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Apple M2 vs Intel Core i5-12600K

Last updated: 2026-07-01

Table of Contents

Summary
Benchmarks
Specifications
User Reviews
Popular Comparisons

Summary

Benchmarks

Performance Overview
Average performance across multiple benchmarks

Single-core performance

Rank 1 - 100 %

Apple M2

Rank 1 - 100 %

Intel Core i5-12600K

Multi-core performance

Rank 2 - 65 %

Apple M2

Rank 1 - 100 %

Intel Core i5-12600K

Cinebench 2026 Single-Thread
Single-core performance

8C / 8T · 3.50 GHz

470 pts

10C / 16T · 4.90 GHz

414 pts

Cinebench 2026 Multi-Core
Multi-core performance

8C / 8T · 3.50 GHz

2,316 pts

10C / 16T · 4.90 GHz

3,781 pts

Cinebench 2024 Single-Core
Single-core performance

8C / 8T · 3.50 GHz

120 pts

10C / 16T · 4.90 GHz

105 pts

Cinebench 2024 Multi-Core
Multi-core performance

8C / 8T · 3.50 GHz

555 pts

10C / 16T · 4.90 GHz

909 pts

Cinebench R23 Single-Core
Single-core performance

8C / 8T · 3.50 GHz

1,592 pts

10C / 16T · 4.90 GHz

1,918 pts

Cinebench R23 Multi-Core
Multi-core performance

8C / 8T · 3.50 GHz

8,558 pts

10C / 16T · 4.50 GHz

17,660 pts

Geekbench 6 Single-Core
Single-core performance

8C / 8T · 3.50 GHz

2,596

10C / 16T · 4.90 GHz

2,472

Geekbench 6 Multi-Core
Multi-core performance

8C / 8T · 3.50 GHz

10,062

10C / 16T · 4.50 GHz

11,991

Geekbench 5, 64bit Single-Core
Single-core performance

8C / 8T · 3.50 GHz

1,874

10C / 16T · 4.90 GHz

1,854

Geekbench 5, 64bit Multi-Core
Multi-core performance

8C / 8T · 3.50 GHz

8,853

10C / 16T · 4.50 GHz

11,912

iGPU - FP32 Performance (Single-precision GFLOPS)

Apple M2 (10 Core)

3,550

Intel UHD Graphics 770

742

More benchmarks

Cinebench 2026 (ST)
218 entries

Cinebench 2026 (MC)
219 entries

Cinebench 2024 (SC)
427 entries

Cinebench 2024 (MC)
422 entries

Cinebench R23 (SC)
690 entries

Cinebench R23 (MC)
665 entries

Geekbench 6 (SC)
1,989 entries

Geekbench 6 (MC)
1,927 entries

Cinebench R20 (SC)
666 entries

Geekbench 5 (SC)
2,512 entries

Cinebench R20 (MC)
615 entries

Geekbench 5 (MC)
2,483 entries

FP32 SP (iGPU)
2,219 entries

3DMark Timespy (iGPU)
534 entries

Blender 3.1 Benchmark
213 entries

PassMark CPU-Mark
2,504 entries

Blender 2.81 (bmw27)
190 entries

CPU-Z Benchmark 17 (SC)
250 entries

CPU-Z Benchmark 17 (MC)
751 entries

V-Ray CPU-Render
251 entries

Cinebench R15 (SC)
1,113 entries

Cinebench R15 (MC)
1,110 entries

CPU performance per watt (efficiency)
140 entries

AI performance (NPU)
218 entries

Specifications

At a glance

Wischen	Apple M2	Intel Core i5-12600K
Family	Apple M series (38)	Intel Core i5 (336)
CPU group	Apple M2 (8)	Intel Core i 12000 (34)
Architecture	M2	Alder Lake S
Technology	5 nm	10 nm
Segment	Notebook	Desktop
Socket		LGA 1700
Predecessor	Apple M1	Intel Core i5-11600K
Successor	Apple M3	Intel Core i5-13600K

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

Wischen	Apple M2	Intel Core i5-12600K
CPU Cores / Threads	8 / 8	10 / 16
Hyperthreading / SMT	✗	✓
Core architecture	hybrid (big.LITTLE)	hybrid (big.LITTLE)
Core Cluster 1:	4x Avalanche 0.66 - 3.50 GHz	6x Golden Cove 3.70 - 4.90 GHz
Core Cluster 2:	4x Blizzard 0.60 - 2.42 GHz	4x Gracemont 2.80 - 3.60 GHz
L2-Cache	20.00 MB	9.50 MB
L3-Cache		20.00 MB
Overclocking	✗	✓

Integrated graphics (iGPU)

Wischen	Apple M2	Intel Core i5-12600K
GPU name	Apple M2 (10 Core)	Intel UHD Graphics 770
GPU frequency	0.45 - 1.40 GHz	0.30 - 1.45 GHz
CUs / Shader	160 / 1280	32 / 256
Raytracing	✗	✗
Max. displays	2	3
Max. GPU Memory	24 GB	64 GB
Technology	5 nm	10 nm
Release date	Q2/2022	Q4/2021

NPU AI performance

Wischen	Apple M2	Intel Core i5-12600K
AI hardware	Apple Neural Engine
AI specifications	16 Neural cores @ 15.8 TOPS
NPU + CPU + iGPU

Memory & PCIe

Wischen	Apple M2	Intel Core i5-12600K
Memory	LPDDR5-6400 (102.4 GB/s)	DDR5-4800 (76.8 GB/s) DDR4-3200 (51.2 GB/s)
Max. Memory	24 GB	128 GB
Memory channels	2	2
ECC	No	Yes
PCIe	4.0	5.0 x 20
PCIe Bandwidth		78.8 GB/s

Thermal Management

Wischen	Apple M2	Intel Core i5-12600K
TDP	20 W	125 W
TDP (PL2)		150 W
TDP up	30 W
TDP down	10 W
T. junction max.	100 °C	100 °C

Technical details

Wischen	Apple M2	Intel Core i5-12600K
Chip design	Monolithic	Monolithic
AES-NI	✓	✓
Operating systems	macOS, iPadOS	Windows 10, Windows 11, Linux
Instruction set	Armv8.5-A (64 bit)	x86-64 (64 bit)
ISA extensions	Rosetta 2 x86-Emulation	SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX2, AVX2+
Release date	Q2/2022	Q4/2021
Release price		289 $
Documents	Technical data sheet	Technical data sheet

User Reviews

Your rating

Here you can rate one or both of the processors. The average rating of Apple M2 is 4.4 stars (743 ratings), while Intel Core i5-12600K has received 4.4 stars (138 ratings).

Click on the stars to rate one or both processors.

Apple M2
8C / 8T · 0.66 - 3.50 GHz

★★★★★

Intel Core i5-12600K
10C / 16T · 3.70 - 4.90 GHz

★★★★★