Home > CPU Comparison > Core i9 12900H or Apple M3: what's better?

Intel Core i9 12900H vs Apple M3

55 out of 100
Intel Core i9 12900H
VS
67 out of 100
Apple M3
Intel Core i9 12900H
Apple M3

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 2.5 GHz Intel Core i9 12900H with 14-cores against the 4.05 GHz Apple M3 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 M3 and 12900H
Advantages of Intel Core i9 12900H
  • Supports up to 64 GB DDR5-4800 RAM
  • Has 6 more physical cores
Advantages of Apple M3
  • More modern manufacturing process – 3 versus 10 nanometers
  • Newer - released 1 year and 10 months later
  • More powerful Apple M3 GPU integrated graphics: 3.5 vs 2.2 TFLOPS
  • 26% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 3009 vs 2397 points

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core i9 12900H
vs
Apple M3

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Core i9 12900H
107
Apple M3 +31%
140
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Core i9 12900H +38%
984
Apple M3
712
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) - 2341
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 M3 +26%
3009
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Core i9 12900H +1%
11964
Apple M3
11815
File compression 898.1 MB/sec 1260 MB/sec
Clang compilation 97.6 Klines/sec 94.7 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 270 pages/sec 264.5 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 325.3 Mpixels/sec 313.9 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 248.3 pages/sec 297 pages/sec
Background blur 52.7 images/sec 50.2 images/sec
Photo processing 94.2 images/sec 114.8 images/sec
Ray tracing 23.8 Mpixels/sec 12.9 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 626 & 438 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Core i9 12900H
3644
Apple M3 +29%
4707
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core i9 12900H +40%
26596
Apple M3
19065
Integer math 91.3 GOps/sec 42.6 GOps/sec
Floating point math 66 GOps/sec 48.3 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 104M Primes/sec 231M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 34.4M Strings/sec 27.3M Strings/sec
Data encryption 18 GBytes/sec 11.5 GBytes/sec
Data compression 308.2 MBytes/sec 225 MBytes/sec
Physics 1700 Frames/sec 1867 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 18.4B Matrices/sec 10B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 3998 & 1563 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core i9 12900H +31%
210.35
Apple M3
160.35

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 21.9 PPW 35.6 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 265.9 PPW 590.8 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 591 PPW 953.3 PPW
Blender / Watt 4.67 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 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 M3
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-22 (doannguyenmfs)Geekbench 6 CPU2991 / 11735
πŸ“˜ 2026-06-16 (darkknightSup)Geekbench 6 CPU2990 / 11498
Add View all (2)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i9 12900H and Apple M3

General

Vendor Intel Apple
Released January 4, 2022 October 30, 2023
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set x86-64 ARMv8
Codename Alder Lake Apple M3
Model number i9-12900H -
Integrated GPU Iris Xe Graphics (96EU) Apple M3 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 4.05 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 5 GHz -
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 8 4
E-Threads 8 4
Base Frequency (E) 1.8 GHz 2.75 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) 3.8 GHz -
Total
Total Cores 14 8
Total Threads 20 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 24MB (shared) -
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Transistors - 25 billions
Fabrication Process 10 nm 3 nm
TDP (PL1) 35-45 W (configurable) 20 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) 115 W -
Socket BGA-1744 Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100Β°C 100Β°C
Laptop processors ranking (152nd and 68th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel Iris Xe Graphics (96EU) Apple M3 GPU
GPU Base Clock 300 MHz 500 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1450 MHz 1380 MHz
Shading Units 768 1280
TMUs 48 80
ROPs 24 40
Execution Units 96 160
TGP 15 W 15 W
iGPU FLOPS
Core i9 12900H
2.2 TFLOPS
Apple M3 +59%
3.5 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M3 GPU (10-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 24 GB
Memory Channels 2 8
Max. Memory Bandwidth - 102.4 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
8 (57.1%)
6 (42.9%)
Total votes: 14

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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M3 or Intel Core i9 12900H?
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