Home > CPU Comparison > Core Ultra 5 125U or Core i5 1235U: what's better?

Intel Core Ultra 5 125U vs i5 1235U

48 out of 100
Intel Core Ultra 5 125U
VS
43 out of 100
Intel Core i5 1235U
Intel Core Ultra 5 125U
Intel Core i5 1235U

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 1.3 GHz Intel Core Ultra 5 125U with 12-cores against the 1.3 GHz i5 1235U with 10-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
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 1235U and 125U
Advantages of Intel Core Ultra 5 125U
  • Newer - released 1 year and 10 months later
  • Supports up to 96 GB LPDDR5-7467 RAM
  • More modern manufacturing process – 7 versus 10 nanometers
  • More powerful Arc Graphics (4-Cores) integrated graphics: 1.9 vs 1.5 TFLOPS
  • Has 2 more physical cores
  • More than 10Β° C higher critical temperature
Advantages of Intel Core i5 1235U
  • 2% higher Turbo Boost frequency (4.4 GHz vs 4.3 GHz)

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core Ultra 5 125U
vs
Core i5 1235U

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Cinebench 2026 (Single) - 400
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) - 1046
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)
File compression 958.1 MB/sec 448.4 MB/sec
Clang compilation 65.6 Klines/sec 24.1 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 223.8 pages/sec 156 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 243.9 Mpixels/sec 128.9 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 213.2 pages/sec 206.3 pages/sec
Background blur 40.3 images/sec 34.7 images/sec
Photo processing 93.4 images/sec 54.1 images/sec
Ray tracing 13.8 Mpixels/sec 10.5 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 18 & 545 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core Ultra 5 125U +35%
16758
Core i5 1235U
12449
Integer math 55.8 GOps/sec 47.4 GOps/sec
Floating point math 40.2 GOps/sec 37.4 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 64M Primes/sec 534M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 20.8M Strings/sec 16.6M Strings/sec
Data encryption 11.7 GBytes/sec 9 GBytes/sec
Data compression 188.5 MBytes/sec 143.4 MBytes/sec
Physics 1063 Frames/sec 649 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 10.7B Matrices/sec 7.9B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 2202 & 8323 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core Ultra 5 125U +36%
109.62
Core i5 1235U
80.33

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 41.1 PPW 24.5 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 761.3 PPW 424.1 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 1396.5 PPW 829.9 PPW
Blender / Watt 9.14 PPW 5.36 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 Ultra 5 125U
No benchmark results yet
Add
Intel Core i5 1235U
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-15 (zoetje)Cinebench 2026400 / 1046
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-09 (Jubayer)Cinebench 202486 / 393
πŸ“˜ 2026-05-06 (TASIN AMIR)Geekbench 6 CPU2191 / 7204
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-08 -> samueltailsGeekbench 6 CPU2147 / 6050
πŸ“˜ 2025-01-13 (sauron269)Cinebench 202498 / 368
Add View all (5)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core Ultra 5 125U and i5 1235U

General

Vendor Intel Intel
Released December 14, 2023 February 23, 2022
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set x86-64 x86-64
Codename Meteor Lake Alder Lake
Model number 125U i5-1235U
Integrated GPU Arc Graphics (4-Cores) Iris Xe Graphics (80EU)
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 5 8540U -
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 5 225U - Intel Core Ultra 5 225U
Intel CPU rating (169th and 199th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 2 2
P-Threads 4 4
Base Frequency (P) 1.3 GHz 1.3 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 4.3 GHz 4.4 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 10 8
E-Threads 10 8
Base Frequency (E) 0.8 GHz 0.9 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) 3.6 GHz 3.3 GHz
Total
Total Cores 12 10
Total Threads 14 12
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 13x 13x
L1 Cache 112K (per core) 80K (per core)
L2 Cache 2MB (per core) 1280K (per core)
L3 Cache 12MB (shared) 12MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Fabrication Process 7 nm 10 nm
TDP (PL1) 12 W 12-15 W (configurable)
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) 57 W 55 W
Socket FCBGA-2049 BGA-1744
Peak Temperature 110Β°C 100Β°C

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Arc Graphics (4-Cores) Intel Iris Xe Graphics (80EU)
GPU Base Clock 300 MHz 300 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1850 MHz 1200 MHz
Shading Units 512 640
TMUs 32 40
ROPs 16 20
Execution Units 64 80
TGP 14 W 15 W
iGPU FLOPS
Core Ultra 5 125U +27%
1.9 TFLOPS
Core i5 1235U
1.5 TFLOPS
More info: Iris Xe Graphics G7 (80EU) compared to Arc iGPU (4-Cores)

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5-7467
- LPDDR5x-7467
- DDR5-5600		 - DDR5-4800
- DDR4-3200
- LPDDR5-5200
- LPDDR4x-4267
Max. Memory Size 96 GB 64 GB
Memory Channels 2 2
Max. Memory Bandwidth 89.6 GB/s -
ECC Support No No

Misc

Official Site Intel Core Ultra 5 125U official page Intel Core i5 1235U official page
PCI Express Version 4.0 4.0
PCI Express Lanes 20 20

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
44 (71%)
18 (29%)
Total votes: 62

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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Intel Core i5 1235U or Ultra 5 125U?
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