Home > CPU Comparison > Core i9 14900K or M2 Ultra: what's better?

Intel Core i9 14900K vs Apple M2 Ultra

86 out of 100
Intel Core i9 14900K
VS
79 out of 100
Apple M2 Ultra
Intel Core i9 14900K
Apple M2 Ultra

We compared two 24-core CPUs: the 3.2 GHz Intel Core i9 14900K (desktop) against the 3.5 GHz Apple M2 Ultra (laptop). 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
The "iGPU" and "Power Efficiency" have a minor impact on the NanoReview Score for desktop CPU.
NanoReview Final Score
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
๐Ÿ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Value for money (Beta)

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

Key Differences

What are the key differences between Ultra and 14900K
Advantages of Intel Core i9 14900K
  • Unlocked multiplier
  • Newer PCI Express version โ€“ 5.0
  • 18% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 3171 vs 2685 points
  • Newer - released 5 months later
Advantages of Apple M2 Ultra
  • Around 729.6 GB/s (814%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • More modern manufacturing process โ€“ 5 versus 10 nanometers

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core i9 14900K
vs
M2 Ultra

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Core i9 14900K +3%
129
M2 Ultra
125
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Core i9 14900K +7%
2086
M2 Ultra
1941
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) - 7481
Cinebench Scores (17th and 31st 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 14900K +18%
3171
M2 Ultra
2685
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Core i9 14900K +6%
22629
M2 Ultra
21387
File compression 1940 MB/sec 2140 MB/sec
Clang compilation 194.6 Klines/sec 226.4 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 589.2 pages/sec 569.8 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 638.4 Mpixels/sec 603.6 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 318.7 pages/sec 272.4 pages/sec
Background blur 71.7 images/sec 56.5 images/sec
Photo processing 191.6 images/sec 170.7 images/sec
Ray tracing 41.7 Mpixels/sec 33.8 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] โ€“ 644 & 728 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Core i9 14900K +11%
4691
M2 Ultra
4208
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core i9 14900K +14%
58245
M2 Ultra
50945
Integer math 209.3 GOps/sec 117.4 GOps/sec
Floating point math 152.1 GOps/sec 148.9 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 228M Primes/sec 712M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 86.6M Strings/sec 83.7M Strings/sec
Data encryption 46.5 GBytes/sec 32 GBytes/sec
Data compression 785.8 MBytes/sec 682.7 MBytes/sec
Physics 3098 Frames/sec 7650 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 44.7B Matrices/sec 33.2B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] โ€“ 13248 & 201 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core i9 14900K +2%
512.57
M2 Ultra
501.6

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 16.7 PPW 24.3 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 181 PPW 267.3 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 466 PPW 636.8 PPW
Blender / Watt 4.1 PPW 6.27 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 14900K
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-02-24 (Tanvir)Cinebench 2024129 / 2086
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-01-31 (Kreuz)Cinebench 2024128 / 1976
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-12-15 (Lil-Shady)Cinebench 2024136 / 2103
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-12-10 (Astromavic)Cinebench 2024134 / 1989
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-11-14 (cinebench251114)Cinebench 2024134 / 2114
Add View all (30)
Apple M2 Ultra
No benchmark results yet
Add

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i9 14900K and Apple M2 Ultra

General

Vendor Intel Apple
Released October 16, 2023 May 5, 2023
Type Desktop Laptop
Instruction Set x86-64 ARMv8
Codename Raptor Lake Refresh Apple M2
Model number i9-14900K -
Integrated GPU UHD Graphics 770 Apple M2 Ultra GPU (76-core)
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 9 7900X -
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 9 285K - Apple M4 Ultra
Intel CPU rating (#6th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 8 16
P-Threads 16 16
Base Frequency (P) 3.2 GHz 3.5 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 6 GHz -
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 16 8
E-Threads 16 8
Base Frequency (E) 2.4 GHz 2.4 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) 4.4 GHz -
Total
Total Cores 24 24
Total Threads 32 24
Bus Frequency 100 MHz -
Multiplier 32x 35x
L1 Cache 80K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 2MB (per core) 64MB (shared)
L3 Cache 36MB (shared) -
Unlocked Multiplier Yes No

Package

Transistors - 134 billions
Fabrication Process 10 nm 5 nm
TDP (PL1) 125 W 80 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) 253 W -
Socket LGA-1700 Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100ยฐC 100ยฐC
Desktop CPU ranking (#13th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 770 Apple M2 Ultra GPU (76-core)
GPU Base Clock 300 MHz -
GPU Boost Clock 1650 MHz 1398 MHz
Shading Units 256 -
TMUs 16 -
ROPs 8 -
Execution Units 32 -
TGP 15 W -
iGPU FLOPS
Core i9 14900K
0.8 TFLOPS
M2 Ultra
n/a
See: Intel UHD Graphics 770 benchmarks

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR5-5600
- DDR4-3200		 - LPDDR5-6400
Max. Memory Size 192 GB 192 GB
Memory Channels 2 8
Max. Memory Bandwidth 89.6 GB/s 819.2 GB/s
ECC Support Yes No

Misc

Official Site Intel Core i9 14900K official page -
PCI Express Version 5.0 4.0
PCI Express Lanes 20 -

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
95 (66%)
49 (34%)
Total votes: 144

Competitors

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2. Apple M2 Ultra vs Apple M4 Max (16-Core)
3. Apple M2 Ultra vs Apple M4 Ultra (2)
4. Apple M2 Ultra vs Apple M3 Max
5. Intel Core i9 14900K vs AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (2)
6. Intel Core i9 14900K vs AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D (3)
7. Intel Core i9 14900K vs Apple M3 Max (10)
8. Intel Core i9 14900K vs AMD Ryzen 9 9900X
9. Intel Core i9 14900K vs Apple M4 (10-Core) (7)
10. Intel Core i9 14900K vs Intel Core Ultra 9 185H (2)
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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M2 Ultra or Intel Core i9 14900K?
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