Home > CPU Comparison > Core Ultra X9 388H or M5 (10-Core): what's better?

Intel Core Ultra X9 388H vs Apple M5 (10-Core)

75 out of 100
Intel Core Ultra X9 388H
VS
81 out of 100
Apple M5 (10-Core)
Intel Core Ultra X9 388H
Apple M5 (10-Core)

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 2.1 GHz Intel Core Ultra X9 388H with 16-cores against the 4.61 GHz Apple M5 (10-Core) 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 (1)

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.
🔌 Usage Scenario:

Key Differences

What are the key differences between (10-Core) and 388H
Advantages of Intel Core Ultra X9 388H
  • Supports up to 96 GB LPDDR5X-9600 RAM
  • More powerful Intel Arc B390 integrated graphics: 7.7 vs 4.1 TFLOPS
  • Has 6 more physical cores
  • More modern manufacturing process – 2 versus 3 nanometers
Advantages of Apple M5 (10-Core)
  • 41% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 4276 vs 3026 points

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core Ultra X9 388H
vs
M5 (10-Core)

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Cinebench 2026 (Single) 539 -
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) 5375 4456
Cinebench Scores (86th and 113th 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)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
File compression 1490 MB/sec 1790 MB/sec
Clang compilation 141.1 Klines/sec 138 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 477.4 pages/sec 427.3 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 539.5 Mpixels/sec 430.7 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 323.1 pages/sec 421.1 pages/sec
Background blur 61.5 images/sec 78.7 images/sec
Photo processing 177.3 images/sec 156.2 images/sec
Ray tracing 28.4 Mpixels/sec 21.6 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)
Core Ultra X9 388H +37%
36720
M5 (10-Core)
26779
Integer math 91.2 GOps/sec 56.9 GOps/sec
Floating point math 112.9 GOps/sec 75.6 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 357M Primes/sec 301M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 43.7M Strings/sec 35.6M Strings/sec
Data encryption 28.4 GBytes/sec 17.1 GBytes/sec
Data compression 360.2 MBytes/sec 296.6 MBytes/sec
Physics 3207 Frames/sec 3199 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 29.7B Matrices/sec 15.1B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 60 & 507 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core Ultra X9 388H +8%
297.18
M5 (10-Core)
275.89

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 53.7 PPW 43.8 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 701.8 PPW 661.6 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 1468.8 PPW 991.8 PPW
Blender / Watt 11.89 PPW 10.22 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 X9 388H
No benchmark results yet
Add
Apple M5 (10-Core)
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-07-29 -> knotp37Cinebench 20260 / 3841
📘 2026-07-05 -> maheshkondrajuGeekbench 6 CPU4224 / 17165
📘 2025-12-27 -> RennsportGeekbench 6 CPU4289 / 18011
Add View all (3)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core Ultra X9 388H and Apple M5 (10-Core)

General

Vendor Intel Apple
Released January 5, 2026 October 15, 2025
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set x86-64 ARMv9
Codename Panther Lake Apple M5
Model number 388H T8142
Integrated GPU Arc B390 Apple M5 GPU (10-core)
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen AI Max 390 - Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100)
Intel CPU rating (#28th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 4 4
P-Threads 4 4
Base Frequency (P) 2.1 GHz 4.61 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 5.1 GHz -
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 12 6
E-Threads 12 6
Base Frequency (E) 1.6 GHz 3.0 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) 4 GHz -
Total
Total Cores 16 10
Total Threads 16 10
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 21x 46x
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 3MB (per core) 22MB (shared)
L3 Cache 18MB (shared) -
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Transistors - 28 billions
Fabrication Process 2 nm 3 nm
TDP (PL1) 15-25 W (configurable) 27 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) 80 W -
Socket FCBGA2540 Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100°C 100°C
Die Size - 157.48 mm²
Laptop processors ranking (32nd and 21st place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel Arc B390 Apple M5 GPU (10-core)
GPU Base Clock 300 MHz -
GPU Boost Clock 2500 MHz 1620 MHz
Shading Units 1536 1280
TMUs 48 80
ROPs 24 40
Execution Units 12 160
TGP 30 W -
iGPU FLOPS
Core Ultra X9 388H +88%
7.7 TFLOPS
M5 (10-Core)
4.1 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M5 GPU (10-Core) compared to Arc B390

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5X-9600 - LPDDR5X-9600
Max. Memory Size 96 GB 32 GB
Memory Channels 2 8
Max. Memory Bandwidth 153.6 GB/s 153.6 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

Official Site Intel Core Ultra X9 388H official page -
PCI Express Version 5.0 -
PCI Express Lanes 12 -

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
54 (65.9%)
28 (34.1%)
Total votes: 82

Competitors

1. Apple M5 (10-Core) vs Intel Core Ultra X7 358H (3)
2. Apple M5 (10-Core) vs Apple M1 Pro
3. Apple M5 (10-Core) vs Intel Core Ultra 9 285H
4. Apple M5 (10-Core) vs Apple M4 Pro (12-Core)
5. Apple M5 (10-Core) vs Apple M1
6. Apple M5 (10-Core) vs Apple M5 Pro (15-Core)
7. Apple M5 (10-Core) vs Apple M6 (12-Core) (2)
8. Apple M5 (10-Core) vs Apple M4 (10-Core) (4)
9. Intel Core Ultra X9 388H vs Intel Core Ultra 9 386H
10. Intel Core Ultra X9 388H vs Intel Core Ultra X7 368H (1)
Compare other CPUs (460+)

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M5 (10-Core) or Intel Core Ultra X9 388H?
🌐 Register your profile and become part of NanoReview community!
Avatar
LGS June 19, 2026 at 03:36 PM
You’re calculating the performance per watt wrong on many of the newer cpu’s you guys are adding, you’re supposed to calculate it using the PL2 instead of the PL1. 45-80 watts is being used when running these benchmarks so the performance per watt is very misleading. (For the x9 388h) Also this isn’t the only chip that gets calculated this way as i’ve stated earlier so PLEASE fix this problem.
+1 Reply
EnglishРусский