Apple M1 vs Intel Core i5-12600KF

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


Apple M1 CPU1 vs CPU2 Intel Core i5-12600KF
Apple M1 Intel Core i5-12600KF

CPU comparison

In this CPU comparison, we compare the Apple M1 and the Intel Core i5-12600KF and use benchmarks to check which processor is faster.

We compare the Apple M1 8 core processor released in Q4/2020 with the Intel Core i5-12600KF which has 10 CPU cores and was introduced in Q4/2021.
Apple M series (23) Family Intel Core i5 (328)
Apple M1 (9) CPU group Intel Core i 12000 (34)
1 Generation 12
M1 Architecture Alder Lake S
Mobile Segment Desktop / Server
-- Predecessor Intel Core i5-11600KF
Apple M2 Successor Intel Core i5-13600KF

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Apple M1 is a 8 core processor with a clock frequency of 0.60 GHz (3.20 GHz). The processor can compute 8 threads at the same time. The Intel Core i5-12600KF clocks with 3.70 GHz (4.90 GHz), has 10 CPU cores and can calculate 16 threads in parallel.

Apple M1 Characteristic Intel Core i5-12600KF
8 Cores 10
8 Threads 16
hybrid (big.LITTLE) Core architecture hybrid (big.LITTLE)
No Hyperthreading Yes
No Overclocking ? Yes
0.60 GHz (3.20 GHz)
4x Firestorm
A-Core 3.70 GHz (4.90 GHz)
6x Golden Cove
0.60 GHz (2.06 GHz)
4x Icestorm
B-Core 2.80 GHz (3.60 GHz)
4x Gracemont

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 M1 Characteristic Intel Core i5-12600KF
Apple Neural Engine AI hardware --
16 Neural cores @ 11 TOPS AI specifications --

Internal Graphics

Graphics (iGPU) integrated into the processor not only enable image output without having to rely on a dedicated graphics solution, but can also efficiently accelerate video playback.

Apple M1 (8 Core) GPU no iGPU
0.39 GHz GPU frequency --
1.30 GHz GPU (Turbo) --
1 GPU Generation --
5 nm Technology
2 Max. displays
128 Compute units --
1024 Shader --
No Hardware Raytracing No
No Frame Generation No
8 GB Max. GPU Memory --
-- DirectX Version --

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 M1 (8 Core) GPU no iGPU
Decode / Encode Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) No
Decode / Encode Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) No
Decode / Encode Codec h264 No
Decode / Encode Codec VP9 No
Decode Codec VP8 No
No Codec AV1 No
Decode Codec AVC No
Decode Codec VC-1 No
Decode / Encode Codec JPEG No

Memory & PCIe

Up to 16 GB of memory in a maximum of 2 memory channels is supported by the Apple M1, while the Intel Core i5-12600KF supports a maximum of 128 GB of memory with a maximum memory bandwidth of 76.8 GB/s enabled.

Apple M1 Characteristic Intel Core i5-12600KF
LPDDR4X-4266 Memory DDR5-4800, DDR4-3200
16 GB Max. Memory 128 GB
2 (Dual Channel) Memory channels 2 (Dual Channel)
68.2 GB/s Max. Bandwidth 76.8 GB/s
No ECC No
16.00 MB L2 Cache 9.50 MB
-- L3 Cache 20.00 MB
4.0 PCIe version 5.0
-- PCIe lanes 20
-- PCIe Bandwidth 78.8 GB/s

Thermal Management

The Apple M1 has a TDP of 18 W. The TDP of the Intel Core i5-12600KF is 125 W. System integrators use the TDP of the processor as a guide when dimensioning the cooling solution.

Apple M1 Characteristic Intel Core i5-12600KF
18 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 125 W
-- TDP (PL2) 150 W
20 W TDP up --
10 W TDP down --
-- Tjunction max. 100 °C

Technical details

The Apple M1 has 16.00 MB cache and is manufactured in 5 nm. The cache of Intel Core i5-12600KF is at 29.50 MB. The processor is manufactured in 10 nm.

