Intel Core i5-8500B vs Apple M4

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


Intel Core i5-8500B CPU1 vs CPU2 Apple M4
Intel Core i5-8500B Apple M4

CPU comparison

Intel Core i5-8500B or Apple M4 - 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 Intel Core i5-8500B has 6 cores with 6 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 4.10 GHz. Up to 64 GB of memory is supported in 2 memory channels. The Intel Core i5-8500B was released in Q1/2018.

The Apple M4 has 9 cores with 9 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 4.41 GHz. The CPU supports up to 8 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The Apple M4 was released in Q2/2024.
Intel Core i5 (331) Family Apple M series (25)
Intel Core i 8000 (20) CPU group Apple M4 (2)
8 Generation 4
Coffee Lake S Architecture M4
Desktop / Server Segment Mobile
-- Predecessor Apple M3
-- Successor --

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Intel Core i5-8500B is a 6 core processor with a clock frequency of 3.00 GHz (4.10 GHz). The Apple M4 has 9 CPU cores with a clock frequency of 0.70 GHz (4.41 GHz).

Intel Core i5-8500B Characteristic Apple M4
6 Cores 9
6 Threads 9
normal Core architecture hybrid (big.LITTLE)
No Hyperthreading No
No Overclocking ? No
3.00 GHz (4.10 GHz) A-Core 0.70 GHz (4.41 GHz)
3x P-Core
-- B-Core 0.74 GHz (2.85 GHz)
6x E-Core

NPU AI performance

The performance values of the processor's AI unit. The isolated NPU performance is specified here, the total AI performance (NPU+CPU+iGPU) can be higher. Processors with support for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can process many calculations, especially audio, image and video processing, much faster than classic processors.

Intel Core i5-8500B Characteristic Apple M4
-- AI hardware Apple Neural Engine
-- AI specifications 16 Neural cores @ 38 TOPS
-- NPU + CPU + iGPU --

Integrated graphics (iGPU)

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.

Intel UHD Graphics 630 GPU Apple M4 (10 Core)
0.35 GHz GPU frequency 0.39 GHz
1.15 GHz GPU (Turbo) 1.40 GHz
9.5 GPU Generation --
14 nm Technology 3 nm
3 Max. displays 2
24 Compute units 160
192 Shader 1280
No Hardware Raytracing Yes
No Frame Generation No
64 GB Max. GPU Memory 24 GB
12 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.

Intel UHD Graphics 630 GPU Apple M4 (10 Core)
Decode / Encode Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec h264 Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec VP9 Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec VP8 Decode
No Codec AV1 Decode
Decode / Encode Codec AVC Decode
Decode Codec VC-1 Decode
Decode / Encode Codec JPEG Decode / Encode

Memory & PCIe

The Intel Core i5-8500B supports a maximum of 64 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The Apple M4 can connect up to 8 GB of memory in 2 memory channels.

Intel Core i5-8500B Characteristic Apple M4
DDR4-2666 Memory LPDDR5X-7500
64 GB Max. Memory 8 GB
2 (Dual Channel) Memory channels 2 (Dual Channel)
42.7 GB/s Max. Bandwidth 120.0 GB/s
No ECC No
-- L2 Cache 18.00 MB
9.00 MB L3 Cache --
3.0 PCIe version 4.0
16 PCIe lanes --
15.8 GB/s PCIe Bandwidth --

Thermal Management

The TDP (Thermal Design Power) of a processor specifies the required cooling solution. The Intel Core i5-8500B has a TDP of 65 W, that of the Apple M4 is 22 W.

Intel Core i5-8500B Characteristic Apple M4
65 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 22 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
-- TDP down 15 W
100 °C Tjunction max. 100 °C

Technical details

The Intel Core i5-8500B has a 9.00 MB cache, while the Apple M4 cache has a total of 18.00 MB.

