Home > CPU Comparison > Core i5 12400 or Apple M2: what's better?

Intel Core i5 12400 vs Apple M2

49 out of 100
Intel Core i5 12400
VS
55 out of 100
Apple M2
Intel Core i5 12400
Apple M2

We compared two CPUs: the 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 12400 (desktop) with 6-cores against the 3.5 GHz Apple M2 (laptop) with 8-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 NanoReview Score for desktop CPU.
NanoReview Final Score
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Value for money (Beta)

Global average CPU prices are used by default! For better accuracy, enter your current prices and click โ€œCalculate".
Currency
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Key Differences

What are the key differences between M2 and 12400
Advantages of Intel Core i5 12400
  • Supports up to 128 GB DDR5-4800 RAM
  • Newer PCI Express version โ€“ 5.0
Advantages of Apple M2
  • More powerful Apple M2 GPU integrated graphics: 2.9 vs 0.6 TFLOPS
  • More modern manufacturing process โ€“ 5 versus 10 nanometers
  • Has 2 more physical cores
  • Around 25.6 GB/s (33%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • 15% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 2589 vs 2245 points
  • Newer - released 6 months later

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core i5 12400
vs
Apple M2

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Core i5 12400
99
Apple M2 +26%
125
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Core i5 12400 +3%
598
Apple M2
582
Cinebench 2026 (Single) 295 -
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) 1710 -
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 i5 12400
2245
Apple M2 +15%
2589
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Core i5 12400
9788
Apple M2 +3%
10122
File compression 879.2 MB/sec 1130 MB/sec
Clang compilation 65.6 Klines/sec 80.4 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 223.7 pages/sec 235.3 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 275.6 Mpixels/sec 266.1 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 225.9 pages/sec 257.4 pages/sec
Background blur 49.5 images/sec 42.1 images/sec
Photo processing 81.2 images/sec 107 images/sec
Ray tracing 15.1 Mpixels/sec 10.5 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] โ€“ 1015 & 465 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Core i5 12400
3464
Apple M2 +12%
3883
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core i5 12400 +20%
18816
Apple M2
15651
Integer math 58.9 GOps/sec 37 GOps/sec
Floating point math 45.9 GOps/sec 37.5 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 67M Primes/sec 174M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 22.6M Strings/sec 23.7M Strings/sec
Data encryption 11.5 GBytes/sec 9.5 GBytes/sec
Data compression 228 MBytes/sec 185.8 MBytes/sec
Physics 1090 Frames/sec 1667 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 15.5B Matrices/sec 7.8B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] โ€“ 6661 & 4611 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core i5 12400 +53%
166.74
Apple M2
109.19

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 9.2 PPW 32.3 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 150.6 PPW 562.3 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 289.5 PPW 869.5 PPW
Blender / Watt 2.57 PPW 6.07 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 i5 12400
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-05-24 (MortalMech)Cinebench 2026295 / 1710
๐Ÿ“˜ 2024-06-27 (Renni)Cinebench 202499 / 598
Add View all (2)
Apple M2
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-03-14 (T)Geekbench 6 CPU2647 / 10245
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-01-05 (AR)Geekbench 6 CPU2655 / 10211
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-10-24 (Shivam)Geekbench 6 CPU2619 / 9900
Add View all (3)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i5 12400 and Apple M2

General

Vendor Intel Apple
Released January 4, 2022 June 6, 2022
Type Desktop Laptop
Instruction Set x86-64 ARMv8
Codename Alder Lake Apple M2
Model number i5-12400 -
Integrated GPU UHD Graphics 730 Apple M2 GPU
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 5 225 - Apple M5 (10-Core)
Intel CPU rating (#164th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 6 4
P-Threads 12 4
Base Frequency (P) 2.5 GHz 3.5 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 4.4 GHz -
Efficient Cores
E-Cores - 4
E-Threads - 4
Base Frequency (E) - 2.4 GHz
Total
Total Cores 6 8
Total Threads 12 8
Bus Frequency 100 MHz -
Multiplier 25x -
L1 Cache 80K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 1280K (per core) 16MB (shared)
L3 Cache 18MB (shared) -
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Transistors - 20 billions
Fabrication Process 10 nm 5 nm
TDP (PL1) 65 W 18 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) 117 W -
Socket LGA-1700 Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100ยฐC -
Desktop CPU ranking (#109th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 730 Apple M2 GPU
GPU Base Clock 300 MHz 500 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1450 MHz 1398 MHz
Shading Units 192 1024
TMUs 48 64
ROPs 24 32
Execution Units 24 128
TGP 15 W 15 W
iGPU FLOPS
Core i5 12400
0.6 TFLOPS
Apple M2 +383%
2.9 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M2 GPU (8-core) compared to UHD Graphics 730

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR5-4800
- DDR4-3200		 - LPDDR5-6400
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 24 GB
Memory Channels 2 8
Max. Memory Bandwidth 76.8 GB/s 102.4 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

Official Site Intel Core i5 12400 official page -
PCI Express Version 5.0 4.0
PCI Express Lanes 20 -

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
18 (42.9%)
24 (57.1%)
Total votes: 42

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8. Intel Core i5 12400 vs AMD Ryzen 5 5600G (6)
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10. Intel Core i5 12400 vs Intel Core i5 14400
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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M2 or Intel Core i5 12400?
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