Intel Core i9 13900K vs Apple M3 Ultra

82 out of 100
Intel Core i9 13900K
VS
95 out of 100
Apple M3 Ultra

We compared two desktop CPUs: the 3.0 GHz Intel Core i9 13900K with 24-cores against the 4.05 GHz Apple M3 Ultra with 32-cores. On this page, you'll find out which processor has better performance in benchmarks, games and other useful information.

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.
πŸ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Value for money (Beta)

Global average CPU prices are used by default! For better accuracy, enter your current prices and click β€œCalculate".
Currency
VS

Key Differences

What are the key differences between Ultra and 13900K
Advantages of Intel Core i9 13900K
  • Unlocked multiplier
Advantages of Apple M3 Ultra
  • More powerful Apple M3 Ultra GPU (80-core) integrated graphics: 28.3 vs 0.8 TFLOPS
  • Around 729.7 GB/s (814%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • More modern manufacturing process – 3 versus 10 nanometers
  • Supports up to 512 GB LPDDR5-6400 RAM
  • Newer - released 2 years and 5 months later
  • Has 8 more physical cores
  • 11% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 3266 vs 2939 points

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
M3 Ultra +14%
141
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
M3 Ultra +58%
2994
Cinebench 2026 (Single) 673 -
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) 8146 11987
Cinebench Scores (35th and 2nd place)

GeekBench v6

The new version of this benchmark emulates common operations often used in real-world apps
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
M3 Ultra +11%
3266
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
M3 Ultra +45%
29755
File compression 1570 MB/sec 2690 MB/sec
Clang compilation 193.2 Klines/sec 319.2 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 477 pages/sec 819.6 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 560.7 Mpixels/sec 701.5 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 301.8 pages/sec 327.5 pages/sec
Background blur 75.8 images/sec 63.2 images/sec
Photo processing 162.5 images/sec 190.9 images/sec
Ray tracing 43.5 Mpixels/sec 61.5 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 683 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
M3 Ultra +10%
5064
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
M3 Ultra +25%
72850
Integer math 206.4 GOps/sec 181.6 GOps/sec
Floating point math 150.5 GOps/sec 183.5 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 232M Primes/sec 1063M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 86.9M Strings/sec 123.1M Strings/sec
Data encryption 46.2 GBytes/sec 49.4 GBytes/sec
Data compression 785.8 MBytes/sec 1076.9 MBytes/sec
Physics 3101 Frames/sec 8863 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 46B Matrices/sec 55.1B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 12796 & 27 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
M3 Ultra +35%
717.7

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 15.2 PPW 21.4 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 164 PPW 212.5 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 464.7 PPW 520.4 PPW
Blender / Watt 4.24 PPW 5.13 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 13900K
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-27 (Marcus Kuronen)Cinebench 2026645 / 7225
πŸ“˜ 2026-07-11 (Nagambie)Cinebench 2026673 / 8146
πŸ“˜ 2026-05-09 (veshelya)Cinebench 2024133 / 941
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-23 (Rohit007)Cinebench 2024124 / 1906
πŸ“˜ 2025-11-09 (LieInMyEyes)Cinebench 2024126 / 1771
Apple M3 Ultra
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2025-08-13 (Losito)Cinebench 202493 / 2422
πŸ“˜ 2025-03-17 (Luigi9212)Cinebench 2024148 / 2818
πŸ“˜ 2025-03-16 (Tyler)Cinebench 2024133 / 2753

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i9 13900K and Apple M3 Ultra

General

Vendor Intel Apple
Released September 27, 2022 March 5, 2025
Type Desktop Desktop
Instruction Set x86-64 ARMv8
Codename Raptor Lake Apple M3
Model number i9-13900K -
Integrated GPU UHD Graphics 770 Apple M3 Ultra GPU (80-core)
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 9 7900X -
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 9 285K -
Intel CPU rating (#14th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 8 24
P-Threads 16 24
Base Frequency (P) 3.0 GHz 4.05 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 5.4 GHz -
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 16 8
E-Threads 16 8
Base Frequency (E) 2.2 GHz 2.75 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) 4.3 GHz -
Total
Total Cores 24 32
Total Threads 32 32
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 30x 40x
L1 Cache 80K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 2MB (per core) 64MB (shared)
L3 Cache 36MB (shared) -
Unlocked Multiplier Yes No

Package

Transistors - 184 billions
Fabrication Process 10 nm 3 nm
TDP (PL1) 125 W 140 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) 253 W -
Socket LGA-1700 Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100Β°C 100Β°C
Desktop CPU ranking (21st and 4th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 770 Apple M3 Ultra GPU (80-core)
GPU Base Clock 300 MHz -
GPU Boost Clock 1650 MHz 1380 MHz
Shading Units 256 10240
TMUs 16 640
ROPs 8 320
Execution Units 32 1280
TGP 15 W 140 W
iGPU FLOPS
0.8 TFLOPS
M3 Ultra +3438%
28.3 TFLOPS

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR5-5600
- DDR4-3200
- LPDDR5-6400
Max. Memory Size 192 GB 512 GB
Memory Channels 2 64
Max. Memory Bandwidth 89.6 GB/s 819.3 GB/s
ECC Support Yes No

Misc

Official Site Intel Core i9 13900K official page -
PCI Express Version 5.0 -
PCI Express Lanes 20 -

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
2 (50%)
2 (50%)
Total votes: 4

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M3 Ultra or Intel Core i9 13900K?
🌐 Register your profile and become part of DeviceFacts community!