Home > CPU Comparison > Core i9 14900KF or M3 Max: what's better?

Intel Core i9 14900KF vs Apple M3 Max

85 out of 100
Intel Core i9 14900KF
VS
83 out of 100
Apple M3 Max
Intel Core i9 14900KF
Apple M3 Max

We compared two CPUs: the 3.2 GHz Intel Core i9 14900KF (desktop) with 24-cores against the 4.05 GHz Apple M3 Max (laptop) with 16-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
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.
๐Ÿ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Value for money (Beta)

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

Key Differences

What are the key differences between Max and 14900KF
Advantages of Intel Core i9 14900KF
  • Unlocked multiplier
  • Has 8 more physical cores
  • Supports up to 192 GB DDR5-5600 RAM
  • Newer PCI Express version โ€“ 5.0
Advantages of Apple M3 Max
  • Around 320 GB/s (357%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • More modern manufacturing process โ€“ 3 versus 10 nanometers
  • Includes an integrated GPU Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core)

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core i9 14900KF
vs
M3 Max

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Core i9 14900KF
129
M3 Max +10%
142
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Core i9 14900KF +22%
2071
M3 Max
1698
Cinebench 2026 (Single) 690 -
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) 7372 5133
Cinebench Scores (19th and 51st 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)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Core i9 14900KF
20374
M3 Max +4%
21167
File compression 1590 MB/sec 2190 MB/sec
Clang compilation 200.6 Klines/sec 198.5 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 491.5 pages/sec 557.3 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 554.9 Mpixels/sec 648.9 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 315.7 pages/sec 309.1 pages/sec
Background blur 74.9 images/sec 68.9 images/sec
Photo processing 151.1 images/sec 183.5 images/sec
Ray tracing 44.2 Mpixels/sec 30.6 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] โ€“ 908 & 678 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Core i9 14900KF
4688
M3 Max +2%
4780
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core i9 14900KF +41%
58065
M3 Max
41211
Integer math 208.3 GOps/sec 91.2 GOps/sec
Floating point math 151.4 GOps/sec 131.5 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 228M Primes/sec 573M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 86.4M Strings/sec 61.7M Strings/sec
Data encryption 46.2 GBytes/sec 24.7 GBytes/sec
Data compression 780.5 MBytes/sec 530.4 MBytes/sec
Physics 3112 Frames/sec 4332 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 44.5B Matrices/sec 24.2B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] โ€“ 7403 & 409 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core i9 14900KF +28%
516.28
M3 Max
403.83

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 16.6 PPW 30.3 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 163 PPW 378 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 464.5 PPW 735.9 PPW
Blender / Watt 4.13 PPW 7.21 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 14900KF
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-08-04 (muffo)Cinebench 2026690 / 7372
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-05-06 (Alfredo)Cinebench 2024133 / 1883
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-01-15 (crysis1974)Cinebench 2024135 / 2070
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-01-15 (crysis1974)Cinebench 2024135 / 2070
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-01-04 (JJ)Cinebench 2024126 / 2086
Add View all (18)
Apple M3 Max
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2024-09-27 (JayZeppelin)Cinebench 2024142 / 1698
๐Ÿ“˜ 2024-04-27 (Guest #1)Cinebench 2024141 / 1459
Add View all (2)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i9 14900KF and Apple M3 Max

General

Vendor Intel Apple
Released October 16, 2023 October 30, 2023
Type Desktop Laptop
Instruction Set x86-64 ARMv8
Codename Raptor Lake Refresh Apple M3
Model number i9-14900KF -
Integrated GPU No Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core)
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 9 7900X -
Successor - - Apple M5 Max (40-ัore GPU)
Intel CPU rating (#9th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 8 12
P-Threads 16 12
Base Frequency (P) 3.2 GHz 4.05 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 6 GHz -
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 16 4
E-Threads 16 4
Base Frequency (E) 2.4 GHz 2.75 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) 4.4 GHz -
Total
Total Cores 24 16
Total Threads 32 16
Bus Frequency 100 MHz -
Multiplier 32x 40x
L1 Cache 80K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 2MB (per core) 32MB (shared)
L3 Cache 36MB (shared) -
Unlocked Multiplier Yes No

Package

Transistors - 92 billions
Fabrication Process 10 nm 3 nm
TDP (PL1) 125 W 56 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) 253 W -
Socket LGA-1700 Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100ยฐC 100ยฐC
Desktop CPU ranking (#16th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics - Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core)
GPU Base Clock - 500 MHz
GPU Boost Clock - 1380 MHz
Shading Units - 5120
TMUs - 320
ROPs - 160
Execution Units - 640
TGP - 60 W
iGPU FLOPS
Core i9 14900KF
n/a
M3 Max
14.1 TFLOPS
See: Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) benchmarks

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR5-5600
- DDR4-3200		 - LPDDR5-6400
Max. Memory Size 192 GB 128 GB
Memory Channels 2 32
Max. Memory Bandwidth 89.6 GB/s 409.6 GB/s
ECC Support Yes No

Misc

Official Site Intel Core i9 14900KF official page -
PCI Express Version 5.0 4.0
PCI Express Lanes 20 -

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
60 (77.9%)
17 (22.1%)
Total votes: 77

Competitors

1. Intel Core i9 14900KF vs Intel Core i9 14900K
2. Intel Core i9 14900KF vs Intel Core i9 13900KF
3. Intel Core i9 14900KF vs Intel Core i9 14900F
4. Intel Core i9 14900KF vs AMD Ryzen 9 7950X
5. Intel Core i9 14900KF vs Intel Core i7 14700KF
6. Apple M3 Max vs Apple M4 Max (16-Core) (1)
7. Apple M3 Max vs Apple M2 Ultra
8. Apple M3 Max vs Apple M4 Ultra
9. Apple M3 Max vs Apple M4 Pro (12-Core)
10. Apple M3 Max vs Apple M4 (10-Core) (2)
Compare other CPUs (460+)

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M3 Max or Intel Core i9 14900KF?
๐ŸŒ Register your profile and become part of DeviceFacts community!
Englishะ ัƒััะบะธะน