench Scores (167th and 51st place)
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 12600K
2547
M3 Max +27%
3227
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Core i5 12600K
12200
M3 Max +74%
21167
File compression 822.6 MB/sec 2190 MB/sec
Clang compilation 98.7 Klines/sec 198.5 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 261.1 pages/sec 557.3 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 347.9 Mpixels/sec 648.9 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 258.5 pages/sec 309.1 pages/sec
Background blur 58.9 images/sec 68.9 images/sec
Photo processing 103.5 images/sec 183.5 images/sec
Ray tracing 22.8 Mpixels/sec 30.6 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] โ€“ 768 & 678 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Core i5 12600K
3917
M3 Max +22%
4780
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core i5 12600K
27512
M3 Max +50%
41211
Integer math 87.8 GOps/sec 91.2 GOps/sec
Floating point math 67.1 GOps/sec 131.5 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 90M Primes/sec 573M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 35.7M Strings/sec 61.7M Strings/sec
Data encryption 18.4 GBytes/sec 24.7 GBytes/sec
Data compression 342.8 MBytes/sec 530.4 MBytes/sec
Physics 1515 Frames/sec 4332 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 22B Matrices/sec 24.2B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] โ€“ 7007 & 409 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core i5 12600K
234.96
M3 Max +72%
403.83

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 7.6 PPW 30.3 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 97.6 PPW 378 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 220.1 PPW 735.9 PPW
Blender / Watt 1.88 PPW 7.21 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 12600K
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-12-28 (Jin)Cinebench 2024108 / 910
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-12-28 (Jin)Cinebench 2024108 / 906
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-12-20 (Kierannosaurus)Geekbench 6 CPU2668 / 12254
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-12-20 (Kierannosaurus)Cinebench 2024118 / 1041
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-12-05 (Kierannosaurus)Cinebench 2024115 / 1017
Add View all (10)
Apple M3 Max
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2024-09-27 (JayZeppelin)Cinebench 2024142 / 1698
๐Ÿ“˜ 2024-04-27 (Guest #1)Cinebench 2024141 / 1459
Add View all (2)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i5 12600K and Apple M3 Max

General

Vendor Intel Apple
Released October 27, 2021 October 30, 2023
Type Desktop Laptop
Instruction Set x86-64 ARMv8
Codename Alder Lake Apple M3
Model number i5-12600K -
Integrated GPU UHD Graphics 770 Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core)
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 5 5600X -
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus - Apple M5 Max (40-ัore GPU)
Intel CPU rating (#96th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 6 12
P-Threads 12 12
Base Frequency (P) 3.7 GHz 4.05 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 4.9 GHz -
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 4 4
E-Threads 4 4
Base Frequency (E) 2.8 GHz 2.75 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) 3.6 GHz -
Total
Total Cores 10 16
Total Threads 16 16
Bus Frequency 100 MHz -
Multiplier 37x 40x
L1 Cache 80K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 9728K (shared) 32MB (shared)
L3 Cache 20MB (shared) -
Unlocked Multiplier Yes No

Package

Transistors - 92 billions
Fabrication Process 10 nm 3 nm
TDP (PL1) 125 W 56 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) 150 W -
Socket LGA-1700 Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100ยฐC 100ยฐC
Desktop CPU ranking (#86th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 770 Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core)
GPU Base Clock 300 MHz 500 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1450 MHz 1380 MHz
Shading Units 256 5120
TMUs 16 320
ROPs 8 160
Execution Units 32 640
TGP 15 W 60 W
iGPU FLOPS
Core i5 12600K
0.7 TFLOPS
M3 Max +1914%
14.1 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) compared to UHD Graphics 770

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR5-4800
- DDR4-3200		 - LPDDR5-6400
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 128 GB
Memory Channels 2 32
Max. Memory Bandwidth 76.8 GB/s 409.6 GB/s
ECC Support Yes No

Misc

Official Site Intel Core i5 12600K official page -
PCI Express Version 5.0 4.0
PCI Express Lanes 20 -

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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M3 Max or Intel Core i5 12600K?
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