Intel Core i9-12900HK vs Apple M1 Max (32-GPU)

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


Intel Core i9-12900HK CPU1 vs CPU2 Apple M1 Max (32-GPU)
Intel Core i9-12900HK Apple M1 Max (32-GPU)

CPU comparison

Intel Core i9-12900HK or Apple M1 Max (32-GPU) - 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 i9-12900HK has 14 cores with 20 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 5.00 GHz. Up to 64 GB of memory is supported in 2 memory channels. The Intel Core i9-12900HK was released in Q1/2022.

The Apple M1 Max (32-GPU) has 10 cores with 10 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 3.20 GHz. The CPU supports up to 64 GB of memory in 4 memory channels. The Apple M1 Max (32-GPU) was released in Q3/2021.
Intel Core i9 Family Apple M series
Intel Core i 12000H CPU group Apple M1
12 Generation 1
Alder Lake H Architecture M1
Mobile Segment Mobile
-- Predecessor --
Intel Core i9-13900HK Successor Apple M2 Max (38-GPU)

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Intel Core i9-12900HK has 14 CPU cores and can calculate 20 threads in parallel. The clock frequency of the Intel Core i9-12900HK is 2.50 GHz (5.00 GHz) while the Apple M1 Max (32-GPU) has 10 CPU cores and 10 threads can calculate simultaneously. The clock frequency of the Apple M1 Max (32-GPU) is at 1.80 GHz (3.80 GHz).

14 Cores 10
20 Threads 10
hybrid (big.LITTLE) Core architecture hybrid (big.LITTLE)
Yes Hyperthreading No
No Overclocking ? No
2.50 GHz (5.00 GHz)
6x Golden Cove
A-Core 3.20 GHz
8x Firestorm
1.80 GHz (3.80 GHz)
8x Gracemont
B-Core 2.06 GHz
2x Icestorm
-- C-Core --

Internal Graphics

The Intel Core i9-12900HK or Apple M1 Max (32-GPU) 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.

Intel Iris Xe Graphics 96 (Alder Lake) GPU Apple M1 Max (32 Core)
0.40 GHz GPU frequency 1.30 GHz
1.45 GHz GPU (Turbo)
13 GPU Generation 1
10 nm Technology 5 nm
4 Max. displays 3
96 Execution units 512
768 Shader 4096
32 GB Max. GPU Memory 32 GB
12.1 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.

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 Codec VP8 Decode
Decode Codec AV1 No
Decode / Encode Codec AVC Decode
Decode Codec VC-1 Decode
Decode / Encode Codec JPEG Decode / Encode

Memory & PCIe

The Intel Core i9-12900HK can use up to 64 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The maximum memory bandwidth is 76.8 GB/s. The Apple M1 Max (32-GPU) supports up to 64 GB of memory in 4 memory channels and achieves a memory bandwidth of up to 409.6 GB/s.

DDR4-3200, DDR5-4800, LPDDR4X-4266, LPDDR5-5200 Memory LPDDR5-6400
64 GB Max. Memory 64 GB
2 (Dual Channel) Memory channels 4 (Quad Channel)
76.8 GB/s Bandwidth 409.6 GB/s
No ECC No
11.50 MB L2 Cache 28.00 MB
24.00 MB L3 Cache
4.0 PCIe version 4.0
28 PCIe lanes

Thermal Management

The thermal design power (TDP for short) of the Intel Core i9-12900HK is 45 W, while the Apple M1 Max (32-GPU) has a TDP of 30 W. The TDP specifies the necessary cooling solution that is required to cool the processor sufficiently.

45 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 30 W
115 W TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up 60 W
-- TDP down --
100 °C Tjunction max. --

Technical details

The Intel Core i9-12900HK is manufactured in 10 nm and has 35.50 MB cache. The Apple M1 Max (32-GPU) is manufactured in 5 nm and has a 35.50 MB cache.

10 nm Technology 5 nm
Monolithic Chip design Chiplet
x86-64 (64 bit) Instruction set (ISA) ARMv8-A64 (64 bit)
SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX2, AVX2+ ISA extensions Rosetta 2 x86-Emulation
BGA 1744 Socket --
VT-x, VT-x EPT, VT-d Virtualization Apple Virtualization Framework
Yes AES-NI Yes
Windows 10, Windows 11, Linux Operating systems macOS
Q1/2022 Release date Q3/2021
635 $ Release price --
show more data show more data



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 i9-12900HK Intel Core i9-12900HK
14C 20T @ 5.00 GHz
1938 (100%)
Apple M1 Max (32-GPU) Apple M1 Max (32-GPU)
10C 10T @ 3.20 GHz
1534 (79%)
Show all Cinebench R23 (Single-Core) results



