Home > CPU Comparison > Core Ultra 9 185H or M3 Pro: what's better?

Intel Core Ultra 9 185H vs Apple M3 Pro

60 out of 100
Intel Core Ultra 9 185H
VS
73 out of 100
Apple M3 Pro
Intel Core Ultra 9 185H
Apple M3 Pro

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 2.3 GHz Intel Core Ultra 9 185H with 16-cores against the 4.05 GHz Apple M3 Pro with 12-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 Pro and 185H
Advantages of Intel Core Ultra 9 185H
  • Supports up to 96 GB LPDDR5-7467 RAM
  • Has 4 more physical cores
  • Newer PCI Express version – 5.0
  • More than 10Β° C higher critical temperature
Advantages of Apple M3 Pro
  • More modern manufacturing process – 3 versus 7 nanometers
  • More powerful Apple M3 Pro GPU (18-core) integrated graphics: 6.4 vs 4.8 TFLOPS
  • 29% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 3163 vs 2446 points

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core Ultra 9 185H
vs
M3 Pro

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Core Ultra 9 185H
107
M3 Pro +34%
143
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Core Ultra 9 185H
987
M3 Pro +7%
1059
Cinebench Scores (156th and 141st 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 Ultra 9 185H
2446
M3 Pro +29%
3163
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Core Ultra 9 185H
13613
M3 Pro +14%
15512
File compression 1270 MB/sec 1560 MB/sec
Clang compilation 102.8 Klines/sec 132.6 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 342.7 pages/sec 382.9 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 389.7 Mpixels/sec 393.2 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 245.1 pages/sec 301 pages/sec
Background blur 45.2 images/sec 61.4 images/sec
Photo processing 131.5 images/sec 144.1 images/sec
Ray tracing 23.3 Mpixels/sec 19.7 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 492 & 991 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Core Ultra 9 185H
3660
M3 Pro +16%
4247
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core Ultra 9 185H +21%
28998
M3 Pro
24046
Integer math 97.4 GOps/sec 55.9 GOps/sec
Floating point math 72.2 GOps/sec 64.8 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 123M Primes/sec 240M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 39M Strings/sec 35.2M Strings/sec
Data encryption 19.5 GBytes/sec 14.4 GBytes/sec
Data compression 334.6 MBytes/sec 288.5 MBytes/sec
Physics 1940 Frames/sec 2060 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 19.9B Matrices/sec 14.1B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 4148 & 1204 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core Ultra 9 185H
200.07
M3 Pro +14%
228.7

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 15.2 PPW 35.3 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 209.4 PPW 517.1 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 446.1 PPW 801.5 PPW
Blender / Watt 3.08 PPW 7.62 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 9 185H
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2025-12-28 (Nicholas)Cinebench 202492 / 795
πŸ“˜ 2024-12-29 (Remembered2U)Cinebench 2024107 / 987
πŸ“˜ 2024-11-03 (Anish)Cinebench 2024103 / 886
πŸ“˜ 2024-10-01 (Guest #3)Cinebench 2024108 / 1088
Add View all (4)
Apple M3 Pro
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-01-25 (Kirich)Geekbench 6 CPU3198 / 14601
πŸ“˜ 2026-01-25 (Kirich)Cinebench 2024150 / 946
Add View all (2)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core Ultra 9 185H and Apple M3 Pro

General

Vendor Intel Apple
Released December 14, 2023 October 30, 2023
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set x86-64 ARMv8
Codename Meteor Lake Apple M3
Model number 185H -
Integrated GPU Arc Graphics (8-Cores) Apple M3 Pro GPU (18-core)
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS -
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 9 288V - Apple M5 Pro (18-Core)
Intel CPU rating (#83rd place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 6 6
P-Threads 12 6
Base Frequency (P) 2.3 GHz 4.05 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 5.1 GHz -
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 10 6
E-Threads 10 6
Base Frequency (E) 1.8 GHz 2.75 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) 3.8 GHz -
Total
Total Cores 16 12
Total Threads 22 12
Bus Frequency 100 MHz -
Multiplier 23x 40x
L1 Cache 112K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 2MB (per core) 16MB (shared)
L3 Cache 24MB (shared) -
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Transistors - 37 billions
Fabrication Process 7 nm 3 nm
TDP (PL1) 35-65 W (configurable) 30 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) 115 W -
Socket FCBGA-2049 Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 110Β°C 100Β°C
Laptop processors ranking (103rd and 40th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Arc Graphics (8-Cores) Apple M3 Pro GPU (18-core)
GPU Base Clock 300 MHz 500 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 2350 MHz 1380 MHz
Shading Units 1024 2304
TMUs 64 144
ROPs 32 72
Execution Units 128 288
TGP 28 W 30 W
iGPU FLOPS
Core Ultra 9 185H
4.8 TFLOPS
M3 Pro +33%
6.4 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M3 Pro GPU (18-core) compared to Arc iGPU (8-Cores)

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5-7467
- LPDDR5x-7467
- DDR5-5600		 - LPDDR5-6400
Max. Memory Size 96 GB 36 GB
Memory Channels 2 12
Max. Memory Bandwidth - 153.6 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

Official Site Intel Core Ultra 9 185H official page -
PCI Express Version 5.0 4.0
PCI Express Lanes 28 -

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
171 (47.6%)
188 (52.4%)
Total votes: 359

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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M3 Pro or Intel Core Ultra 9 185H?
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