Home > CPU Comparison > M6 (12-Core) or M5 (10-Core): what's better?

Apple M6 (12-Core) vs M5 (10-Core)

86 out of 100
Apple M6 (12-Core)
VS
81 out of 100
Apple M5 (10-Core)
Apple M6 (12-Core)
Apple M5 (10-Core)

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 4.79 GHz Apple M6 (12-Core) with 12-cores against the 4.61 GHz M5 (10-Core) with 10-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 (2)

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
NanoReview Final Score
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
๐Ÿ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Key Differences

What are the key differences between (10-Core) and (12-Core)
Advantages of Apple M6 (12-Core)
  • Newer - released 11 months later
  • More modern manufacturing process โ€“ 2 versus 3 nanometers
  • Has 2 more physical cores
  • More powerful Apple M6 GPU (12-core) integrated graphics: 4.9 vs 4.1 TFLOPS
  • Around 16.4 GB/s (11%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
M6 (12-Core)
vs
M5 (10-Core)

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
M6 (12-Core) +11%
1308
M5 (10-Core)
1183
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) - 4456
Cinebench Scores (91st and 113th 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)
M6 (12-Core) +8%
4610
M5 (10-Core)
4276
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
M6 (12-Core) +16%
20676
M5 (10-Core)
17862
File compression - 1790 MB/sec
Clang compilation - 138 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser - 427.3 pages/sec
PDF Renderer - 430.7 Mpixels/sec
Text processing - 421.1 pages/sec
Background blur - 78.7 images/sec
Photo processing - 156.2 images/sec
Ray tracing - 21.6 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2]

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Integer math - 56.9 GOps/sec
Floating point math - 75.6 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers - 301M Primes/sec
Random string sorting - 35.6M Strings/sec
Data encryption - 17.1 GBytes/sec
Data compression - 296.6 MBytes/sec
Physics - 3199 Frames/sec
Extended instructions - 15.1B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3] โ€“ 507 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 - 43.8 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt - 661.6 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt - 991.8 PPW
Blender / Watt - 10.22 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
Apple M6 (12-Core)
No benchmark results yet
Add
Apple M5 (10-Core)
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-07-29 -> knotp37Cinebench 20260 / 3841
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-07-05 -> maheshkondrajuGeekbench 6 CPU4224 / 17165
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-12-27 -> RennsportGeekbench 6 CPU4289 / 18011
Add View all (3)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Apple M6 (12-Core) and M5 (10-Core)

General

Vendor Apple Apple
Released August 25, 2026 October 15, 2025
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set ARMv9 ARMv9
Codename Apple M6 Apple M5
Model number T8152 T8142
Integrated GPU Apple M6 GPU (12-core) Apple M5 GPU (10-core)
Rival Equivalent - - Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 6 4
P-Threads 6 4
Base Frequency (P) 4.79 GHz 4.61 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 6 6
E-Threads 6 6
Base Frequency (E) - 3.0 GHz
Total
Total Cores 12 10
Total Threads 12 10
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 47x 46x
L1 Cache 256K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 8MB (shared) 22MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Transistors - 28 billions
Fabrication Process 2 nm 3 nm
TDP (PL1) - 27 W
Socket Apple M-Socket Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature - 100ยฐC
Die Size - 157.48 mmยฒ
Laptop processors ranking (10th and 21st place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Apple M6 GPU (12-core) Apple M5 GPU (10-core)
GPU Boost Clock 1600 MHz 1620 MHz
Shading Units 1536 1280
TMUs 96 80
ROPs 80 40
Execution Units 192 160
iGPU FLOPS
M6 (12-Core) +20%
4.9 TFLOPS
M5 (10-Core)
4.1 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M5 GPU (10-Core) compared to M6 GPU (12-core)

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5X-10667 - LPDDR5X-9600
Max. Memory Size 32 GB 32 GB
Memory Channels 8 8
Max. Memory Bandwidth 170 GB/s 153.6 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
123 (86%)
20 (14%)
Total votes: 143

Competitors

1. Apple M6 (12-Core) vs Apple M4 (10-Core)
2. Apple M6 (12-Core) vs Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100)
3. Apple M6 (12-Core) vs Apple M4 Pro (14-Core)
4. Apple M6 (12-Core) vs Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-94-100)
5. Apple M6 (12-Core) vs Intel Core Ultra 9 386H
6. Apple M5 (10-Core) vs Apple M1 Pro
7. Apple M5 (10-Core) vs Apple M5 Pro (15-Core)
8. Apple M5 (10-Core) vs Intel Core Ultra 9 285H
9. Apple M5 (10-Core) vs Intel Core Ultra X7 358H (3)
10. Apple M5 (10-Core) vs Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100) (30)
Compare other CPUs (460+)

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M5 (10-Core) or M6 (12-Core)?
๐ŸŒ Register your profile and become part of NanoReview community!
Avatar
Pico The Penguin September 17, 2026 at 02:38 PM
Why M6 Performance core Frequency is 4790 GHz???
+7 Reply
Avatar
paulie September 20, 2026 at 06:34 AM
Let's goooooo. We're finally in thousands of GHz for the clock speed. It's still gonna be fast after a century. Just pay a million dollars to poor Apple.
+11 Reply
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