Intel Core Ultra 7 356H vs Apple M6 (12-Core)

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 1.9 GHz Intel Core Ultra 7 356H with 16-cores against the GHz Apple M6 (12-Core) with 12-cores. On this page, you'll find out which processor has better performance in benchmarks, games and other useful information.

Please note that the tests on the Apple M6 (12-Core) are done on an engineering sample provided by our insiders. The data will be more accurate after the final version of this CPU is available.

Key Differences

What are the key differences between (12-Core) and 356H
Advantages of Intel Core Ultra 7 356H
  • Supports up to 128 GB LPDDR5X-8533 RAM
  • Has 4 more physical cores
Advantages of Apple M6 (12-Core)
  • Newer - released 7 months later
  • 63% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 4501 vs 2768 points
  • Around 54.8 GB/s (48%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth

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 (Multi) 4053 -
Cinebench Scores (#120th 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)
21312
File compression 1200 MB/sec -
Clang compilation 119.5 Klines/sec -
HTML 5 Browser 241.3 pages/sec -
PDF Renderer 421.6 Mpixels/sec -
Text processing 295.8 pages/sec -
Background blur 60.7 images/sec -
Photo processing 117.9 images/sec -
Ray tracing 22.9 Mpixels/sec -
Sources: GeekBench [1]

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Integer math 83 GOps/sec -
Floating point math 102.9 GOps/sec -
Find prime numbers 325M Primes/sec -
Random string sorting 41.4M Strings/sec -
Data encryption 26.5 GBytes/sec -
Data compression 339.3 MBytes/sec -
Physics 2860 Frames/sec -
Extended instructions 28.3B Matrices/sec -
Sources: PassMark [3]176 samples

Blender

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

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 45.7 PPW -
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 636.6 PPW -
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 1364.6 PPW -
Blender / Watt 9.25 PPW -
These are rough calculations, as most CPUs surpass PL1 TDP wattage even in multicore workloads.

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core Ultra 7 356H and Apple M6 (12-Core)

General

Vendor Intel Apple
Released January 5, 2026 August 25, 2026
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set x86-64 ARMv9
Codename Panther Lake Apple M6
Model number 356H -
Integrated GPU Xe3 Graphics (4-Core) Apple M6 GPU (12-core)
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen AI 7 450 -
Intel CPU rating (#55th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 4 6
P-Threads 4 6
Base Frequency (P) 1.9 GHz -
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 4.7 GHz -
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 12 6
E-Threads 12 6
Base Frequency (E) 1.5 GHz -
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) 3.5 GHz -
Total
Total Cores 16 12
Total Threads 16 12
Bus Frequency 100 MHz -
Multiplier 19x -
L1 Cache 192K (per core) -
L2 Cache 2560K (per core) -
L3 Cache 18MB (shared) -
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Fabrication Process 2 nm 2 nm
TDP (PL1) 15-25 W (configurable) -
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) 80 W -
Socket FCBGA2540 Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100°C -

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel Xe3 Graphics (4-Core) Apple M6 GPU (12-core)
GPU Base Clock 300 MHz -
GPU Boost Clock 2450 MHz -
Shading Units 512 -
TMUs 32 -
ROPs 16 -
Execution Units 4 -
TGP 25 W -
iGPU FLOPS

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5X-8533
- DDR5-7200
- LPDDR5X-10667
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 32 GB
Memory Channels 2 8
Max. Memory Bandwidth 115.2 GB/s 170 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

Official Site Intel Core Ultra 7 356H official page -
PCI Express Version 5.0 -
PCI Express Lanes 20 -

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
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Total votes: 2

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M6 (12-Core) or Intel Core Ultra 7 356H?
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