Home > CPU Comparison > Core i9 12900H or Apple M1: what's better?

Intel Core i9 12900H vs Apple M1

55 out of 100
Intel Core i9 12900H
VS
53 out of 100
Apple M1
Intel Core i9 12900H
Apple M1

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 2.5 GHz Intel Core i9 12900H with 14-cores against the 3.2 GHz Apple M1 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
DeviceFacts Final Score
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
πŸ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Key Differences

What are the key differences between M1 and 12900H
Advantages of Intel Core i9 12900H
  • Supports up to 64 GB DDR5-4800 RAM
  • Has 6 more physical cores
  • Newer - released 1 year and 2 months later
Advantages of Apple M1
  • More modern manufacturing process – 5 versus 10 nanometers
  • More powerful Apple M1 GPU integrated graphics: 2.6 vs 2.2 TFLOPS

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core i9 12900H
vs
Apple M1

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Core i9 12900H
107
Apple M1 +3%
110
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Core i9 12900H +87%
984
Apple M1
525
Cinebench Scores (#157th 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 i9 12900H
2397
Apple M1 +1%
2410
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Core i9 12900H +40%
11964
Apple M1
8547
File compression 898.1 MB/sec 941 MB/sec
Clang compilation 97.6 Klines/sec 68.2 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 270 pages/sec 192.4 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 325.3 Mpixels/sec 211.9 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 248.3 pages/sec 250.8 pages/sec
Background blur 52.7 images/sec 34.1 images/sec
Photo processing 94.2 images/sec 60.9 images/sec
Ray tracing 23.8 Mpixels/sec 9.74 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 626 & 760 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Core i9 12900H
3644
Apple M1 +1%
3673
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core i9 12900H +88%
26596
Apple M1
14123
Integer math 91.3 GOps/sec 33.2 GOps/sec
Floating point math 66 GOps/sec 35.5 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 104M Primes/sec 141M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 34.4M Strings/sec 21M Strings/sec
Data encryption 18 GBytes/sec 8.5 GBytes/sec
Data compression 308.2 MBytes/sec 168 MBytes/sec
Physics 1700 Frames/sec 1359 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 18.4B Matrices/sec 7B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 3998 & 10702 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core i9 12900H +121%
210.35
Apple M1
95.27

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 21.9 PPW 37.5 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 265.9 PPW 610.5 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 591 PPW 1008.8 PPW
Blender / Watt 4.67 PPW 6.81 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 i9 12900H
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2025-11-21 (Robert L)Cinebench 2024104 / 765
πŸ“˜ 2025-05-02 (Toksik Vegeta)Cinebench 2024107 / 984
Add View all (2)
Apple M1
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-25 -> op1Geekbench 6 CPU2273 / 7967
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-24 -> op1Geekbench 6 CPU2420 / 8793
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-06 (gaR)Geekbench 6 CPU2396 / 8763
πŸ“˜ 2025-04-11 (Ario)Geekbench 6 CPU2395 / 8820
πŸ“˜ 2025-04-11 (Ario)Cinebench 2024110 / 465
Add View all (8)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i9 12900H and Apple M1

General

Vendor Intel Apple
Released January 4, 2022 November 20, 2020
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set x86-64 ARMv8
Codename Alder Lake Apple M1
Model number i9-12900H -
Integrated GPU Iris Xe Graphics (96EU) Apple M1 GPU
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS -
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 9 288V - Apple M5 (10-Core)
Intel CPU rating (#115th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 6 4
P-Threads 12 4
Base Frequency (P) 2.5 GHz 3.2 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 5 GHz -
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 8 4
E-Threads 8 4
Base Frequency (E) 1.8 GHz 2.1 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) 3.8 GHz -
Total
Total Cores 14 8
Total Threads 20 8
Bus Frequency 100 MHz -
Multiplier 25x -
L1 Cache 80K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 1280K (per core) 12MB (shared)
L3 Cache 24MB (shared) -
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Transistors - 16 billions
Fabrication Process 10 nm 5 nm
TDP (PL1) 35-45 W (configurable) 14 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) 115 W -
Socket BGA-1744 Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100Β°C -
Laptop processors ranking (152nd and 172nd place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel Iris Xe Graphics (96EU) Apple M1 GPU
GPU Base Clock 300 MHz 450 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1450 MHz 1278 MHz
Shading Units 768 1024
TMUs 48 64
ROPs 24 32
Execution Units 96 128
TGP 15 W 15 W
iGPU FLOPS
Core i9 12900H
2.2 TFLOPS
Apple M1 +18%
2.6 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M1 GPU (8-core) compared to Iris Xe Graphics G7 (96EU)

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR5-4800
- DDR4-3200
- LPDDR5-5200
- LPDDR4x-4267		 - LPDDR4X-4266
Max. Memory Size 64 GB 16 GB
Memory Channels 2 8
Max. Memory Bandwidth - 68.25 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

Official Site Intel Core i9 12900H official page -
PCI Express Version 4.0 4.0
PCI Express Lanes 28 -

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
51 (69.9%)
22 (30.1%)
Total votes: 73

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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M1 or Intel Core i9 12900H?
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