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

Intel Core i9 12900K vs Apple M3

68 out of 100
Intel Core i9 12900K
VS
65 out of 100
Apple M3
Intel Core i9 12900K
Apple M3

We compared two CPUs: the 3,2 GHz Intel Core i9 12900K (desktop) with 16-cores against the 4.05 GHz Apple M3 (laptop) 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
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 M3 and 12900K
Advantages of Intel Core i9 12900K
  • Supports up to 128 GB DDR5-4800 RAM
  • Has 8 more physical cores
  • Unlocked multiplier
  • Newer PCI Express version – 5.0
Advantages of Apple M3
  • More powerful Apple M3 GPU integrated graphics: 3.5 vs 0.8 TFLOPS
  • More modern manufacturing process – 3 versus 10 nanometers
  • Newer - released 2 years later
  • Around 25.6 GB/s (33%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • 14% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 3009 vs 2633 points

Test in Benchmarks

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

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Core i9 12900K
109
Apple M3 +28%
140
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Core i9 12900K +114%
1526
Apple M3
712
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) - 2341
Cinebench Scores (#63rd 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 12900K
2633
Apple M3 +14%
3009
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Core i9 12900K +44%
17003
Apple M3
11815
File compression 1260 MB/sec 1260 MB/sec
Clang compilation 146.1 Klines/sec 94.7 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 414.2 pages/sec 264.5 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 480.2 Mpixels/sec 313.9 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 273.2 pages/sec 297 pages/sec
Background blur 69.4 images/sec 50.2 images/sec
Photo processing 147.8 images/sec 114.8 images/sec
Ray tracing 34.4 Mpixels/sec 12.9 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 461 & 438 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Core i9 12900K
4128
Apple M3 +14%
4707
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core i9 12900K +116%
41115
Apple M3
19065
Integer math 139.2 GOps/sec 42.6 GOps/sec
Floating point math 105.4 GOps/sec 48.3 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 145M Primes/sec 231M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 57.1M Strings/sec 27.3M Strings/sec
Data encryption 29.5 GBytes/sec 11.5 GBytes/sec
Data compression 536.7 MBytes/sec 225 MBytes/sec
Physics 2203 Frames/sec 1867 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 33.6B Matrices/sec 10B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 11364 & 1563 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core i9 12900K +129%
366.86
Apple M3
160.35

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 12.2 PPW 35.6 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 136 PPW 590.8 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 328.9 PPW 953.3 PPW
Blender / Watt 2.93 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 12900K
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2025-11-12 (ElNils)Cinebench 2024114 / 1497
πŸ“˜ 2025-09-20 (Jarx)Geekbench 6 CPU2811 / 18033
πŸ“˜ 2025-05-24 (unsorted)Cinebench 2024109 / 1339
πŸ“˜ 2025-04-03 (AdKraemer)Cinebench 2024113 / 1414
πŸ“˜ 2025-03-20 (Lethal)Cinebench 2024116 / 1571
Add View all (8)
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 12900K and Apple M3

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 i9-12900K -
Integrated GPU UHD Graphics 770 Apple M3 GPU
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 9 5950X -
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 9 285K - Apple M5 (10-Core)
Intel CPU rating (#53rd place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 8 4
P-Threads 16 4
Base Frequency (P) 3,2 GHz 4.05 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 5.1 GHz -
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 8 4
E-Threads 8 4
Base Frequency (E) 2.4 GHz 2.75 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) 3.9 GHz -
Total
Total Cores 16 8
Total Threads 24 8
Bus Frequency 100 MHz -
Multiplier 32x 40x
L1 Cache 64K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 14MB (shared) 16MB (shared)
L3 Cache 30MB (shared) -
Unlocked Multiplier Yes No

Package

Transistors - 25 billions
Fabrication Process 10 nm 3 nm
TDP (PL1) 125 W 20 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) 241 W -
Socket LGA-1700 Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100Β°C 100Β°C
Desktop CPU ranking (#54th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 770 Apple M3 GPU
GPU Base Clock 300 MHz 500 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1550 MHz 1380 MHz
Shading Units 256 1280
TMUs 16 80
ROPs 8 40
Execution Units 32 160
TGP 15 W 15 W
iGPU FLOPS
Core i9 12900K
0.8 TFLOPS
Apple M3 +338%
3.5 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M3 GPU (10-core) compared to UHD Graphics 770

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR5-4800
- DDR4-3200		 - LPDDR5-6400
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 24 GB
Memory Channels 2 8
Max. Memory Bandwidth 76.8 GB/s 102.4 GB/s
ECC Support Yes No

Misc

Official Site Intel Core i9 12900K official page -
PCI Express Version 5.0 4.0
PCI Express Lanes 20 -

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
2 (28.6%)
5 (71.4%)
Total votes: 7

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Comments

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