Home > CPU Comparison > Core i9 14900K or M4 Max (16-Core): what's better?

Intel Core i9 14900K vs Apple M4 Max (16-Core)

86 out of 100
Intel Core i9 14900K
VS
93 out of 100
Apple M4 Max (16-Core)
Intel Core i9 14900K
Apple M4 Max (16-Core)

We compared two CPUs: the 3.2 GHz Intel Core i9 14900K (desktop) with 24-cores against the 4.51 GHz Apple M4 Max (16-Core) (laptop) with 16-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
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
πŸ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Value for money (Beta)

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Currency
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Key Differences

What are the key differences between (16-Core) and 14900K
Advantages of Intel Core i9 14900K
  • Unlocked multiplier
  • Has 8 more physical cores
  • Supports up to 192 GB DDR5-5600 RAM
Advantages of Apple M4 Max (16-Core)
  • More powerful Apple M4 Max GPU (40-core) integrated graphics: 16.2 vs 0.8 TFLOPS
  • Around 456.4 GB/s (509%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • More modern manufacturing process – 3 versus 10 nanometers
  • Newer - released 1 year and 1 month later
  • 26% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 3986 vs 3171 points

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core i9 14900K
vs
M4 Max (16-Core)

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) - 6324
Cinebench Scores (17th and 23rd 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)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Core i9 14900K
22629
M4 Max (16-Core) +16%
26190
File compression 1940 MB/sec 2680 MB/sec
Clang compilation 194.6 Klines/sec 219.7 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 589.2 pages/sec 699.3 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 638.4 Mpixels/sec 771.1 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 318.7 pages/sec 381.1 pages/sec
Background blur 71.7 images/sec 92.2 images/sec
Photo processing 191.6 images/sec 236.2 images/sec
Ray tracing 41.7 Mpixels/sec 36.1 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 644 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core i9 14900K +33%
58245
M4 Max (16-Core)
43904
Integer math 209.3 GOps/sec 98.9 GOps/sec
Floating point math 152.1 GOps/sec 101.4 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 228M Primes/sec 627M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 86.6M Strings/sec 64.5M Strings/sec
Data encryption 46.5 GBytes/sec 27 GBytes/sec
Data compression 785.8 MBytes/sec 572.9 MBytes/sec
Physics 3098 Frames/sec 6614 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 44.7B Matrices/sec 30.3B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 13248 & 566 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core i9 14900K +8%
512.57
M4 Max (16-Core)
475.2

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 16.7 PPW 29.2 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 181 PPW 374.1 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 466 PPW 627.2 PPW
Blender / Watt 4.1 PPW 6.79 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
πŸ“˜ 2026-02-24 (Tanvir)Cinebench 2024129 / 2086
πŸ“˜ 2026-01-31 (Kreuz)Cinebench 2024128 / 1976
πŸ“˜ 2025-12-15 (Lil-Shady)Cinebench 2024136 / 2103
πŸ“˜ 2025-12-10 (Astromavic)Cinebench 2024134 / 1989
πŸ“˜ 2025-11-14 (cinebench251114)Cinebench 2024134 / 2114
Add View all (30)
Apple M4 Max (16-Core)
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2025-07-20 (Rahul)Cinebench 2024177 / 1954
πŸ“˜ 2025-07-10 (thomas)Geekbench 6 CPU4094 / 26275
πŸ“˜ 2025-04-02 (BigJake)Cinebench 2024178 / 2001
πŸ“˜ 2025-02-17 (MM)Cinebench 2024173 / 1928
πŸ“˜ 2024-11-12 (Jason C)Cinebench 2024177 / 2004
Add View all (5)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i9 14900K and Apple M4 Max (16-Core)

General

Vendor Intel Apple
Released October 16, 2023 October 30, 2024
Type Desktop Laptop
Instruction Set x86-64 ARMv9
Codename Raptor Lake Refresh Apple M4
Model number i9-14900K T6041
Integrated GPU UHD Graphics 770 Apple M4 Max GPU (40-core)
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 9 7900X -
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 9 285K - Apple M5 Max (40-сore GPU)
Intel CPU rating (#7th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 8 12
P-Threads 16 12
Base Frequency (P) 3.2 GHz 4.51 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 6 GHz -
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 16 4
E-Threads 16 4
Base Frequency (E) 2.4 GHz 2.59 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) 4.4 GHz -
Total
Total Cores 24 16
Total Threads 32 16
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 32x 45x
L1 Cache 80K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 2MB (per core) 32MB (shared)
L3 Cache 36MB (shared) -
Unlocked Multiplier Yes No

Package

Fabrication Process 10 nm 3 nm
TDP (PL1) 125 W 70 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) 253 W -
Socket LGA-1700 Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100Β°C 100Β°C
Desktop CPU ranking (#13th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 770 Apple M4 Max GPU (40-core)
GPU Base Clock 300 MHz 500 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1650 MHz 1578 MHz
Shading Units 256 5120
TMUs 16 320
ROPs 8 160
Execution Units 32 640
TGP 15 W 50 W
iGPU FLOPS
Core i9 14900K
0.8 TFLOPS
M4 Max (16-Core) +1925%
16.2 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M4 Max GPU (40-core) compared to UHD Graphics 770

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR5-5600
- DDR4-3200		 - LPDDR5X-8533
Max. Memory Size 192 GB 128 GB
Memory Channels 2 32
Max. Memory Bandwidth 89.6 GB/s 546 GB/s
ECC Support Yes No

Misc

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

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
35 (23.8%)
112 (76.2%)
Total votes: 147

Competitors

1. Apple M4 Max (16-Core) vs Apple M2 Ultra
2. Apple M4 Max (16-Core) vs AMD Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 395 (10)
3. Apple M4 Max (16-Core) vs Apple M3 Max (1)
4. Apple M4 Max (16-Core) vs Apple M5 Max (40-сore GPU)
5. Apple M4 Max (16-Core) vs Apple M1 Pro
6. Intel Core i9 14900K vs AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D (3)
7. Intel Core i9 14900K vs Intel Core i9 14900
8. Intel Core i9 14900K vs Apple M4 (10-Core) (7)
9. Intel Core i9 14900K vs AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (2)
10. Intel Core i9 14900K vs Apple M3 Max (10)
Compare other CPUs (460+)

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M4 Max (16-Core) or Intel Core i9 14900K?
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