Intel Core i9-10980XE vs Apple M4

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


Intel Core i9-10980XE CPU1 vs CPU2 Apple M4
Intel Core i9-10980XE Apple M4

CPU comparison

Intel Core i9-10980XE 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 i9-10980XE has 18 cores with 36 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 4.80 GHz. Up to 256 GB of memory is supported in 4 memory channels. The Intel Core i9-10980XE was released in Q4/2019.

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 i9 (78) Family Apple M series (25)
Intel Core i 10000X (4) CPU group Apple M4 (2)
10 Generation 4
Cascade Lake Architecture M4
Desktop / Server Segment Mobile
Intel Core i9-9980XE Predecessor Apple M3
-- Successor --

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Intel Core i9-10980XE has 18 CPU cores and can calculate 36 threads in parallel. The clock frequency of the Intel Core i9-10980XE is 3.00 GHz (4.80 GHz) while the Apple M4 has 9 CPU cores and 9 threads can calculate simultaneously. The clock frequency of the Apple M4 is at 0.70 GHz (4.41 GHz).

Intel Core i9-10980XE Characteristic Apple M4
18 Cores 9
36 Threads 9
normal Core architecture hybrid (big.LITTLE)
Yes Hyperthreading No
Yes Overclocking ? No
3.00 GHz (4.80 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 i9-10980XE Characteristic Apple M4
-- AI hardware Apple Neural Engine
-- AI specifications 16 Neural cores @ 38 TOPS
-- NPU + CPU + iGPU --

Integrated graphics (iGPU)

The Intel Core i9-10980XE or Apple M4 has integrated graphics, called iGPU for short. The iGPU uses the system's main memory as graphics memory and sits on the processor's die.

no iGPU GPU Apple M4 (10 Core)
GPU frequency 0.39 GHz
-- GPU (Turbo) 1.40 GHz
-- GPU Generation --
Technology 3 nm
Max. displays 2
-- Compute units 160
-- Shader 1280
No Hardware Raytracing Yes
No Frame Generation No
-- Max. GPU Memory 24 GB
-- 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.

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

Memory & PCIe

The Intel Core i9-10980XE can use up to 256 GB of memory in 4 memory channels. The maximum memory bandwidth is 93.8 GB/s. The Apple M4 supports up to 8 GB of memory in 2 memory channels and achieves a memory bandwidth of up to 120.0 GB/s.

Intel Core i9-10980XE Characteristic Apple M4
DDR4-2933 Memory LPDDR5X-7500
256 GB Max. Memory 8 GB
4 (Quad Channel) Memory channels 2 (Dual Channel)
93.8 GB/s Max. Bandwidth 120.0 GB/s
No ECC No
-- L2 Cache 18.00 MB
24.75 MB L3 Cache --
3.0 PCIe version 4.0
48 PCIe lanes --
47.3 GB/s PCIe Bandwidth --

Thermal Management

The thermal design power (TDP for short) of the Intel Core i9-10980XE is 165 W, while the Apple M4 has a TDP of 22 W. The TDP specifies the necessary cooling solution that is required to cool the processor sufficiently.

Intel Core i9-10980XE Characteristic Apple M4
165 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 22 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
-- TDP down 15 W
86 °C Tjunction max. 100 °C

Technical details

The Intel Core i9-10980XE is manufactured in 14 nm and has 24.75 MB cache. The Apple M4 is manufactured in 3 nm and has a 18.00 MB cache.

Intel Core i9-10980XE 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, AVX-512 ISA extensions Rosetta 2 x86-Emulation, AVX2, SME
LGA 2066 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
Q4/2019 Release date Q2/2024
979 $ Release price --
show more data show more data


Rate these processors

Here you can rate the Intel Core i9-10980XE to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 3.6 stars (7 ratings). Rate now:
Here you can rate the Apple M4 to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 4.2 stars (95 ratings). Rate now:


Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 2 CPU benchmarks
Intel Core i9-10980XE (45%)
Apple M4 (100%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
Intel Core i9-10980XE (91%)
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 i9-10980XE Intel Core i9-10980XE
18C 36T @ 4.80 GHz
1174 (47%)
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 i9-10980XE Intel Core i9-10980XE
18C 36T @ 4.80 GHz
1573 (43%)
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 i9-10980XE Intel Core i9-10980XE
18C 36T @ 4.30 GHz
11836 (91%)
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 i9-10980XE Intel Core i9-10980XE
18C 36T @ 4.80 GHz
1191 (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 i9-10980XE Intel Core i9-10980XE
18C 36T @ 4.30 GHz
24309 (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 i9-10980XE Intel Core i9-10980XE
18C 36T @ 4.30 GHz
15841 (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 i9-10980XE Intel Core i9-10980XE
18C 36T @ 4.80 GHz
480 (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 i9-10980XE Intel Core i9-10980XE
18C 36T @ 4.30 GHz
8848 (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 i9-10980XE Intel Core i9-10980XE
18C 36T @ 4.30 GHz
33095 (100%)
Apple M4 Apple M4
9C 9T @ 0.70 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.
Intel Core i9-10980XE Intel Core i9-10980XE
18C 36T @ 4.30 GHz
74.9 (100%)
Apple M4 Apple M4
9C 9T @ 0.70 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.
Intel Core i9-10980XE Intel Core i9-10980XE
18C 36T @ 3.00 GHz
9733 (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 i9-10980XE Intel Core i9-10980XE
18C 36T @ 4.80 GHz
211 (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 i9-10980XE Intel Core i9-10980XE
18C 36T @ 4.30 GHz
3800 (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 i9-10980XE Intel Core i9-10980XE
18C 36T @ 3.00 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M4 Apple M4
9C 9T @ 0.70 GHz
38 (100%)

Devices using this processor

Intel Core i9-10980XE Apple M4
Unknown Apple iPad Pro 11 (2024)

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