Follow us
Share link
Submit benchmark
VS
Apple M3 vs Intel Core i3-12100
Last updated:
Benchmarks
Performance Overview
Average performance across multiple benchmarks
Single-core performance
Multi-core performance
Cinebench 2024 Single-Core
Single-core performance
Apple M3
100 %
8C / 8T · 4.06 GHz
Intel Core i3-12100
63 %
4C / 8T · 4.30 GHz
Cinebench 2024 Multi-Core
Multi-core performance
Apple M3
100 %
8C / 8T · 4.06 GHz
Intel Core i3-12100
61 %
4C / 8T · 4.30 GHz
Cinebench R23 Single-Core
Single-core performance
Apple M3
100 %
8C / 8T · 4.06 GHz
Intel Core i3-12100
84 %
4C / 8T · 4.30 GHz
Cinebench R23 Multi-Core
Multi-core performance
Apple M3
100 %
8C / 8T · 4.06 GHz
Intel Core i3-12100
81 %
4C / 8T · 4.00 GHz
Geekbench 6 Single-Core
Single-core performance
Apple M3
100 %
8C / 8T · 4.06 GHz
Intel Core i3-12100
69 %
4C / 8T · 4.30 GHz
Geekbench 6 Multi-Core
Multi-core performance
Apple M3
100 %
8C / 8T · 4.06 GHz
Intel Core i3-12100
63 %
4C / 8T · 4.00 GHz
Geekbench 5, 64bit Single-Core
Single-core performance
Apple M3
100 %
8C / 8T · 4.06 GHz
Intel Core i3-12100
80 %
4C / 8T · 4.30 GHz
Geekbench 5, 64bit Multi-Core
Multi-core performance
Apple M3
100 %
8C / 8T · 4.06 GHz
Intel Core i3-12100
61 %
4C / 8T · 4.00 GHz
iGPU - FP32 Performance (Single-precision GFLOPS)
Apple M3
100 %
Apple M3 (10 Core)
Intel Core i3-12100
15 %
Intel UHD Graphics 730
More benchmarks
Cinebench 2026 (ST)
218 entries
218 entries
Cinebench 2026 (MC)
219 entries
219 entries
Cinebench 2024 (SC)
427 entries
427 entries
Cinebench 2024 (MC)
422 entries
422 entries
Cinebench R23 (SC)
690 entries
690 entries
Cinebench R23 (MC)
665 entries
665 entries
Geekbench 6 (SC)
1,989 entries
1,989 entries
Geekbench 6 (MC)
1,927 entries
1,927 entries
Cinebench R20 (SC)
666 entries
666 entries
Geekbench 5 (SC)
2,512 entries
2,512 entries
Cinebench R20 (MC)
615 entries
615 entries
Geekbench 5 (MC)
2,483 entries
2,483 entries
FP32 SP (iGPU)
2,219 entries
2,219 entries
3DMark Timespy (iGPU)
534 entries
534 entries
PassMark CPU-Mark
2,504 entries
2,504 entries
Cinebench R15 (SC)
1,113 entries
1,113 entries
Cinebench R15 (MC)
1,110 entries
1,110 entries
CPU performance per watt (efficiency)
140 entries
140 entries
AI performance (NPU)
218 entries
218 entries
Specifications
At a glance
|
Wischen
|
Apple M3 | Intel Core i3-12100 |
|---|---|---|
| Family | Apple M series (38) | Intel Core i3 (205) |
| CPU group | Apple M3 (6) | Intel Core i 12000 (34) |
| Architecture | M3 | Alder Lake S |
| Technology | 3 nm | 10 nm |
| Segment | Notebook | Desktop |
| Socket | LGA 1700 | |
| Predecessor | Apple M2 | Intel Core i3-11100B |
| Successor | Apple M4 | Intel Core i3-13100 |
CPU Cores and Base Frequency
|
Wischen
|
Apple M3 | Intel Core i3-12100 |
|---|---|---|
| CPU Cores / Threads | 8 / 8 | 4 / 8 |
| Hyperthreading / SMT | ✗ | ✓ |
| Core architecture | hybrid (big.LITTLE) | normal |
| Core Cluster 1: | 4x Ibiza P-Core 0.70 - 4.06 GHz |
4x Golden Cove 3.30 - 4.30 GHz |
| Core Cluster 2: | 4x Ibiza E-Core 0.74 - 2.75 GHz |
|
| L2-Cache | 20.00 MB | 5.00 MB |
| L3-Cache | 12.00 MB | |
| Overclocking | ✗ | ✗ |
Integrated graphics (iGPU)
|
Wischen
|
Apple M3 | Intel Core i3-12100 |
|---|---|---|
| GPU name | Apple M3 (10 Core) | Intel UHD Graphics 730 |
| GPU frequency | 0.39 - 1.40 GHz | 0.30 - 1.40 GHz |
| CUs / Shader | 160 / 1280 | 24 / 192 |
| Raytracing | ✓ | ✗ |
| Max. displays | 2 | 3 |
| Max. GPU Memory | 24 GB | 64 GB |
| Technology | 3 nm | 14 nm |
| Release date | Q4/2023 | Q1/2021 |
NPU AI performance
|
Wischen
|
Apple M3 | Intel Core i3-12100 |
|---|---|---|
| AI hardware | Apple Neural Engine | |
| AI specifications | 16 Neural cores @ 35 TOPS | |
| NPU + CPU + iGPU |
Memory & PCIe
|
Wischen
|
Apple M3 | Intel Core i3-12100 |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | No |
| PCIe | 4.0 | 5.0 x 20 |
| PCIe Bandwidth | 78.8 GB/s |
Thermal Management
|
Wischen
|
Apple M3 | Intel Core i3-12100 |
|---|---|---|
| TDP | 22 W | 60 W |
| TDP (PL2) | 89 W | |
| TDP up | ||
| TDP down | 15 W | |
| T. junction max. | 100 °C | 100 °C |
Technical details
|
Wischen
|
Apple M3 | Intel Core i3-12100 |
|---|---|---|
| Chip design | Monolithic | Monolithic |
| AES-NI | ✓ | ✓ |
| Operating systems | macOS, iPadOS | Windows 10, Windows 11, Linux |
| Instruction set | Armv8-A (64 bit) | x86-64 (64 bit) |
| ISA extensions | Rosetta 2 x86-Emulation | SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX2, AVX2+ |
| Release date | Q4/2023 | Q1/2022 |
| Release price | 122 $ | |
| Documents | Technical data sheet |
User Reviews
Your rating
Here you can rate one or both of the processors. The average rating of Apple M3 is 4.6 stars (1638 ratings), while Intel Core i3-12100 has received 4.4 stars (124 ratings).
Click on the stars to rate one or both processors.
Most popular CPUs in both categories
1
Apple M5 Max (18-CPU 32-GPU)
18C / 18T · 4.61 GHz
2
Apple M3 Ultra (28-CPU 60-GPU)
28C / 28T · 4.06 GHz
3
Apple M2 Ultra (76-GPU)
24C / 24T · 3.50 GHz
4
Apple M5 Max (18-CPU 40-GPU)
18C / 18T · 4.61 GHz
5
Apple M3 Ultra (32-CPU 80-GPU)
32C / 32T · 4.06 GHz
6
Apple M1 Ultra (64-GPU)
20C / 20T · 3.20 GHz
7
Apple M1 Ultra (48-GPU)
20C / 20T · 3.20 GHz
8
Apple M3
8C / 8T · 4.06 GHz
9
Intel Core i3-12100
4C / 8T · 4.30 GHz
Popular Comparisons