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 i9-12900HK Intel Core i9-12900HK
14C 20T @ 3.80 GHz
18197 (100%)
Apple M1 Max (32-GPU) Apple M1 Max (32-GPU)
10C 10T @ 3.20 GHz
12402 (68%)
Show all Cinebench R23 (Multi-Core) results



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 i9-12900HK Intel Core i9-12900HK
14C 20T @ 5.00 GHz
710 (100%)
Apple M1 Max (32-GPU) Apple M1 Max (32-GPU)
10C 10T @ 3.20 GHz
0 (0%)
Show all Cinebench R20 (Single-Core) results



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 i9-12900HK Intel Core i9-12900HK
14C 20T @ 3.80 GHz
6892 (100%)
Apple M1 Max (32-GPU) Apple M1 Max (32-GPU)
10C 10T @ 3.20 GHz
0 (0%)
Show all Cinebench R20 (Multi-Core) results



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 i9-12900HK Intel Core i9-12900HK
14C 20T @ 5.00 GHz
2426 (100%)
Apple M1 Max (32-GPU) Apple M1 Max (32-GPU)
10C 10T @ 3.20 GHz
2397 (99%)
Show all Geekbench 6 (Single-Core) results



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 i9-12900HK Intel Core i9-12900HK
14C 20T @ 3.80 GHz
11894 (96%)
Apple M1 Max (32-GPU) Apple M1 Max (32-GPU)
10C 10T @ 3.20 GHz
12439 (100%)
Show all Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core) results



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 i9-12900HK Intel Core i9-12900HK
14C 20T @ 5.00 GHz
1754 (98%)
Apple M1 Max (32-GPU) Apple M1 Max (32-GPU)
10C 10T @ 3.20 GHz
1783 (100%)
Show all Geekbench 5, 64bit (Single-Core) results



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 i9-12900HK Intel Core i9-12900HK
14C 20T @ 3.80 GHz
12662 (100%)
Apple M1 Max (32-GPU) Apple M1 Max (32-GPU)
10C 10T @ 3.20 GHz
12693 (100%)
Show all Geekbench 5, 64bit (Multi-Core) results



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 i9-12900HK Intel Core i9-12900HK
Intel Iris Xe Graphics 96 (Alder Lake) @ 1.45 GHz
2223 (21%)
Apple M1 Max (32-GPU) Apple M1 Max (32-GPU)
Apple M1 Max (32 Core) @ 1.30 GHz
10600 (100%)
Show all iGPU - FP32 Performance (Single-precision GFLOPS) results



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 i9-12900HK Intel Core i9-12900HK
14C 20T @ 3.80 GHz
260 (100%)
Apple M1 Max (32-GPU) Apple M1 Max (32-GPU)
10C 10T @ 3.20 GHz
192 (74%)
Show all Blender 3.1 Benchmark results



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 i9-12900HK Intel Core i9-12900HK
14C 20T @ 3.80 GHz
28974 (100%)
Apple M1 Max (32-GPU) Apple M1 Max (32-GPU)
10C 10T @ 3.20 GHz
22255 (77%)
Show all Estimated results for PassMark CPU Mark results



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 i9-12900HK Intel Core i9-12900HK
14C 20T @ 3.80 GHz
182 (100%)
Apple M1 Max (32-GPU) Apple M1 Max (32-GPU)
10C 10T @ 3.20 GHz
0 (0%)
Show all Blender 2.81 (bmw27) results



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 i9-12900HK Intel Core i9-12900HK
14C 20T @ 5.00 GHz
257 (100%)
Apple M1 Max (32-GPU) Apple M1 Max (32-GPU)
10C 10T @ 3.20 GHz
0 (0%)
Show all Cinebench R15 (Single-Core) results



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 i9-12900HK Intel Core i9-12900HK
14C 20T @ 3.80 GHz
2639 (100%)
Apple M1 Max (32-GPU) Apple M1 Max (32-GPU)
10C 10T @ 3.20 GHz
0 (0%)
Show all Cinebench R15 (Multi-Core) results



Devices using this processor

Intel Core i9-12900HK Apple M1 Max (32-GPU)
Unknown Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2021)
Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2021)

News and articles for the Intel Core i9-12900HK and the Apple M1 Max (32-GPU)


Leaderboards

In our leaderboards, we have clearly compiled the best processors for specific categories for you. The leaderboards are always up to date and are regularly updated by us. The best processors are selected according to popularity and speed in benchmarks as well as the price-performance ratio.


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