Home > CPU Comparison > Core i5 12500H or Apple M2: what's better?

Intel Core i5 12500H vs Apple M2

49 out of 100
Intel Core i5 12500H
VS
57 out of 100
Apple M2
Intel Core i5 12500H
Apple M2

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 12500H with 12-cores against the 3.5 GHz Apple M2 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 (7)

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.
πŸ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Key Differences

What are the key differences between M2 and 12500H
Advantages of Intel Core i5 12500H
  • Supports up to 64 GB DDR5-4800 RAM
  • Has 4 more physical cores
Advantages of Apple M2
  • More modern manufacturing process – 5 versus 10 nanometers
  • More powerful Apple M2 GPU integrated graphics: 2.9 vs 1.7 TFLOPS
  • 19% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 2589 vs 2180 points
  • Newer - released 5 months later

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core i5 12500H
vs
Apple M2

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Core i5 12500H
97
Apple M2 +29%
125
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Core i5 12500H +29%
748
Apple M2
582
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 12500H
2180
Apple M2 +19%
2589
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Core i5 12500H
9527
Apple M2 +6%
10122
File compression 867.4 MB/sec 1130 MB/sec
Clang compilation 62.8 Klines/sec 80.4 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 235.5 pages/sec 235.3 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 291 Mpixels/sec 266.1 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 231.7 pages/sec 257.4 pages/sec
Background blur 37.7 images/sec 42.1 images/sec
Photo processing 96.1 images/sec 107 images/sec
Ray tracing 13.4 Mpixels/sec 10.5 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 1034 & 465 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Core i5 12500H
3366
Apple M2 +15%
3883
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core i5 12500H +29%
20249
Apple M2
15651
Integer math 70.7 GOps/sec 37 GOps/sec
Floating point math 51.4 GOps/sec 37.5 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 56M Primes/sec 174M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 27.7M Strings/sec 23.7M Strings/sec
Data encryption 14.5 GBytes/sec 9.5 GBytes/sec
Data compression 248.2 MBytes/sec 185.8 MBytes/sec
Physics 1002 Frames/sec 1667 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 14.6B Matrices/sec 7.8B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 5384 & 4611 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core i5 12500H +40%
152.89
Apple M2
109.19

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 16.6 PPW 32.3 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 211.7 PPW 562.3 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 450 PPW 869.5 PPW
Blender / Watt 3.4 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 12500H
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-01 (Ryoji)Cinebench 2026516 / 2644
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-01 (Ryoji)Cinebench 202498 / 660
πŸ“˜ 2024-12-17 (Thien)Cinebench 202499 / 821
πŸ“˜ 2024-11-02 (Praheg)Cinebench 202497 / 748
πŸ“˜ 2024-09-21 (uqi)Cinebench 202492 / 527
Add View all (5)
Apple M2
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-14 (T)Geekbench 6 CPU2647 / 10245
πŸ“˜ 2026-01-05 (AR)Geekbench 6 CPU2655 / 10211
πŸ“˜ 2025-10-24 (Shivam)Geekbench 6 CPU2619 / 9900
Add View all (3)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i5 12500H and Apple M2

General

Vendor Intel Apple
Released January 4, 2022 June 6, 2022
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set x86-64 ARMv8
Codename Alder Lake Apple M2
Model number i5-12500H -
Integrated GPU Iris Xe Graphics (80EU) Apple M2 GPU
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 5 235H - Apple M5 (10-Core)
Intel CPU rating (#162nd place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 4 4
P-Threads 8 4
Base Frequency (P) 2.5 GHz 3.5 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 4.5 GHz -
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 8 4
E-Threads 8 4
Base Frequency (E) 1.8 GHz 2.4 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) 3.3 GHz -
Total
Total Cores 12 8
Total Threads 16 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) 35-45 W (configurable) 18 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) 95 W -
Socket BGA-1744 Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100Β°C -

