Apple A12 Bionic vs Intel Core i5-8250U

Last updated:

CPU comparison with benchmarks


Apple A12 Bionic CPU1 vs CPU2 Intel Core i5-8250U
Apple A12 Bionic Intel Core i5-8250U

CPU comparison

Apple A12 Bionic or Intel Core i5-8250U - which processor is faster? In this comparison we look at the differences and analyze which of these two CPUs is better. We compare the technical data and benchmark results.

The Apple A12 Bionic has 6 cores with 6 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 2.49 GHz. Up to 4 GB of memory is supported in 1 memory channels. The Apple A12 Bionic was released in Q3/2018.

The Intel Core i5-8250U has 4 cores with 8 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 3.40 GHz. The CPU supports up to 32 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The Intel Core i5-8250U was released in Q3/2017.
Apple A series (22) Family Intel Core i5 (328)
Apple A12/A12X/A12Z (3) CPU group Intel Core i 8000U (7)
12 Generation 8
A12 Architecture Kaby Lake U Refresh
Mobile Segment Mobile
Apple A11 Bionic Predecessor --
Apple A13 Bionic Successor --

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Apple A12 Bionic has 6 CPU cores and can calculate 6 threads in parallel. The clock frequency of the Apple A12 Bionic is 2.49 GHz while the Intel Core i5-8250U has 4 CPU cores and 8 threads can calculate simultaneously. The clock frequency of the Intel Core i5-8250U is at 1.60 GHz (3.40 GHz).

Apple A12 Bionic Characteristic Intel Core i5-8250U
6 Cores 4
6 Threads 8
hybrid (big.LITTLE) Core architecture normal
No Hyperthreading Yes
No Overclocking ? No
2.49 GHz
2x Vortex
A-Core 1.60 GHz (3.40 GHz)
1.59 GHz
4x Tempest
B-Core --

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Processors with the support of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can process many calculations, especially audio, image and video processing, much faster than classic processors. Algorithms for ML improve their performance the more data they have collected via software. ML tasks can be processed up to 10,000 times faster than with a classic processor.

Apple A12 Bionic Characteristic Intel Core i5-8250U
Apple Neural Engine AI hardware --
8 Neural cores @ 5 TOPS AI specifications --

Internal Graphics

The Apple A12 Bionic or Intel Core i5-8250U has integrated graphics, called iGPU for short. The iGPU uses the system's main memory as graphics memory and sits on the processor's die.

Apple A12 GPU Intel UHD Graphics 620
1.13 GHz GPU frequency 0.30 GHz
-- GPU (Turbo) 1.10 GHz
9 GPU Generation 9.5
7 nm Technology 14 nm
1 Max. displays 3
16 Compute units 24
256 Shader 192
No Hardware Raytracing No
No Frame Generation No
4 GB Max. GPU Memory 16 GB
-- DirectX Version 12

Hardware codec support

A photo or video codec that is accelerated in hardware can greatly accelerate the working speed of a processor and extend the battery life of notebooks or smartphones when playing videos.

Apple A12 GPU Intel UHD Graphics 620
Decode / Encode Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec h264 Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec VP9 Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec VP8 Decode / Encode
No Codec AV1 No
Decode Codec AVC Decode / Encode
Decode Codec VC-1 Decode
Decode / Encode Codec JPEG Decode / Encode

Memory & PCIe

The Apple A12 Bionic can use up to 4 GB of memory in 1 memory channels. The maximum memory bandwidth is 34.1 GB/s. The Intel Core i5-8250U supports up to 32 GB of memory in 2 memory channels and achieves a memory bandwidth of up to 38.4 GB/s.

Apple A12 Bionic Characteristic Intel Core i5-8250U
LPDDR4X-4266 Memory DDR4-2400
4 GB Max. Memory 32 GB
1 (Single Channel) Memory channels 2 (Dual Channel)
34.1 GB/s Max. Bandwidth 38.4 GB/s
No ECC No
8.00 MB L2 Cache --
-- L3 Cache 6.00 MB
-- PCIe version 3.0
-- PCIe lanes 12
-- PCIe Bandwidth 11.8 GB/s

Thermal Management

The thermal design power (TDP for short) of the Apple A12 Bionic is 6 W, while the Intel Core i5-8250U has a TDP of 15 W. The TDP specifies the necessary cooling solution that is required to cool the processor sufficiently.

Apple A12 Bionic Characteristic Intel Core i5-8250U
6 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 15 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
-- TDP down --
-- Tjunction max. --

Technical details

The Apple A12 Bionic is manufactured in 7 nm and has 8.00 MB cache. The Intel Core i5-8250U is manufactured in 14 nm and has a 6.00 MB cache.

