Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus vs Apple M5 Ultra (36-Core)

We compared two desktop CPUs: the 3.7 GHz Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus with 24-cores against the 4.61 GHz Apple M5 Ultra (36-Core) with 36-cores. On this page, you'll find out which processor has better performance in benchmarks, games and other useful information.

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 (36-Core) and Plus
Advantages of Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus
  • Unlocked multiplier
Advantages of Apple M5 Ultra (36-Core)
  • More powerful Apple M5 Ultra GPU (80-core) integrated graphics: 33.2 vs 2 TFLOPS
  • Around 1113.6 GB/s (967%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • Newer - released 5 months later
  • Supports up to 512 GB LPDDR5X-9600 RAM
  • Has 12 more physical cores
  • 15% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 4331 vs 3750 points

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Cinebench 2026 (Single) 595 -
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) 9722 -
Cinebench Scores (4th and 1st place)

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 2000 MB/sec -
Clang compilation 297.3 Klines/sec -
HTML 5 Browser 635.2 pages/sec -
PDF Renderer 716 Mpixels/sec -
Text processing 447.5 pages/sec -
Background blur 116 images/sec -
Photo processing 210.5 images/sec -
Ray tracing 59 Mpixels/sec -
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2]

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Integer math 175.8 GOps/sec -
Floating point math 229.2 GOps/sec -
Find prime numbers 612M Primes/sec -
Random string sorting 96.8M Strings/sec -
Data encryption 59 GBytes/sec -
Data compression 803 MBytes/sec -
Physics 4038 Frames/sec -
Extended instructions 63.4B Matrices/sec -
Sources: PassMark [3]1837 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 19.9 PPW -
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 219.2 PPW -
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 547.7 PPW -
Blender / Watt 4.92 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 7 270K Plus
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-08-12 (coolguy)Cinebench 20260 / 8872
📘 2026-06-25 (Adnan)Cinebench 2024144 / 2490
📘 2026-06-13 (sparehobos)Cinebench 2024147 / 2614
📘 2026-04-11 (Daniel Comeau)Cinebench 2026568 / 8929
📘 2026-04-07 (IdiotStick)Cinebench 2026595 / 9722
Apple M5 Ultra (36-Core)
No benchmark results yet

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus and Apple M5 Ultra (36-Core)

General

Vendor Intel Apple
Released March 12, 2026 August 25, 2026
Type Desktop Desktop
Instruction Set x86-64 ARMv9
Codename Arrow Lake Apple M5
Model number 270K+ -
Integrated GPU Arc iGPU (4-Cores) Apple M5 Ultra GPU (80-core)
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 9 9950X -
Intel CPU rating (#1st place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 8 24
P-Threads 8 24
Base Frequency (P) 3.7 GHz 4.61 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 5.4 GHz -
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 16 12
E-Threads 16 12
Base Frequency (E) 3.2 GHz 4.38 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) 4.7 GHz -
Total
Total Cores 24 36
Total Threads 24 36
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 37x 46x
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 3MB (per core) -
L3 Cache 36MB (shared) -
Unlocked Multiplier Yes No

Package

Transistors 17.8 billions -
Fabrication Process 3 nm 3 nm
TDP (PL1) 125 W -
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) 250 W -
Socket FCLGA-1851 Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 105°C 100°C
Desktop CPU ranking (2nd and 1st place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel Arc iGPU (4-Cores) Apple M5 Ultra GPU (80-core)
GPU Base Clock 300 MHz 500 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 2000 MHz 1620 MHz
Shading Units 512 10240
TMUs 32 640
ROPs 16 320
Execution Units 64 1280
TGP 14 W -
iGPU FLOPS
33.2 TFLOPS

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR5-7200 - LPDDR5X-9600
Max. Memory Size 256 GB 512 GB
Memory Channels 2 64
Max. Memory Bandwidth 115.2 GB/s 1228.8 GB/s
ECC Support Yes No

Misc

Official Site Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus official page -
PCI Express Version 5.0 -
PCI Express Lanes 24 -

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
4 (26.7%)
11 (73.3%)
Total votes: 15

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M5 Ultra (36-Core) or Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus?
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