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel Iris Xe Graphics (80EU) Apple M2 GPU
GPU Base Clock 300 MHz 500 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1300 MHz 1398 MHz
Shading Units 640 1024
TMUs 40 64
ROPs 20 32
Execution Units 80 128
TGP 15 W 15 W
iGPU FLOPS
Core i5 12500H
1.7 TFLOPS
Apple M2 +71%
2.9 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M2 GPU (8-core) compared to Iris Xe Graphics G7 (80EU)

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR5-4800
- DDR4-3200
- LPDDR5-5200
- LPDDR4x-4267		 - LPDDR5-6400
Max. Memory Size 64 GB 24 GB
Memory Channels 2 8
Max. Memory Bandwidth - 102.4 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

Official Site Intel Core i5 12500H official page -
PCI Express Version 4.0 4.0
PCI Express Lanes 28 -

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
911 (61.5%)
570 (38.5%)
Total votes: 1481

Competitors

1. Intel Core i5 12500H vs Intel Core i5 12450H (8)
2. Intel Core i5 12500H vs Intel Core i5 1235U (1)
3. Intel Core i5 12500H vs AMD Ryzen 7 7435HS (3)
4. Intel Core i5 12500H vs AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS (4)
5. Apple M2 vs Apple M3
6. Apple M2 vs Intel Core i7 12700H (2)
7. Apple M2 vs Apple M4 (10-Core)
8. Apple M2 vs Apple M2 Pro (2)
9. Apple M2 vs Intel Core Ultra 7 155H
Compare other CPUs (460+)

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M2 or Intel Core i5 12500H?
🌐 Register your profile and become part of NanoReview community!
Avatar
Lulu May 5, 2023 at 06:37 PM
My i5 12500H with Nvidia RTX ti slices through everything like a hot knife on butter. M2 never does that!
+102 Reply
Avatar
Guest January 21, 2023 at 04:54 PM
All I know is my iMac i5 hangs a lot on my illustration work when running effects and filters. It is slower than my older i7 iMac machine in some ways. I am planning to upgrade to an M2 Pro or Max when I can.
+31 Reply
Avatar
Berbelek December 30, 2022 at 08:04 PM
Well, I can right now buy a laptop with i5 12500H for 30% of the price of a comparable laptop with M2.
+78 Reply
Avatar
DR apple October 24, 2022 at 06:38 PM
Apple M2 is much better
+38 Reply
Avatar
Target December 20, 2022 at 05:36 AM
But a lot of people can't afford.
+55 Reply
Avatar
Pani September 2, 2023 at 09:51 AM
Yes, primarily in terms of power efficiency and performance compared to the power-hungry Intel chips. However, the main issue is that the Nvidia graphics are not supported by M2. This is because Nvidia graphics are best optimized for games and productivity with Ryzen and Intel chips in terms of price and performance.
+12 Reply
Avatar
Some College Student April 17, 2024 at 12:40 PM
It's slightly better in single core performance but outclassed in multicore performance. That, coupled with the much higher maximum CPU clock frequency, maximum memory limit, greater number of logical processors/threads, and the fact that it is often paired with discrete GPUs that crush the M2's integrated graphics makes the i5-12500 (and any AMD APU with equivalent performance) the better choice hands-down. The M2 is incredibly powerful, efficient, and an engineering marvel; however, it is functionally a system-on-a-chip, and the complete lack of upgradability coupled with the inability to supplement its power with discrete graphics (even via a dGPU) means it's a great all-arounder, but one that lacks flexibility and costs WAY too much for it to barely match laptops with even an i5-12500H + Nvidia GTX 1650 configuration. IMO, the M2 is quite competitive but not enough so to warrant spending so much more money for less *overall* performance (considering my i5-12500H + RTX 4050 laptop was cheaper and is effectively more powerful than my M1 Macbook Pro with the same SSD and RAM configuration, and the disparity grows with the ability to upgrade SSD and RAM on the Intel system). That said, I prefer my Macbook for working on the go over my Dell Inspiron, which is overall more powerful, but runs hotter and drains its battery faster due to the power-hungry Intel processor.
+3 Reply
EnglishРусский