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Intel Core i9-12900 vs Apple M3
Last updated:
Benchmarks
Performance Overview
Average performance across multiple benchmarks
Single-core performance
Multi-core performance
Cinebench R23 Single-Core
Single-core performance
Intel Core i9-12900
100 %
16C / 24T · 5.10 GHz
Apple M3
99 %
8C / 8T · 4.06 GHz
Cinebench R23 Multi-Core
Multi-core performance
Intel Core i9-12900
100 %
16C / 24T · 4.20 GHz
Apple M3
39 %
8C / 8T · 4.06 GHz
Geekbench 6 Single-Core
Single-core performance
Intel Core i9-12900
84 %
16C / 24T · 5.10 GHz
Apple M3
100 %
8C / 8T · 4.06 GHz
Geekbench 6 Multi-Core
Multi-core performance
Intel Core i9-12900
100 %
16C / 24T · 4.20 GHz
Apple M3
77 %
8C / 8T · 4.06 GHz
Geekbench 5, 64bit Single-Core
Single-core performance
Intel Core i9-12900
92 %
16C / 24T · 5.10 GHz
Apple M3
100 %
8C / 8T · 4.06 GHz
Geekbench 5, 64bit Multi-Core
Multi-core performance
Intel Core i9-12900
100 %
16C / 24T · 4.20 GHz
Apple M3
67 %
8C / 8T · 4.06 GHz
iGPU - FP32 Performance (Single-precision GFLOPS)
Intel Core i9-12900
22 %
Intel UHD Graphics 770
Apple M3
100 %
Apple M3 (10 Core)
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
|
Intel Core i9-12900 | Apple M3 |
|---|---|---|
| Family | Intel Core i9 (81) | Apple M series (38) |
| CPU group | Intel Core i 12000 (34) | Apple M3 (6) |
| Architecture | Alder Lake S | M3 |
| Technology | 10 nm | 3 nm |
| Segment | Desktop | Notebook |
| Socket | LGA 1700 | |
| Predecessor | Intel Core i9-11900 | Apple M2 |
| Successor | Intel Core i9-13900 | Apple M4 |
CPU Cores and Base Frequency
|
Wischen
|
Intel Core i9-12900 | Apple M3 |
|---|---|---|
| CPU Cores / Threads | 16 / 24 | 8 / 8 |
| Hyperthreading / SMT | ✓ | ✗ |
| Core architecture | hybrid (big.LITTLE) | hybrid (big.LITTLE) |
| Core Cluster 1: | 8x Golden Cove 2.40 - 5.10 GHz |
4x Ibiza P-Core 0.70 - 4.06 GHz |
| Core Cluster 2: | 8x Gracemont 1.80 - 3.80 GHz |
4x Ibiza E-Core 0.74 - 2.75 GHz |
| L2-Cache | 14.00 MB | 20.00 MB |
| L3-Cache | 30.00 MB | |
| Overclocking | ✗ | ✗ |
Integrated graphics (iGPU)
|
Wischen
|
Intel Core i9-12900 | Apple M3 |
|---|---|---|
| GPU name | Intel UHD Graphics 770 | Apple M3 (10 Core) |
| GPU frequency | 0.30 - 1.55 GHz | 0.39 - 1.40 GHz |
| CUs / Shader | 32 / 256 | 160 / 1280 |
| Raytracing | ✗ | ✓ |
| Max. displays | 3 | 2 |
| Max. GPU Memory | 64 GB | 24 GB |
| Technology | 10 nm | 3 nm |
| Release date | Q4/2021 | Q4/2023 |
NPU AI performance
|
Wischen
|
Intel Core i9-12900 | Apple M3 |
|---|---|---|
| AI hardware | Apple Neural Engine | |
| AI specifications | 16 Neural cores @ 35 TOPS | |
| NPU + CPU + iGPU |
Memory & PCIe
|
Wischen
|
Intel Core i9-12900 | Apple M3 |
|---|---|---|
| Memory | DDR5-4800 (76.8 GB/s) DDR4-3200 (51.2 GB/s) | LPDDR5-6400 (102.4 GB/s) |
| Max. Memory | 128 GB | 24 GB |
| Memory channels | 2 | 2 |
| ECC | Yes | No |
| PCIe | 5.0 x 20 | 4.0 |
| PCIe Bandwidth | 78.8 GB/s |
Thermal Management
|
Wischen
|
Intel Core i9-12900 | Apple M3 |
|---|---|---|
| TDP | 65 W | 22 W |
| TDP (PL2) | 202 W | |
| TDP up | ||
| TDP down | 15 W | |
| T. junction max. | 100 °C | 100 °C |
Technical details
|
Wischen
|
Intel Core i9-12900 | Apple M3 |
|---|---|---|
| Chip design | Monolithic | Monolithic |
| AES-NI | ✓ | ✓ |
| Operating systems | Windows 10, Windows 11, Linux | macOS, iPadOS |
| Instruction set | x86-64 (64 bit) | Armv8-A (64 bit) |
| ISA extensions | SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX2, AVX2+ | Rosetta 2 x86-Emulation |
| Release date | Q1/2022 | Q4/2023 |
| Release price | 489 $ | |
| Documents | Technical data sheet |
User Reviews
Your rating
Here you can rate one or both of the processors. The average rating of Intel Core i9-12900 is 3.6 stars (18 ratings), while Apple M3 has received 4.6 stars (1639 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 (48-GPU)
20C / 20T · 3.20 GHz
7
Apple M2 Ultra (60-GPU)
24C / 24T · 3.50 GHz
8
Apple M3
8C / 8T · 4.06 GHz
9
Intel Core i9-12900
16C / 24T · 5.10 GHz
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