Apple M1 Characteristic Intel Core i5-12600KF
5 nm Technology 10 nm
Chiplet Chip design Monolithic
Armv8.5-A (64 bit) Instruction set (ISA) x86-64 (64 bit)
Rosetta 2 x86-Emulation ISA extensions SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX2, AVX2+
-- Socket LGA 1700
Apple Virtualization Framework Virtualization VT-x, VT-x EPT, VT-d
Yes AES-NI Yes
macOS Operating systems Windows 10, Windows 11, Linux
Q4/2020 Release date Q4/2021
-- Release price 264 $
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Rate these processors

Here you can rate the Apple M1 to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 4.9 stars (170 ratings). Rate now:
Here you can rate the Intel Core i5-12600KF to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 4.5 stars (11 ratings). Rate now:


Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 4 CPU benchmarks
⌀ Multi core performance in 6 CPU benchmarks

Cinebench 2024 (Single-Core)

The Cinebench 2024 benchmark is based on the Redshift rendering engine, which is also used in Maxon's 3D program Cinema 4D. The benchmark runs are each 10 minutes long to test whether the processor is limited by its heat generation.
Apple M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
112 (100%)
Intel Core i5-12600KF Intel Core i5-12600KF
10C 16T @ 4.90 GHz
105 (94%)

Cinebench 2024 (Multi-Core)

The Multi-Core test of the Cinebench 2024 benchmark uses all cpu cores to render using the Redshift rendering engine, which is also used in Maxons Cinema 4D. The benchmark run is 10 minutes long to test whether the processor is limited by its heat generation.
Apple M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
509 (56%)
Intel Core i5-12600KF Intel Core i5-12600KF
10C 16T @ 4.90 GHz
909 (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 M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
1503 (78%)
Intel Core i5-12600KF Intel Core i5-12600KF
10C 16T @ 4.90 GHz
1918 (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 M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
7759 (44%)
Intel Core i5-12600KF Intel Core i5-12600KF
10C 16T @ 4.50 GHz
17660 (100%)

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 M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
1742 (94%)
Intel Core i5-12600KF Intel Core i5-12600KF
10C 16T @ 4.90 GHz
1854 (100%)

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 M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
7650 (64%)
Intel Core i5-12600KF Intel Core i5-12600KF
10C 16T @ 4.50 GHz
11912 (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 M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
2369 (96%)
Intel Core i5-12600KF Intel Core i5-12600KF
10C 16T @ 4.90 GHz
2472 (100%)

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 M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
8576 (72%)
Intel Core i5-12600KF Intel Core i5-12600KF
10C 16T @ 4.50 GHz
11991 (100%)

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 M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
117 (47%)
Intel Core i5-12600KF Intel Core i5-12600KF
10C 16T @ 4.50 GHz
249 (100%)

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 M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
14463 (52%)
Intel Core i5-12600KF Intel Core i5-12600KF
10C 16T @ 4.50 GHz
27830 (100%)

CPU performance per watt (efficiency)

Efficiency of the processor under full load in the Cinebench R23 (multi-core) benchmark. The benchmark result is divided by the average energy required (CPU package power in watts). The higher the value, the more efficient the CPU is under full load.
Apple M1 Apple M1
7,759 CB R23 MC @ 18 W
431 (100%)
Intel Core i5-12600KF Intel Core i5-12600KF
17,660 CB R23 MC @ 115 W
154 (36%)

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 M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i5-12600KF Intel Core i5-12600KF
10C 16T @ 4.90 GHz
741 (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 M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i5-12600KF Intel Core i5-12600KF
10C 16T @ 4.50 GHz
6702 (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 M1 Apple M1
Apple M1 (8 Core) @ 1.30 GHz
2610 (100%)
Intel Core i5-12600KF Intel Core i5-12600KF
@ 0.00 GHz
0 (0%)

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 M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
314 (100%)
Intel Core i5-12600KF Intel Core i5-12600KF
10C 16T @ 4.50 GHz
0 (0%)

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 M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i5-12600KF Intel Core i5-12600KF
10C 16T @ 4.50 GHz
766 (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 M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 0.60 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i5-12600KF Intel Core i5-12600KF
10C 16T @ 3.70 GHz
5589 (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 M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i5-12600KF Intel Core i5-12600KF
10C 16T @ 4.90 GHz
274 (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 M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i5-12600KF Intel Core i5-12600KF
10C 16T @ 4.50 GHz
2596 (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 M1 Apple M1
8C 8T @ 0.60 GHz
11 (100%)
Intel Core i5-12600KF Intel Core i5-12600KF
10C 16T @ 3.70 GHz
0 (0%)

Devices using this processor

Apple M1 Intel Core i5-12600KF
Apple iMac 24 (2021)
Apple MacBook Pro 13 (L2020)
Apple MacBook Air (2020)
Apple Mac mini (2020)
Apple iPad Pro 11 (2021)
Apple iPad Pro 12.9 (2021)
Apple iPad Air (2022)
Unknown

News and articles for the Apple M1 and the Intel Core i5-12600KF


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