Home > CPU Comparison > Core Ultra 9 285K or M4 Max (16-Core): what's better?

Intel Core Ultra 9 285K vs Apple M4 Max (16-Core)

91 out of 100
Intel Core Ultra 9 285K
VS
93 out of 100
Apple M4 Max (16-Core)
Intel Core Ultra 9 285K
Apple M4 Max (16-Core)

We compared two CPUs: the 3.7 GHz Intel Core Ultra 9 285K (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
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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 (16-Core) and 285K
Advantages of Intel Core Ultra 9 285K
  • Unlocked multiplier
  • Has 8 more physical cores
  • Supports up to 192 GB DDR5-6400 RAM
Advantages of Apple M4 Max (16-Core)
  • More powerful Apple M4 Max GPU (40-core) integrated graphics: 16.2 vs 2 TFLOPS
  • Around 443.6 GB/s (433%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • 18% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 3986 vs 3379 points

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core Ultra 9 285K
vs
M4 Max (16-Core)

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) - 6324
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 1560 MB/sec 2680 MB/sec
Clang compilation 242.2 Klines/sec 219.7 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 479.5 pages/sec 699.3 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 622.1 Mpixels/sec 771.1 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 371.2 pages/sec 381.1 pages/sec
Background blur 95.4 images/sec 92.2 images/sec
Photo processing 164.2 images/sec 236.2 images/sec
Ray tracing 52.3 Mpixels/sec 36.1 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 172.3 GOps/sec 98.9 GOps/sec
Floating point math 224.2 GOps/sec 101.4 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 542M Primes/sec 627M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 94.9M Strings/sec 64.5M Strings/sec
Data encryption 57.7 GBytes/sec 27 GBytes/sec
Data compression 789.7 MBytes/sec 572.9 MBytes/sec
Physics 3933 Frames/sec 6614 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 62.3B Matrices/sec 30.3B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] โ€“ 8455 & 566 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 18.1 PPW 29.2 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 184.8 PPW 374.1 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 537.8 PPW 627.2 PPW
Blender / Watt 4.44 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 Ultra 9 285K
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-06-17 (Olafur Torfi)Cinebench 2024142 / 2242
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-02-01 (aDamatGeek)Cinebench 2024142 / 2383
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-01-29 (GeneralJeep)Geekbench 6 CPU3134 / 21707
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-12-31 (Szymon919191)Cinebench 2024141 / 2261
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-12-26 (Bill)Geekbench 6 CPU3207 / 22197
Add View all (14)
Apple M4 Max (16-Core)
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-07-20 (Rahul)Cinebench 2024177 / 1954
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-07-10 (thomas)Geekbench 6 CPU4094 / 26275
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-04-02 (BigJake)Cinebench 2024178 / 2001
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-02-17 (MM)Cinebench 2024173 / 1928
๐Ÿ“˜ 2024-11-12 (Jason C)Cinebench 2024177 / 2004
Add View all (5)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core Ultra 9 285K and Apple M4 Max (16-Core)

General

Vendor Intel Apple
Released October 11, 2024 October 30, 2024
Type Desktop Laptop
Instruction Set x86-64 ARMv9
Codename Arrow Lake Apple M4
Model number 285K T6041
Integrated GPU Arc iGPU (4-Cores) Apple M4 Max GPU (40-core)
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 9 9950X -
Successor - - Apple M5 Max (40-ัore GPU)
Intel CPU rating (#3rd place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 8 12
P-Threads 8 12
Base Frequency (P) 3.7 GHz 4.51 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 5.5 GHz -
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 16 4
E-Threads 16 4
Base Frequency (E) 3.2 GHz 2.59 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) 4.6 GHz -
Total
Total Cores 24 16
Total Threads 24 16
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 37x 45x
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 3MB (per core) 32MB (shared)
L3 Cache 36MB (shared) -
Unlocked Multiplier Yes No

Package

Fabrication Process 3 nm 3 nm
TDP (PL1) 125 W 70 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) 250 W -
Socket FCLGA-1851 Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 105ยฐC 100ยฐC
Desktop CPU ranking (#8th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel Arc iGPU (4-Cores) Apple M4 Max GPU (40-core)
GPU Base Clock 300 MHz 500 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 2000 MHz 1578 MHz
Shading Units 512 5120
TMUs 32 320
ROPs 16 160
Execution Units 64 640
TGP 14 W 50 W
iGPU FLOPS
Core Ultra 9 285K
2 TFLOPS
M4 Max (16-Core) +710%
16.2 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M4 Max GPU (40-core) compared to Arc iGPU (4-Cores)

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR5-6400 - LPDDR5X-8533
Max. Memory Size 192 GB 128 GB
Memory Channels 2 32
Max. Memory Bandwidth 102.4 GB/s 546 GB/s
ECC Support Yes No

Misc

Official Site Intel Core Ultra 9 285K official page -
PCI Express Version 5.0 -
PCI Express Lanes 24 -

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
60 (49.6%)
61 (50.4%)
Total votes: 121

Competitors

1. Apple M4 Max (16-Core) vs Apple M3 Max (1)
2. Apple M4 Max (16-Core) vs Apple M1 Pro
3. Apple M4 Max (16-Core) vs Apple M3 Pro
4. Apple M4 Max (16-Core) vs Apple M5 Max (40-ัore GPU)
5. Apple M4 Max (16-Core) vs Apple M4 Ultra (5)
6. Intel Core Ultra 9 285K vs Intel Core Ultra 7 265K (2)
7. Intel Core Ultra 9 285K vs AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (35)
8. Intel Core Ultra 9 285K vs Intel Core i9 14900KS (8)
9. Intel Core Ultra 9 285K vs Intel Core i9 14900K (8)
10. Intel Core Ultra 9 285K vs Intel Core i7 14700K
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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M4 Max (16-Core) or Intel Core Ultra 9 285K?
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