Home > CPU Comparison > Core i9 12900K or Apple M2: what's better?

Intel Core i9 12900K vs Apple M2

68 out of 100
Intel Core i9 12900K
VS
55 out of 100
Apple M2
Intel Core i9 12900K
Apple M2

We compared two CPUs: the 3,2 GHz Intel Core i9 12900K (desktop) with 16-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)

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Currency
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Key Differences

What are the key differences between M2 and 12900K
Advantages of Intel Core i9 12900K
  • Supports up to 128 GB DDR5-4800 RAM
  • Has 8 more physical cores
  • Unlocked multiplier
  • Newer PCI Express version – 5.0
Advantages of Apple M2
  • More powerful Apple M2 GPU integrated graphics: 2.9 vs 0.8 TFLOPS
  • More modern manufacturing process – 5 versus 10 nanometers
  • Around 25.6 GB/s (33%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • Newer - released 7 months later

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core i9 12900K
vs
Apple M2

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Core i9 12900K
109
Apple M2 +15%
125
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Core i9 12900K +162%
1526
Apple M2
582
Cinebench Scores (#63rd 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)
Core i9 12900K +2%
2633
Apple M2
2589
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Core i9 12900K +68%
17003
Apple M2
10122
File compression 1260 MB/sec 1130 MB/sec
Clang compilation 146.1 Klines/sec 80.4 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 414.2 pages/sec 235.3 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 480.2 Mpixels/sec 266.1 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 273.2 pages/sec 257.4 pages/sec
Background blur 69.4 images/sec 42.1 images/sec
Photo processing 147.8 images/sec 107 images/sec
Ray tracing 34.4 Mpixels/sec 10.5 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 461 & 465 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Core i9 12900K +6%
4128
Apple M2
3883
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core i9 12900K +163%
41115
Apple M2
15651
Integer math 139.2 GOps/sec 37 GOps/sec
Floating point math 105.4 GOps/sec 37.5 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 145M Primes/sec 174M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 57.1M Strings/sec 23.7M Strings/sec
Data encryption 29.5 GBytes/sec 9.5 GBytes/sec
Data compression 536.7 MBytes/sec 185.8 MBytes/sec
Physics 2203 Frames/sec 1667 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 33.6B Matrices/sec 7.8B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 11364 & 4611 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core i9 12900K +236%
366.86
Apple M2
109.19

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 12.2 PPW 32.3 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 136 PPW 562.3 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 328.9 PPW 869.5 PPW
Blender / Watt 2.93 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 i9 12900K
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2025-11-12 (ElNils)Cinebench 2024114 / 1497
πŸ“˜ 2025-09-20 (Jarx)Geekbench 6 CPU2811 / 18033
πŸ“˜ 2025-05-24 (unsorted)Cinebench 2024109 / 1339
πŸ“˜ 2025-04-03 (AdKraemer)Cinebench 2024113 / 1414
πŸ“˜ 2025-03-20 (Lethal)Cinebench 2024116 / 1571
Add View all (8)
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 i9 12900K and Apple M2

General

Vendor Intel Apple
Released October 27, 2021 June 6, 2022
Type Desktop Laptop
Instruction Set x86-64 ARMv8
Codename Alder Lake Apple M2
Model number i9-12900K -
Integrated GPU UHD Graphics 770 Apple M2 GPU
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 9 5950X -
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 9 285K - Apple M5 (10-Core)
Intel CPU rating (#53rd place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 8 4
P-Threads 16 4
Base Frequency (P) 3,2 GHz 3.5 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 5.1 GHz -
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 8 4
E-Threads 8 4
Base Frequency (E) 2.4 GHz 2.4 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) 3.9 GHz -
Total
Total Cores 16 8
Total Threads 24 8
Bus Frequency 100 MHz -
Multiplier 32x -
L1 Cache 64K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 14MB (shared) 16MB (shared)
L3 Cache 30MB (shared) -
Unlocked Multiplier Yes No

Package

Transistors - 20 billions
Fabrication Process 10 nm 5 nm
TDP (PL1) 125 W 18 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) 241 W -
Socket LGA-1700 Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100Β°C -
Desktop CPU ranking (#54th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 770 Apple M2 GPU
GPU Base Clock 300 MHz 500 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1550 MHz 1398 MHz
Shading Units 256 1024
TMUs 16 64
ROPs 8 32
Execution Units 32 128
TGP 15 W 15 W
iGPU FLOPS
Core i9 12900K
0.8 TFLOPS
Apple M2 +262%
2.9 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M2 GPU (8-core) compared to UHD Graphics 770

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 Yes No

Misc

Official Site Intel Core i9 12900K official page -
PCI Express Version 5.0 4.0
PCI Express Lanes 20 -

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
108 (66.7%)
54 (33.3%)
Total votes: 162

Competitors

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7. Apple M2 vs Apple M4 (10-Core)
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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M2 or Intel Core i9 12900K?
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