Intel Core i5-8500B Characteristic Apple M4
14 nm Technology 3 nm
Monolithic Chip design Chiplet
x86-64 (64 bit) Instruction set (ISA) Armv9-A (64 bit)
SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX2 ISA extensions Rosetta 2 x86-Emulation, AVX2, SME
BGA 1440 Socket --
VT-x, VT-x EPT, VT-d Virtualization Apple Virtualization Framework
Yes AES-NI Yes
Windows 10, Windows 11, Linux Operating systems macOS, iPadOS
Q1/2018 Release date Q2/2024
190 $ Release price --
show more data show more data


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Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 2 CPU benchmarks
Intel Core i5-8500B (41%)
Apple M4 (100%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
Intel Core i5-8500B (40%)
Apple M4 (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.
Intel Core i5-8500B Intel Core i5-8500B
6C 6T @ 4.10 GHz
1086 (44%)
Apple M4 Apple M4
9C 9T @ 4.41 GHz
2491 (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.
Intel Core i5-8500B Intel Core i5-8500B
6C 6T @ 4.10 GHz
1364 (38%)
Apple M4 Apple M4
9C 9T @ 4.41 GHz
3630 (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.
Intel Core i5-8500B Intel Core i5-8500B
6C 6T @ 3.70 GHz
5220 (40%)
Apple M4 Apple M4
9C 9T @ 0.70 GHz
13060 (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.
Intel Core i5-8500B Intel Core i5-8500B
6C 6T @ 4.10 GHz
1052 (100%)
Apple M4 Apple M4
9C 9T @ 4.41 GHz
0 (0%)

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.
Intel Core i5-8500B Intel Core i5-8500B
6C 6T @ 3.70 GHz
5612 (100%)
Apple M4 Apple M4
9C 9T @ 0.70 GHz
0 (0%)

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.
Intel Core i5-8500B Intel Core i5-8500B
6C 6T @ 3.70 GHz
4689 (100%)
Apple M4 Apple M4
9C 9T @ 0.70 GHz
0 (0%)

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.
Intel Core i5-8500B Intel Core i5-8500B
6C 6T @ 4.10 GHz
403 (100%)
Apple M4 Apple M4
9C 9T @ 4.41 GHz
0 (0%)

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.
Intel Core i5-8500B Intel Core i5-8500B
6C 6T @ 3.70 GHz
2287 (100%)
Apple M4 Apple M4
9C 9T @ 0.70 GHz
0 (0%)

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.
Intel Core i5-8500B Intel Core i5-8500B
Intel UHD Graphics 630 @ 1.15 GHz
442 (100%)
Apple M4 Apple M4
Apple M4 (10 Core) @ 1.40 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.
Intel Core i5-8500B Intel Core i5-8500B
6C 6T @ 3.70 GHz
96 (100%)
Apple M4 Apple M4
9C 9T @ 0.70 GHz
0 (0%)

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.
Intel Core i5-8500B Intel Core i5-8500B
6C 6T @ 3.70 GHz
9094 (100%)
Apple M4 Apple M4
9C 9T @ 0.70 GHz
0 (0%)

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.
Intel Core i5-8500B Intel Core i5-8500B
6C 6T @ 4.10 GHz
174 (100%)
Apple M4 Apple M4
9C 9T @ 4.41 GHz
0 (0%)

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.
Intel Core i5-8500B Intel Core i5-8500B
6C 6T @ 3.70 GHz
934 (100%)
Apple M4 Apple M4
9C 9T @ 0.70 GHz
0 (0%)

AI performance (NPU)

The performance values of the processor's AI unit. The isolated NPU performance is given here, the total AI performance (NPU+CPU+iGPU) can be higher.

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).
Intel Core i5-8500B Intel Core i5-8500B
6C 6T @ 3.00 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M4 Apple M4
9C 9T @ 0.70 GHz
38 (100%)

Devices using this processor

Intel Core i5-8500B Apple M4
Apple Mac mini (2018) Apple iPad Pro 11 (2024)

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