Apple A12 Bionic Characteristic Intel Core i5-8250U
7 nm Technology 14 nm
Chiplet Chip design Monolithic
Armv8-A (64 bit) Instruction set (ISA) x86-64 (64 bit)
-- ISA extensions SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX2
-- Socket BGA 1356
None Virtualization VT-x, VT-x EPT, VT-d
No AES-NI Yes
iOS Operating systems Windows 10, Windows 11, Linux
Q3/2018 Release date Q3/2017
-- Release price 385 $
show more data show more data


Rate these processors

Here you can rate the Apple A12 Bionic to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 3.0 stars (4 ratings). Rate now:
Here you can rate the Intel Core i5-8250U to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 3.5 stars (4 ratings). Rate now:


Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 2 CPU benchmarks
⌀ Multi core performance in 3 CPU benchmarks

Geekbench 5, 64bit (Single-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.
Apple A12 Bionic Apple A12 Bionic
6C 6T @ 2.49 GHz
1116 (100%)
Intel Core i5-8250U Intel Core i5-8250U
4C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
753 (67%)

Geekbench 5, 64bit (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.
Apple A12 Bionic Apple A12 Bionic
6C 6T @ 2.49 GHz
2731 (92%)
Intel Core i5-8250U Intel Core i5-8250U
4C 8T @ 2.30 GHz
2956 (100%)

Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The single-core benchmark only evaluates the performance of the fastest CPU core, the number of CPU cores in a processor is irrelevant here.
Apple A12 Bionic Apple A12 Bionic
6C 6T @ 2.49 GHz
1286 (100%)
Intel Core i5-8250U Intel Core i5-8250U
4C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
1127 (88%)

Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The multi-core benchmark evaluates the performance of all of the processor's CPU cores. Virtual thread improvements such as AMD SMT or Intel's Hyper-Threading have a positive impact on the benchmark result.
Apple A12 Bionic Apple A12 Bionic
6C 6T @ 2.49 GHz
2353 (71%)
Intel Core i5-8250U Intel Core i5-8250U
4C 8T @ 2.30 GHz
3311 (100%)

iGPU - FP32 Performance (Single-precision GFLOPS)

The theoretical computing performance of the internal graphics unit of the processor with simple accuracy (32 bit) in GFLOPS. GFLOPS indicates how many billion floating point operations the iGPU can perform per second.
Apple A12 Bionic Apple A12 Bionic
Apple A12 @ 1.13 GHz
576 (100%)
Intel Core i5-8250U Intel Core i5-8250U
Intel UHD Graphics 620 @ 1.10 GHz
422 (73%)

Estimated results for PassMark CPU Mark

Some of the CPUs listed below have been benchmarked by CPU-monkey. However the majority of CPUs have not been tested and the results have been estimated by a CPU-monkey’s secret proprietary formula. As such they do not accurately reflect the actual Passmark CPU mark values and are not endorsed by PassMark Software Pty Ltd.
Apple A12 Bionic Apple A12 Bionic
6C 6T @ 2.49 GHz
4846 (82%)
Intel Core i5-8250U Intel Core i5-8250U
4C 8T @ 2.30 GHz
5901 (100%)

Cinebench R23 (Single-Core)

Cinebench R23 is the successor of Cinebench R20 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.
Apple A12 Bionic Apple A12 Bionic
6C 6T @ 2.49 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i5-8250U Intel Core i5-8250U
4C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
897 (100%)

Cinebench R23 (Multi-Core)

Cinebench R23 is the successor of Cinebench R20 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.
Apple A12 Bionic Apple A12 Bionic
6C 6T @ 2.49 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i5-8250U Intel Core i5-8250U
4C 8T @ 2.30 GHz
3118 (100%)

Cinebench R20 (Single-Core)

Cinebench R20 is the successor of Cinebench R15 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.
Apple A12 Bionic Apple A12 Bionic
6C 6T @ 2.49 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i5-8250U Intel Core i5-8250U
4C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
348 (100%)

Cinebench R20 (Multi-Core)

Cinebench R20 is the successor of Cinebench R15 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.
Apple A12 Bionic Apple A12 Bionic
6C 6T @ 2.49 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i5-8250U Intel Core i5-8250U
4C 8T @ 2.30 GHz
1509 (100%)

AnTuTu 8 Benchmark

The AnTuTu 8 Benchmark measures the performance of a SoC. AnTuTu benchmarks the CPU, GPU, Memory as well as the UX (User Experience) by simulating browser and app usage. AnTuTu can benchmark any ARM CPU that runs under Android or iOS. Devices may not be directly compareable if the benchmark has been performed under different operating systems.

