Home > CPU Comparison > Core i9 10900K or M2 Pro: what's better?

Intel Core i9 10900K vs Apple M2 Pro

43 out of 100
Intel Core i9 10900K
VS
62 out of 100
Apple M2 Pro
Intel Core i9 10900K
Apple M2 Pro

We compared two CPUs: the 3.7 GHz Intel Core i9 10900K (desktop) with 10-cores against the 3.5 GHz Apple M2 Pro (laptop) with 12-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 “Calculate".
Currency
VS

Key Differences

What are the key differences between Pro and 10900K
Advantages of Intel Core i9 10900K
  • Supports up to 128 GB DDR4-2933 RAM
  • Unlocked multiplier
Advantages of Apple M2 Pro
  • More powerful Apple M2 Pro GPU (19-core) integrated graphics: 6.8 vs 0.5 TFLOPS
  • Around 159 GB/s (347%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • More modern manufacturing process – 5 versus 14 nanometers
  • Supports quad-channel memory
  • Newer - released 2 years and 9 months later
  • 56% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 2666 vs 1704 points
  • Newer PCI Express version – 4.0
  • Has 2 more physical cores

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core i9 10900K
vs
M2 Pro

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Core i9 10900K
61
M2 Pro +105%
125
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Core i9 10900K
714
M2 Pro +11%
795
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 i9 10900K
1704
M2 Pro +56%
2666
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Core i9 10900K
9362
M2 Pro +55%
14489
File compression 653.7 MB/sec 1630 MB/sec
Clang compilation 85.1 Klines/sec 125.3 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 187.3 pages/sec 356.9 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 311.4 Mpixels/sec 352.9 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 169 pages/sec 266.9 pages/sec
Background blur 44.5 images/sec 53.8 images/sec
Photo processing 71.6 images/sec 126.3 images/sec
Ray tracing 19.2 Mpixels/sec 17 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 901 & 917 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Core i9 10900K
3106
M2 Pro +32%
4089
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core i9 10900K
22233
M2 Pro +20%
26724
Integer math 85.3 GOps/sec 57.6 GOps/sec
Floating point math 53.1 GOps/sec 73.2 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 62M Primes/sec 354M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 46.2M Strings/sec 40.9M Strings/sec
Data encryption 7.6 GBytes/sec 15.6 GBytes/sec
Data compression 374.1 MBytes/sec 334.8 MBytes/sec
Physics 1020 Frames/sec 3611 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 24.6B Matrices/sec 14.7B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 4675 & 584 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core i9 10900K +18%
233.21
M2 Pro
198.23

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 5.7 PPW 26.5 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 74.9 PPW 483 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 177.9 PPW 890.8 PPW
Blender / Watt 1.87 PPW 6.61 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 i9 10900K
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2025-11-05 (e)Cinebench 202461 / 714
Add View all (1)
Apple M2 Pro
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2025-04-23 (Roman)Cinebench 2024125 / 795
Add View all (1)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i9 10900K and Apple M2 Pro

General

Vendor Intel Apple
Released May 1, 2020 January 17, 2023
Type Desktop Laptop
Instruction Set x86-64 ARMv8
Codename Comet Lake Apple M2
Model number i9-10900K -
Integrated GPU UHD Graphics 630 Apple M2 Pro GPU (19-core)
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 9 5900X -
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 9 285K - Apple M5 Pro (18-Core)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 10 8
P-Threads 20 8
Base Frequency (P) 3.7 GHz 3.5 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 5.3 GHz -
Efficient Cores
E-Cores - 4
E-Threads - 4
Base Frequency (E) - 2.4 GHz
Total
Total Cores 10 12
Total Threads 20 12
Bus Frequency 100 MHz -
Multiplier 37x -
Bus Bandwidth 8 GT/s -
L1 Cache 64K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 256K (per core) 32MB (shared)
L3 Cache 20MB (shared) -
Unlocked Multiplier Yes No

Package

Transistors - 40 billions
Fabrication Process 14 nm 5 nm
TDP (PL1) 125 W 30 W
Socket LGA-1200 Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100°C 100°C
Desktop CPU ranking (#136th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 630 Apple M2 Pro GPU (19-core)
GPU Base Clock 350 MHz 450 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1200 MHz 1398 MHz
Shading Units 192 2432
TMUs 24 152
ROPs 3 76
Execution Units 24 304
TGP 15 W 35 W
iGPU FLOPS
Core i9 10900K
0.5 TFLOPS
M2 Pro +1260%
6.8 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M2 Pro GPU (19-core) compared to UHD Graphics 630

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR4-2933 - LPDDR5-6400
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 32 GB
Memory Channels 2 4
Max. Memory Bandwidth 45.8 GB/s 204.8 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

Official Site Intel Core i9 10900K official page -
PCI Express Version 3.0 4.0
PCI Express Lanes 16 -

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
1 (25%)
3 (75%)
Total votes: 4

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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M2 Pro or Intel Core i9 10900K?
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