Apple M1 (7-GPU) vs Intel Core i3-12100F

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


Apple M1 (7-GPU) CPU1 vs CPU2 Intel Core i3-12100F
Apple M1 (7-GPU) Intel Core i3-12100F

CPU comparison

Apple M1 (7-GPU) or Intel Core i3-12100F - 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 M1 (7-GPU) has 8 cores with 8 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 3.20 GHz. Up to 16 GB of memory is supported in 2 memory channels. The Apple M1 (7-GPU) was released in Q4/2020.

The Intel Core i3-12100F has 4 cores with 8 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 4.30 GHz. The CPU supports up to 128 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The Intel Core i3-12100F was released in Q1/2022.
Apple M series (25) Family Intel Core i3 (205)
Apple M1 (9) CPU group Intel Core i 12000 (34)
1 Generation 12
M1 Architecture Alder Lake S
Mobile Segment Desktop / Server
-- Predecessor --
-- Successor Intel Core i3-13100F

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Apple M1 (7-GPU) is a 8 core processor with a clock frequency of 0.60 GHz (3.20 GHz). The Intel Core i3-12100F has 4 CPU cores with a clock frequency of 3.30 GHz (4.30 GHz).

Apple M1 (7-GPU) Characteristic Intel Core i3-12100F
8 Cores 4
8 Threads 8
hybrid (big.LITTLE) Core architecture normal
No Hyperthreading Yes
No Overclocking ? No
0.60 GHz (3.20 GHz)
4x Firestorm
A-Core 3.30 GHz (4.30 GHz)
4x Golden Cove
0.60 GHz (2.06 GHz)
4x Icestorm
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 M1 (7-GPU) Characteristic Intel Core i3-12100F
Apple Neural Engine AI hardware --
16 Neural cores @ 11 TOPS AI specifications --

Internal Graphics

The integrated graphics unit of a processor is not only responsible for the pure image output on the system, but can also significantly increase the efficiency of the system with the support of modern video codecs.

Apple M1 (7 Core) GPU no iGPU
0.39 GHz GPU frequency --
1.30 GHz GPU (Turbo) --
1 GPU Generation --
5 nm Technology
2 Max. displays
112 Compute units --
896 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 (7 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

The Apple M1 (7-GPU) supports a maximum of 16 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The Intel Core i3-12100F can connect up to 128 GB of memory in 2 memory channels.

Apple M1 (7-GPU) Characteristic Intel Core i3-12100F
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 5.00 MB
-- L3 Cache 12.00 MB
4.0 PCIe version 5.0
-- PCIe lanes 20
-- PCIe Bandwidth 78.8 GB/s

Thermal Management

The TDP (Thermal Design Power) of a processor specifies the required cooling solution. The Apple M1 (7-GPU) has a TDP of 18 W, that of the Intel Core i3-12100F is 58 W.

Apple M1 (7-GPU) Characteristic Intel Core i3-12100F
18 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 58 W
-- TDP (PL2) 89 W
25 W TDP up --
10 W TDP down --
-- Tjunction max. 100 °C

Technical details

The Apple M1 (7-GPU) has a 16.00 MB cache, while the Intel Core i3-12100F cache has a total of 17.00 MB.

Apple M1 (7-GPU) Characteristic Intel Core i3-12100F
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 Q1/2022
-- Release price 97 $
show more data show more data


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Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 4 CPU benchmarks
Apple M1 (7-GPU) (98%)
Intel Core i3-12100F (92%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 5 CPU benchmarks
Apple M1 (7-GPU) (98%)
Intel Core i3-12100F (89%)

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 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
112 (100%)
Intel Core i3-12100F Intel Core i3-12100F
4C 8T @ 4.30 GHz
86 (77%)

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 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
509 (100%)
Intel Core i3-12100F Intel Core i3-12100F
4C 8T @ 4.30 GHz
401 (79%)

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 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
1503 (91%)
Intel Core i3-12100F Intel Core i3-12100F
4C 8T @ 4.30 GHz
1658 (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 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
7759 (92%)
Intel Core i3-12100F Intel Core i3-12100F
4C 8T @ 4.00 GHz
8443 (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 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
1742 (100%)
Intel Core i3-12100F Intel Core i3-12100F
4C 8T @ 4.30 GHz
1716 (99%)

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 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
7650 (100%)
Intel Core i3-12100F Intel Core i3-12100F
4C 8T @ 4.00 GHz
6422 (84%)

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 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
2369 (100%)
Intel Core i3-12100F Intel Core i3-12100F
4C 8T @ 4.30 GHz
2157 (91%)

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 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
8576 (100%)
Intel Core i3-12100F Intel Core i3-12100F
4C 8T @ 4.00 GHz
7428 (87%)

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 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
14463 (100%)
Intel Core i3-12100F Intel Core i3-12100F
4C 8T @ 4.00 GHz
13880 (96%)

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 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i3-12100F Intel Core i3-12100F
4C 8T @ 4.30 GHz
642 (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 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i3-12100F Intel Core i3-12100F
4C 8T @ 4.00 GHz
3204 (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 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
Apple M1 (7 Core) @ 1.30 GHz
2290 (100%)
Intel Core i3-12100F Intel Core i3-12100F
@ 0.00 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 M1 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
117 (100%)
Intel Core i3-12100F Intel Core i3-12100F
4C 8T @ 4.00 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 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
314 (100%)
Intel Core i3-12100F Intel Core i3-12100F
4C 8T @ 4.00 GHz
0 (0%)

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 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 0.60 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i3-12100F Intel Core i3-12100F
4C 8T @ 3.30 GHz
3352 (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 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i3-12100F Intel Core i3-12100F
4C 8T @ 4.30 GHz
242 (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 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i3-12100F Intel Core i3-12100F
4C 8T @ 4.00 GHz
1204 (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 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
7,759 CB R23 MC @ 18 W
431 (100%)
Intel Core i3-12100F Intel Core i3-12100F
3.30 GHz
0 (0%)

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 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 0.60 GHz
11 (100%)
Intel Core i3-12100F Intel Core i3-12100F
4C 8T @ 3.30 GHz
0 (0%)

Devices using this processor

Apple M1 (7-GPU) Intel Core i3-12100F
Unknown Unknown

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