Apple M2 vs Intel Core i9-12900K

Here we compare a current and fast mobile processor with the Apple M2, which is also used in the Apple mac mini in addition to the Apple MacBooks.

So it's not a pure mobile processor. The competitor is the Intel Core i9-12900K, a high-end desktop processor that is just as suitable for current PC games as it is for more demanding applications.

Basically, the Intel Core i5-12600K or the Intel Core i7-12700K is sufficient for gamers, the Intel Core i9-12900K actually only makes sense if you often use more demanding applications in addition to computer games. With its integrated graphics card, the Apple M2 is only suitable for computer games to a limited extent, although the solution for integrated graphics is quite fast.

The Intel Core i9-12900K also has an iGPU, but it is slow and is only suitable for displaying an image or watching videos. The Intel UDH graphics 770 is too slow for most computer games. The Apple M2 relies on a big.LITTLE CPU core structure with 8 cores, consisting of 4 larger and faster "Avalanche" CPU cores with a clock frequency of 3.5 GHz and four efficiency cores of the "Blizzard" type (clock frequency 2.8 GHz) together.

The Intel Core i9-12900K is manufactured in 5 nm at TSMC and is very energy efficient. The Intel Core i9-12900K also relies on a hybrid core structure. With a total of 16 CPU cores, however, it is significantly larger than the Apple M2. 8 fast "Golden Cove" P cores are complemented by another 8 efficient "Gracemont" cores.

Overall, the Intel Core i9-12900K can calculate a total of 24 threads at the same time using Intel Hyper-Threading Technology. So it's a real workhorse, but it also needs significantly more energy than the Apple M2. The Apple M2 can use up to 24 GB of LPDDR5-6400 memory (102 GB/s bandwidth), the Intel can use up to 128 GB DDR5-4800 (77 GB/s bandwidth).

In addition, the Intel Core i9-12900K also supports older DDR4-3200 memory. Whether you have to use DDR4 or DDR5 memory depends on your motherboard. Mixed operation of DDR4 and DDR5 memory is not possible.