Intel Core i9 9900K vs Apple M4 Pro (12-Core)

We compared two CPUs: the 3.6 GHz Intel Core i9 9900K (desktop) with 8-cores against the 4.51 GHz Apple M4 Pro (12-Core) (laptop) with 12-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.
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Value for money (Beta)

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Key Differences

What are the key differences between (12-Core) and 9900K
Advantages of Intel Core i9 9900K
  • Unlocked multiplier
  • Supports up to 128 GB DDR4-2666 RAM
Advantages of Apple M4 Pro (12-Core)
  • More powerful Apple M4 Pro GPU (16-core) integrated graphics: 6.5 vs 0.5 TFLOPS
  • Around 231.4 GB/s (556%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • More modern manufacturing process – 3 versus 14 nanometers
  • Newer - released 6 years and 2 months later
  • 2.4x faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 3864 vs 1621 points
  • Has 4 more physical cores

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) - 5470
Cinebench Scores (#80th place)

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)
20499
File compression 545.7 MB/sec 2120 MB/sec
Clang compilation 67.7 Klines/sec 165.8 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 175.1 pages/sec 484.7 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 275.6 Mpixels/sec 486.8 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 159 pages/sec 368.5 pages/sec
Background blur 40.4 images/sec 84.2 images/sec
Photo processing 68.6 images/sec 189.3 images/sec
Ray tracing 14.5 Mpixels/sec 25.9 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 610 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
32710
Integer math 66.1 GOps/sec 70.9 GOps/sec
Floating point math 41 GOps/sec 71.5 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 46M Primes/sec 460M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 36.1M Strings/sec 46.4M Strings/sec
Data encryption 6.3 GBytes/sec 19.5 GBytes/sec
Data compression 282.6 MBytes/sec 409.9 MBytes/sec
Physics 929 Frames/sec 4875 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 19B Matrices/sec 21.8B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 17571 & 661 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 7.4 PPW 37.4 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 85.8 PPW 539.4 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 190.1 PPW 860.8 PPW
Blender / Watt 1.88 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
πŸ“˜ 2026-01-01 (Mr Scare)Cinebench 202479 / 662
πŸ“˜ 2025-08-09 (EndOfTheWorld77)Cinebench 202478 / 591
πŸ“˜ 2024-03-28 (Gribbstar)Cinebench 202479 / 706
Apple M4 Pro (12-Core)
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-07 (skibidigomgom)Cinebench 2024172 / 1421
πŸ“˜ 2025-11-21 (TommyYOyoyo)Geekbench 6 CPU4066 / 21270
πŸ“˜ 2025-04-16 (Infrra)Cinebench 2024169 / 1297
πŸ“˜ 2025-02-23 (Amandeep)Geekbench 6 CPU3911 / 20685

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i9 9900K and Apple M4 Pro (12-Core)

General

Vendor Intel Apple
Released October 8, 2018 October 29, 2024
Type Desktop Laptop
Instruction Set x86-64 ARMv9
Codename Coffee Lake Apple M4
Model number i9-9900K T6040
Integrated GPU UHD Graphics 630 Apple M4 Pro GPU (16-core)
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 9 3900X -
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 9 285K - Apple M5 Pro (15-Core)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 8 8
P-Threads 16 8
Base Frequency (P) 3.6 GHz 4.51 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 5 GHz -
Efficient Cores
E-Cores - 4
E-Threads - 4
Base Frequency (E) - 2.59 GHz
Total
Total Cores 8 12
Total Threads 16 12
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 36x 45x
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

Fabrication Process 14 nm 3 nm
TDP (PL1) 95 W 38 W
Socket LGA-1151 Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100Β°C 100Β°C
Desktop CPU ranking (#145th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 630 Apple M4 Pro GPU (16-core)
GPU Base Clock 350 MHz 500 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1200 MHz 1578 MHz
Shading Units 192 2048
TMUs 24 128
ROPs 3 64
Execution Units 24 256
TGP 15 W 26 W
iGPU FLOPS
0.5 TFLOPS
6.5 TFLOPS

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR4-2666 - LPDDR5X-8533
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 64 GB
Memory Channels 2 16
Max. Memory Bandwidth 41.6 GB/s 273 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

Official Site Intel Core i9 9900K official page -
PCI Express Version 3.0 -
PCI Express Lanes 16 -
Further details
Notes on M4 Pro (12-Core):
    - SoC is designed using ARMv9.2-A architecture.

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
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Total votes: 3

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M4 Pro (12-Core) or Intel Core i9 9900K?
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