Home > CPU Comparison > Core Ultra 9 185H or M3 Max: what's better?

Intel Core Ultra 9 185H vs Apple M3 Max

60 out of 100
Intel Core Ultra 9 185H
VS
83 out of 100
Apple M3 Max
Intel Core Ultra 9 185H
Apple M3 Max

We compared two 16-core laptop CPUs: the 2.3 GHz Intel Core Ultra 9 185H against the 4.05 GHz Apple M3 Max. 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
DeviceFacts Final Score
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
πŸ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Key Differences

What are the key differences between Max and 185H
Advantages of Intel Core Ultra 9 185H
  • Newer PCI Express version – 5.0
  • More than 10Β° C higher critical temperature
Advantages of Apple M3 Max
  • More powerful Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) integrated graphics: 14.1 vs 4.8 TFLOPS
  • More modern manufacturing process – 3 versus 7 nanometers
  • Supports up to 128 GB LPDDR5-6400 RAM
  • 32% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 3227 vs 2446 points

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core Ultra 9 185H
vs
M3 Max

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Core Ultra 9 185H
107
M3 Max +33%
142
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Core Ultra 9 185H
987
M3 Max +72%
1698
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) - 5133
Cinebench Scores (156th 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)
Core Ultra 9 185H
2446
M3 Max +32%
3227
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Core Ultra 9 185H
13613
M3 Max +55%
21167
File compression 1270 MB/sec 2190 MB/sec
Clang compilation 102.8 Klines/sec 198.5 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 342.7 pages/sec 557.3 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 389.7 Mpixels/sec 648.9 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 245.1 pages/sec 309.1 pages/sec
Background blur 45.2 images/sec 68.9 images/sec
Photo processing 131.5 images/sec 183.5 images/sec
Ray tracing 23.3 Mpixels/sec 30.6 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 492 & 678 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Core Ultra 9 185H
3660
M3 Max +31%
4780
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core Ultra 9 185H
28998
M3 Max +42%
41211
Integer math 97.4 GOps/sec 91.2 GOps/sec
Floating point math 72.2 GOps/sec 131.5 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 123M Primes/sec 573M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 39M Strings/sec 61.7M Strings/sec
Data encryption 19.5 GBytes/sec 24.7 GBytes/sec
Data compression 334.6 MBytes/sec 530.4 MBytes/sec
Physics 1940 Frames/sec 4332 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 19.9B Matrices/sec 24.2B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 4148 & 409 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core Ultra 9 185H
200.07
M3 Max +102%
403.83

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 15.2 PPW 30.3 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 209.4 PPW 378 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 446.1 PPW 735.9 PPW
Blender / Watt 3.08 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 Ultra 9 185H
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2025-12-28 (Nicholas)Cinebench 202492 / 795
πŸ“˜ 2024-12-29 (Remembered2U)Cinebench 2024107 / 987
πŸ“˜ 2024-11-03 (Anish)Cinebench 2024103 / 886
πŸ“˜ 2024-10-01 (Guest #3)Cinebench 2024108 / 1088
Add View all (4)
Apple M3 Max
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2024-09-27 (JayZeppelin)Cinebench 2024142 / 1698
πŸ“˜ 2024-04-27 (Guest #1)Cinebench 2024141 / 1459
Add View all (2)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core Ultra 9 185H and Apple M3 Max

General

Vendor Intel Apple
Released December 14, 2023 October 30, 2023
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set x86-64 ARMv8
Codename Meteor Lake Apple M3
Model number 185H -
Integrated GPU Arc Graphics (8-Cores) Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core)
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS -
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 9 288V - Apple M5 Max (40-сore GPU)
Intel CPU rating (#83rd place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 6 12
P-Threads 12 12
Base Frequency (P) 2.3 GHz 4.05 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 5.1 GHz -
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 10 4
E-Threads 10 4
Base Frequency (E) 1.8 GHz 2.75 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) 3.8 GHz -
Total
Total Cores 16 16
Total Threads 22 16
Bus Frequency 100 MHz -
Multiplier 23x 40x
L1 Cache 112K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 2MB (per core) 32MB (shared)
L3 Cache 24MB (shared) -
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Transistors - 92 billions
Fabrication Process 7 nm 3 nm
TDP (PL1) 35-65 W (configurable) 56 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) 115 W -
Socket FCBGA-2049 Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 110Β°C 100Β°C
Laptop processors ranking (103rd and 15th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Arc Graphics (8-Cores) Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core)
GPU Base Clock 300 MHz 500 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 2350 MHz 1380 MHz
Shading Units 1024 5120
TMUs 64 320
ROPs 32 160
Execution Units 128 640
TGP 28 W 60 W
iGPU FLOPS
Core Ultra 9 185H
4.8 TFLOPS
M3 Max +194%
14.1 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) compared to Arc iGPU (8-Cores)

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5-7467
- LPDDR5x-7467
- DDR5-5600		 - LPDDR5-6400
Max. Memory Size 96 GB 128 GB
Memory Channels 2 32
Max. Memory Bandwidth - 409.6 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

Official Site Intel Core Ultra 9 185H official page -
PCI Express Version 5.0 4.0
PCI Express Lanes 28 -

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
131 (31.4%)
286 (68.6%)
Total votes: 417

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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M3 Max or Intel Core Ultra 9 185H?
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