Apple M6 (12-Core) vs M5 (10-Core)
87
out of 100
VS
81
out of 100
We compared two laptop CPUs: the 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.
Please note that the tests on the Apple M6 (12-Core) are done on an engineering sample provided by our insiders. The data will be more accurate after the final version of this CPU is available.
Key Differences
Advantages of Apple M6 (12-Core)
- Newer - released 10 months later
- More modern manufacturing process โ 2 versus 3 nanometers
- Has 2 more physical cores
- Around 16.4 GB/s (11%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
Test in Benchmarks
Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasksCinebench
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
| Cinebench 2026 (Multi) | - | 4456 |
Cinebench Scores (#111th place)
GeekBench v6
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
| 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 |
PassMark
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 |
Blender
Blender CPU
Performance Per Watt
| 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
Apple M6 (12-Core)
No benchmark results yet
Apple M5 (10-Core)
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| ๐ 2026-07-29 -> knotp37 | Cinebench 2026 | 0 / 3841 |
| ๐ 2026-07-05 -> maheshkondraju | GeekBench | 4224 / 17165 |
| ๐ 2025-12-27 -> Rennsport | GeekBench | 4289 / 18011 |
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 | - | T8142 |
| Integrated GPU | Apple M6 GPU (12-core) | Apple M5 GPU (10-core) |
| Rival Equivalent | - | - Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100) |
CPU
| P-Cores | 6 | 4 |
| P-Threads | 6 | 4 |
| Base Frequency (P) | - | 4.61 GHz |
| E-Cores | 6 | 6 |
| E-Threads | 6 | 6 |
| Base Frequency (E) | - | 3.0 GHz |
| Total Cores | 12 | 10 |
| Total Threads | 12 | 10 |
| Bus Frequency | - | 100 MHz |
| Multiplier | - | 46x |
| L1 Cache | - | 192K (per core) |
| L2 Cache | - | 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 (#20th place)
iGPU
| Integrated Graphics | Apple M6 GPU (12-core) | Apple M5 GPU (10-core) |
| GPU Boost Clock | - | 1620 MHz |
| Shading Units | - | 1280 |
| TMUs | - | 80 |
| ROPs | - | 40 |
| Execution Units | - | 160 |
iGPU FLOPS
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
Total votes: 112