Home > CPU Comparison > Core i9 9900K or M3 Max: what's better?

Intel Core i9 9900K vs Apple M3 Max

41 out of 100
Intel Core i9 9900K
VS
83 out of 100
Apple M3 Max
Intel Core i9 9900K
Apple M3 Max

We compared two CPUs: the 3.6 GHz Intel Core i9 9900K (desktop) with 8-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
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
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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 Max and 9900K
Advantages of Intel Core i9 9900K
  • Unlocked multiplier
Advantages of Apple M3 Max
  • More powerful Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) integrated graphics: 14.1 vs 0.5 TFLOPS
  • Around 368 GB/s (885%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • More modern manufacturing process – 3 versus 14 nanometers
  • Newer - released 5 years and 2 months later
  • Has 8 more physical cores
  • 2x faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 3227 vs 1621 points
  • Newer PCI Express version – 4.0

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core i9 9900K
vs
M3 Max

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Core i9 9900K
79
M3 Max +80%
142
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Core i9 9900K
706
M3 Max +141%
1698
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) - 5133
Cinebench Scores (#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)
Core i9 9900K
1621
M3 Max +99%
3227
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Core i9 9900K
8151
M3 Max +160%
21167
File compression 545.7 MB/sec 2190 MB/sec
Clang compilation 67.7 Klines/sec 198.5 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 175.1 pages/sec 557.3 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 275.6 Mpixels/sec 648.9 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 159 pages/sec 309.1 pages/sec
Background blur 40.4 images/sec 68.9 images/sec
Photo processing 68.6 images/sec 183.5 images/sec
Ray tracing 14.5 Mpixels/sec 30.6 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 610 & 678 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Core i9 9900K
2911
M3 Max +64%
4780
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core i9 9900K
18059
M3 Max +128%
41211
Integer math 66.1 GOps/sec 91.2 GOps/sec
Floating point math 41 GOps/sec 131.5 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 46M Primes/sec 573M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 36.1M Strings/sec 61.7M Strings/sec
Data encryption 6.3 GBytes/sec 24.7 GBytes/sec
Data compression 282.6 MBytes/sec 530.4 MBytes/sec
Physics 929 Frames/sec 4332 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 19B Matrices/sec 24.2B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 17571 & 409 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core i9 9900K
178.22
M3 Max +127%
403.83

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 7.4 PPW 30.3 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 85.8 PPW 378 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 190.1 PPW 735.9 PPW
Blender / Watt 1.88 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 9900K
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-01-01 (Mr Scare)Cinebench 202479 / 662
📘 2025-08-09 (EndOfTheWorld77)Cinebench 202478 / 591
📘 2024-03-28 (Gribbstar)Cinebench 202479 / 706
Add View all (3)
Apple M3 Max
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2024-09-27 (JayZeppelin)Cinebench 2024142 / 1698
📘 2024-04-27 (Guest #1)Cinebench 2024141 / 1459
Add View all (2)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i9 9900K and Apple M3 Max

General

Vendor Intel Apple
Released October 8, 2018 October 30, 2023
Type Desktop Laptop
Instruction Set x86-64 ARMv8
Codename Coffee Lake Apple M3
Model number i9-9900K -
Integrated GPU UHD Graphics 630 Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core)
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 9 3900X -
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 9 285K - Apple M5 Max (40-сore GPU)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 8 12
P-Threads 16 12
Base Frequency (P) 3.6 GHz 4.05 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 5 GHz -
Efficient Cores
E-Cores - 4
E-Threads - 4
Base Frequency (E) - 2.75 GHz
Total
Total Cores 8 16
Total Threads 16 16
Bus Frequency 100 MHz -
Multiplier 36x 40x
Bus Bandwidth 8 GT/s -
L1 Cache 64K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 256K (per core) 32MB (shared)
L3 Cache 16MB (shared) -
Unlocked Multiplier Yes No

Package

Transistors - 92 billions
Fabrication Process 14 nm 3 nm
TDP (PL1) 95 W 56 W
Socket LGA-1151 Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100°C 100°C
Desktop CPU ranking (#145th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 630 Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core)
GPU Base Clock 350 MHz 500 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1200 MHz 1380 MHz
Shading Units 192 5120
TMUs 24 320
ROPs 3 160
Execution Units 24 640
TGP 15 W 60 W
iGPU FLOPS
Core i9 9900K
0.5 TFLOPS
M3 Max +2720%
14.1 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) compared to UHD Graphics 630

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR4-2666 - LPDDR5-6400
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 128 GB
Memory Channels 2 32
Max. Memory Bandwidth 41.6 GB/s 409.6 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

Official Site Intel Core i9 9900K official page -
PCI Express Version 3.0 4.0
PCI Express Lanes 16 -

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
1 (12.5%)
7 (87.5%)
Total votes: 8

Competitors

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4. Intel Core i9 9900K vs Intel Core i7 14700K
5. Intel Core i9 9900K vs Apple M3
6. Apple M3 Max vs Apple M4 Ultra
7. Apple M3 Max vs Apple M4 Pro (12-Core)
8. Apple M3 Max vs Apple M2 Ultra
9. Apple M3 Max vs Apple M4 Max (16-Core) (1)
10. Apple M3 Max vs Intel Core i9 14900K (10)
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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M3 Max or Intel Core i9 9900K?
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