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Intel Core i9-12900KF vs Apple M2

Last updated: 2026-06-06

Table of Contents

Summary
Benchmarks
Specifications
User Reviews
Popular Comparisons

Summary

Benchmarks

Performance Overview
Average performance across multiple benchmarks

Single-core performance

Rank 1 - 100 %

Intel Core i9-12900KF

Rank 2 - 92 %

Apple M2

Multi-core performance

Rank 1 - 100 %

Intel Core i9-12900KF

Rank 2 - 43 %

Apple M2

Cinebench 2026 Single-Thread
Single-core performance

16C / 24T · 5.20 GHz

461 pts

8C / 8T · 3.50 GHz

470 pts

Cinebench 2026 Multi-Core
Multi-core performance

16C / 24T · 5.20 GHz

6,018 pts

8C / 8T · 3.50 GHz

2,316 pts

Cinebench 2024 Single-Core
Single-core performance

16C / 24T · 5.20 GHz

124 pts

8C / 8T · 3.50 GHz

120 pts

Cinebench 2024 Multi-Core
Multi-core performance

16C / 24T · 5.20 GHz

1,564 pts

8C / 8T · 3.50 GHz

555 pts

Cinebench R23 Single-Core
Single-core performance

16C / 24T · 5.20 GHz

1,997 pts

8C / 8T · 3.50 GHz

1,592 pts

Cinebench R23 Multi-Core
Multi-core performance

16C / 24T · 5.00 GHz

27,472 pts

8C / 8T · 3.50 GHz

8,558 pts

Geekbench 6 Single-Core
Single-core performance

16C / 24T · 5.20 GHz

2,664

8C / 8T · 3.50 GHz

2,596

Geekbench 6 Multi-Core
Multi-core performance

16C / 24T · 5.00 GHz

15,986

8C / 8T · 3.50 GHz

10,062

Geekbench 5, 64bit Single-Core
Single-core performance

16C / 24T · 5.20 GHz

1,990

8C / 8T · 3.50 GHz

1,874

Geekbench 5, 64bit Multi-Core
Multi-core performance

16C / 24T · 5.00 GHz

17,595

8C / 8T · 3.50 GHz

8,853

More benchmarks

Cinebench 2026 (ST)
218 entries

Cinebench 2026 (MC)
219 entries

Cinebench 2024 (SC)
427 entries

Cinebench 2024 (MC)
422 entries

Cinebench R23 (SC)
690 entries

Cinebench R23 (MC)
665 entries

Geekbench 6 (SC)
1,989 entries

Geekbench 6 (MC)
1,927 entries

Cinebench R20 (SC)
666 entries

Geekbench 5 (SC)
2,512 entries

Cinebench R20 (MC)
615 entries

Geekbench 5 (MC)
2,483 entries

FP32 SP (iGPU)
2,219 entries

Blender 3.1 Benchmark
213 entries

PassMark CPU-Mark
2,504 entries

Blender 2.81 (bmw27)
190 entries

CPU-Z Benchmark 17 (SC)
250 entries

CPU-Z Benchmark 17 (MC)
751 entries

V-Ray CPU-Render
251 entries

Cinebench R15 (SC)
1,113 entries

Cinebench R15 (MC)
1,110 entries

CPU performance per watt (efficiency)
140 entries

AI performance (NPU)
218 entries

Specifications

At a glance

Wischen	Intel Core i9-12900KF	Apple M2
Family	Intel Core i9 (81)	Apple M series (38)
CPU group	Intel Core i 12000 (34)	Apple M2 (8)
Architecture	Alder Lake S	M2
Technology	10 nm	5 nm
Segment	Desktop	Notebook
Socket	LGA 1700
Predecessor	Intel Core i9-11900KF	Apple M1
Successor	Intel Core i9-13900KF	Apple M3

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

Wischen	Intel Core i9-12900KF	Apple M2
CPU Cores / Threads	16 / 24	8 / 8
Hyperthreading / SMT	✓	✗
Core architecture	hybrid (big.LITTLE)	hybrid (big.LITTLE)
Core Cluster 1:	8x Golden Cove 3.20 - 5.20 GHz	4x Avalanche 0.66 - 3.50 GHz
Core Cluster 2:	8x Gracemont 2.40 - 3.90 GHz	4x Blizzard 0.60 - 2.42 GHz
L2-Cache	14.00 MB	20.00 MB
L3-Cache	30.00 MB
Overclocking	✓	✗

Integrated graphics (iGPU)

Wischen	Intel Core i9-12900KF	Apple M2
GPU name	no iGPU	Apple M2 (10 Core)
GPU frequency		0.45 - 1.40 GHz
CUs / Shader	/	160 / 1280
Raytracing	✗	✗
Max. displays		2
Max. GPU Memory		24 GB
Technology		5 nm
Release date		Q2/2022

NPU AI performance

Wischen	Intel Core i9-12900KF	Apple M2
AI hardware		Apple Neural Engine
AI specifications		16 Neural cores @ 15.8 TOPS
NPU + CPU + iGPU

Memory & PCIe

Wischen	Intel Core i9-12900KF	Apple M2
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	No	No
PCIe	5.0 x 20	4.0
PCIe Bandwidth	78.8 GB/s

Thermal Management

Wischen	Intel Core i9-12900KF	Apple M2
TDP	125 W	20 W
TDP (PL2)	241 W
TDP up		30 W
TDP down		10 W
T. junction max.	100 °C	100 °C

Technical details

Wischen	Intel Core i9-12900KF	Apple M2
Chip design	Monolithic	Monolithic
AES-NI	✓	✓
Operating systems	Windows 10, Windows 11, Linux	macOS, iPadOS
Instruction set	x86-64 (64 bit)	Armv8.5-A (64 bit)
ISA extensions	SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX2, AVX2+	Rosetta 2 x86-Emulation
Release date	Q4/2021	Q2/2022
Release price	564 $
Documents	Technical data sheet	Technical data sheet

User Reviews

Your rating

Here you can rate one or both of the processors. The average rating of Intel Core i9-12900KF is 4.4 stars (36 ratings), while Apple M2 has received 4.4 stars (743 ratings).

Click on the stars to rate one or both processors.

Intel Core i9-12900KF
16C / 24T · 3.20 - 5.20 GHz

★★★★★

Apple M2
8C / 8T · 0.66 - 3.50 GHz

★★★★★