Home > CPU Comparison > Core i9 12900H or M2 Pro: what's better?

Intel Core i9 12900H vs Apple M2 Pro

55 out of 100
Intel Core i9 12900H
VS
65 out of 100
Apple M2 Pro
Intel Core i9 12900H
Apple M2 Pro

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 2.5 GHz Intel Core i9 12900H with 14-cores against the 3.5 GHz Apple M2 Pro with 12-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 2 more physical cores
Advantages of Apple M2 Pro
  • More powerful Apple M2 Pro GPU (19-core) integrated graphics: 6.8 vs 2.2 TFLOPS
  • More modern manufacturing process – 5 versus 10 nanometers
  • Supports quad-channel memory
  • Newer - released 1 year later
  • 11% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 2666 vs 2397 points

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core i9 12900H
vs
M2 Pro

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Core i9 12900H
107
M2 Pro +17%
125
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Core i9 12900H +24%
984
M2 Pro
795
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
M2 Pro +11%
2666
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Core i9 12900H
11964
M2 Pro +21%
14489
File compression 898.1 MB/sec 1630 MB/sec
Clang compilation 97.6 Klines/sec 125.3 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 270 pages/sec 356.9 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 325.3 Mpixels/sec 352.9 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 248.3 pages/sec 266.9 pages/sec
Background blur 52.7 images/sec 53.8 images/sec
Photo processing 94.2 images/sec 126.3 images/sec
Ray tracing 23.8 Mpixels/sec 17 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 626 & 917 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Core i9 12900H
3644
M2 Pro +12%
4089
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core i9 12900H
26596
M2 Pro
26724
Integer math 91.3 GOps/sec 57.6 GOps/sec
Floating point math 66 GOps/sec 73.2 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 104M Primes/sec 354M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 34.4M Strings/sec 40.9M Strings/sec
Data encryption 18 GBytes/sec 15.6 GBytes/sec
Data compression 308.2 MBytes/sec 334.8 MBytes/sec
Physics 1700 Frames/sec 3611 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 18.4B Matrices/sec 14.7B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 3998 & 584 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core i9 12900H +6%
210.35
M2 Pro
198.23

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 483 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 591 PPW 890.8 PPW
Blender / Watt 4.67 PPW 6.61 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 M2 Pro
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2025-04-23 (Roman)Cinebench 2024125 / 795
Add View all (1)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i9 12900H and Apple M2 Pro

General

Vendor Intel Apple
Released January 4, 2022 January 17, 2023
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set x86-64 ARMv8
Codename Alder Lake Apple M2
Model number i9-12900H -
Integrated GPU Iris Xe Graphics (96EU) Apple M2 Pro GPU (19-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 3.5 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 5 GHz -
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 8 4
E-Threads 8 4
Base Frequency (E) 1.8 GHz 2.4 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) 3.8 GHz -
Total
Total Cores 14 12
Total Threads 20 12
Bus Frequency 100 MHz -
Multiplier 25x -
L1 Cache 80K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 1280K (per core) 32MB (shared)
L3 Cache 24MB (shared) -
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Transistors - 40 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 100Β°C
Laptop processors ranking (152nd and 74th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel Iris Xe Graphics (96EU) Apple M2 Pro GPU (19-core)
GPU Base Clock 300 MHz 450 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1450 MHz 1398 MHz
Shading Units 768 2432
TMUs 48 152
ROPs 24 76
Execution Units 96 304
TGP 15 W 35 W
iGPU FLOPS
Core i9 12900H
2.2 TFLOPS
M2 Pro +209%
6.8 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M2 Pro GPU (19-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 4
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 4.0
PCI Express Lanes 28 -

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
28 (47.5%)
31 (52.5%)
Total votes: 59

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6. Apple M2 Pro vs Apple M4 (10-Core)
7. Apple M2 Pro vs Apple M4 Pro (14-Core) (2)
8. Apple M2 Pro vs Apple M1 Pro (1)
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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M2 Pro or Intel Core i9 12900H?
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