In the AnTuTu 8 benchmark, the single-core performance of a processor is only slightly weighted. The evaluation consists of the multi-core performance of the processor, the speed of the RAM and the performance of the internal graphics.
Apple A12 Bionic Apple A12 Bionic
6C 6T @ 2.49 GHz
425605 (100%)
Intel Core i5-8250U Intel Core i5-8250U
4C 8T @ 1.60 GHz
0 (0%)

Blender 3.1 Benchmark

In the Blender Benchmark 3.1, the scenes "monster", "junkshop" and "classroom" are rendered and the time required by the system is measured. In our benchmark we test the CPU and not the graphics card. Blender 3.1 was presented as a standalone version in March 2022.
Apple A12 Bionic Apple A12 Bionic
6C 6T @ 2.49 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i5-8250U Intel Core i5-8250U
4C 8T @ 2.30 GHz
46 (100%)

Blender 2.81 (bmw27)

Blender is a free 3D graphics software for rendering (creating) 3D bodies, which can also be textured and animated in the software. The Blender benchmark creates predefined scenes and measures the time (s) required for the entire scene. The shorter the time required, the better. We selected bmw27 as the benchmark scene.
Apple A12 Bionic Apple A12 Bionic
6C 6T @ 2.49 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i5-8250U Intel Core i5-8250U
4C 8T @ 2.30 GHz
705.3 (100%)

CPU-Z Benchmark 17 (Single-Core)

The CPU-Z benchmark measures a processor's performance by measuring the time it takes the system to complete all benchmark calculations. The faster the benchmark is completed, the higher the score.
Apple A12 Bionic Apple A12 Bionic
6C 6T @ 2.49 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i5-8250U Intel Core i5-8250U
4C 8T @ 2.30 GHz
361 (100%)

CPU-Z Benchmark 17 (Multi-Core)

The CPU-Z benchmark measures a processor's performance by measuring the time it takes the system to complete all benchmark calculations. The faster the benchmark is completed, the higher the score.
Apple A12 Bionic Apple A12 Bionic
6C 6T @ 2.49 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i5-8250U Intel Core i5-8250U
4C 8T @ 1.60 GHz
1680 (100%)

Cinebench R15 (Single-Core)

Cinebench R15 is the successor of Cinebench 11.5 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.
Apple A12 Bionic Apple A12 Bionic
6C 6T @ 2.49 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i5-8250U Intel Core i5-8250U
4C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
157 (100%)

Cinebench R15 (Multi-Core)

Cinebench R15 is the successor of Cinebench 11.5 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.
Apple A12 Bionic Apple A12 Bionic
6C 6T @ 2.49 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i5-8250U Intel Core i5-8250U
4C 8T @ 2.30 GHz
549 (100%)

Performance for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)

Processors with the support of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can process many calculations, especially audio, image and video processing, much faster than classic processors. The performance is given in the number (trillions) of arithmetic operations per second (TOPS).
Apple A12 Bionic Apple A12 Bionic
6C 6T @ 2.49 GHz
5 (100%)
Intel Core i5-8250U Intel Core i5-8250U
4C 8T @ 1.60 GHz
0 (0%)

Devices using this processor

Apple A12 Bionic Intel Core i5-8250U
Apple iPhone XR
Apple iPhone XS
Apple iPhone XS Max
Apple iPad mini (5. Gen)
Apple iPad Air (3. Gen)
Acer Aspire
Acer Chromebook
Acer Spin
Acer Swift
Acer TravelMate
Asus UX410UA
Asus Vivobook 15
Asus ZenBook 13
Asus ZenBook 14
Dell Inspiron 13
Dell Inspiron 14
Dell Inspiron 15
Dell Inspiron 17
Dell XPS 13
Fujitsu Lifebook
Fujitsu Lifebook U938

Popular comparisons containing this CPUs

1. Apple A12 BionicApple A14 Bionic Apple A12 Bionic vs Apple A14 Bionic
2. AMD Ryzen 5 2500UIntel Core i5-8250U AMD Ryzen 5 2500U vs Intel Core i5-8250U
3. Intel Core i5-8250UIntel Core i5-7200U Intel Core i5-8250U vs Intel Core i5-7200U
4. Apple A10X FusionApple A12 Bionic Apple A10X Fusion vs Apple A12 Bionic
5. Intel Core i5-8250UIntel Core i7-8550U Intel Core i5-8250U vs Intel Core i7-8550U
6. Intel Core i5-8250UAMD Ryzen 5 3500U Intel Core i5-8250U vs AMD Ryzen 5 3500U
7. Intel Core i7-7500UIntel Core i5-8250U Intel Core i7-7500U vs Intel Core i5-8250U
8. AMD Athlon Silver 3050UIntel Core i5-8250U AMD Athlon Silver 3050U vs Intel Core i5-8250U
9. Apple A13 BionicApple A12 Bionic Apple A13 Bionic vs Apple A12 Bionic
10. Apple M1Apple A12 Bionic Apple M1 vs Apple A12 Bionic


back to index