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

Intel Core i9 12900H vs Apple M1 Pro

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

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 2.5 GHz Intel Core i9 12900H with 14-cores against the 3.2 GHz Apple M1 Pro with 10-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 Pro and 12900H
Advantages of Intel Core i9 12900H
  • Supports up to 64 GB DDR5-4800 RAM
  • Has 4 more physical cores
Advantages of Apple M1 Pro
  • More powerful Apple M1 Pro GPU (16-core) integrated graphics: 5.3 vs 2.2 TFLOPS
  • More modern manufacturing process – 5 versus 10 nanometers

Test in Benchmarks

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

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Core i9 12900H
107
M1 Pro +2%
109
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Core i9 12900H +24%
984
M1 Pro
796
Cinebench 2026 (Single) - 444
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) - 3334
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 +3%
2397
M1 Pro
2328
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Core i9 12900H +16%
11964
M1 Pro
10305
File compression 898.1 MB/sec 1230 MB/sec
Clang compilation 97.6 Klines/sec 82.4 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 270 pages/sec 249.1 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 325.3 Mpixels/sec 271.3 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 248.3 pages/sec 246.4 pages/sec
Background blur 52.7 images/sec 36.9 images/sec
Photo processing 94.2 images/sec 102.5 images/sec
Ray tracing 23.8 Mpixels/sec 10.7 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 626 & 593 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Core i9 12900H
3644
M1 Pro +4%
3795
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core i9 12900H +21%
26596
M1 Pro
21934
Integer math 91.3 GOps/sec 45.6 GOps/sec
Floating point math 66 GOps/sec 64 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 104M Primes/sec 272M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 34.4M Strings/sec 32.5M Strings/sec
Data encryption 18 GBytes/sec 12.2 GBytes/sec
Data compression 308.2 MBytes/sec 272.2 MBytes/sec
Physics 1700 Frames/sec 2696 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 18.4B Matrices/sec 12.6B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 3998 & 2437 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core i9 12900H +13%
210.35
M1 Pro
186.87

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 21.9 PPW 26.5 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 265.9 PPW 343.5 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 591 PPW 731.1 PPW
Blender / Watt 4.67 PPW 6.23 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 Pro
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-27 (bbffx)Geekbench 6 CPU2450 / 12944
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-27 (bbffx)Cinebench 2026444 / 3334
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-27 (bbffx)Cinebench 2024115 / 857
πŸ“˜ 2025-02-23 (anon121434)Cinebench 202499 / 682
πŸ“˜ 2025-02-19 (serhii)Cinebench 2024109 / 796
Add View all (7)

Specifications

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

General

Vendor Intel Apple
Released January 4, 2022 October 18, 2021
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 Pro GPU (16-core)
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS -
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 9 288V - Apple M5 Pro (18-Core)
Intel CPU rating (#115th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 6 8
P-Threads 12 8
Base Frequency (P) 2.5 GHz 3.2 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 5 GHz -
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 8 2
E-Threads 8 2
Base Frequency (E) 1.8 GHz 2.1 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) 3.8 GHz -
Total
Total Cores 14 10
Total Threads 20 10
Bus Frequency 100 MHz -
Multiplier 25x -
L1 Cache 80K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 1280K (per core) 24MB (shared)
L3 Cache 24MB (shared) -
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Transistors - 33.7 billions
Fabrication Process 10 nm 5 nm
TDP (PL1) 35-45 W (configurable) 30 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) 115 W -
Socket BGA-1744 Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100Β°C -
Laptop processors ranking (152nd and 124th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel Iris Xe Graphics (96EU) Apple M1 Pro GPU (16-core)
GPU Base Clock 300 MHz 450 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1450 MHz 1296 MHz
Shading Units 768 2048
TMUs 48 128
ROPs 24 64
Execution Units 96 256
TGP 15 W 30 W
iGPU FLOPS
Core i9 12900H
2.2 TFLOPS
M1 Pro +141%
5.3 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M1 Pro GPU (16-core) compared to Iris Xe Graphics G7 (96EU)

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR5-4800
- DDR4-3200
- LPDDR5-5200
- LPDDR4x-4267		 - LPDDR5-6400
Max. Memory Size 64 GB 32 GB
Memory Channels 2 2
Max. Memory Bandwidth - 204.8 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

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

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
128 (63.1%)
75 (36.9%)
Total votes: 203

Competitors

1. Intel Core i9 12900H vs Apple M4 (10-Core) (4)
2. Intel Core i9 12900H vs AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS
3. Intel Core i9 12900H vs Intel Core i9 13900H
4. Apple M1 Pro vs Apple M3 Pro (10)
5. Apple M1 Pro vs Apple M2 (1)
6. Apple M1 Pro vs Apple M3 (17)
7. Apple M1 Pro vs Apple M4 Pro (12-Core)
8. Apple M1 Pro vs Apple M3 Max (1)
9. Apple M1 Pro vs Apple M4 (10-Core) (7)
10. Apple M1 Pro vs Apple M2 Pro (1)
Compare other CPUs (460+)

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M1 Pro or Intel Core i9 12900H?
🌐 Register your profile and become part of DeviceFacts community!
EnglishРусский