Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) vs Intel Core i3 12100

[ VERDICT ] Winner: Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) (97/100)

Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) leads overall with a score of 97/100 compared to Intel Core i3 12100 (45/100), offering superior measured performance and technical specifications.

Why choose Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU):
  • + Higher Efficiency score (93 vs 50)
  • + Higher Performance score (100 vs 62)
[ WINNER ]
Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU)
Apple

Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU)

97/100
View Full Specs →
Intel Core i3 12100
Intel

Intel Core i3 12100

45/100
View Full Specs →

Benchmark Performance Comparison

Normalized Lab Scores
Benchmark measurements and scores across compared devices
Benchmark Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i3 12100
Efficiency 93.0 Excellent WINNER 50.0 Below Average
Performance 100.0 Excellent WINNER 62.0 Average

Detailed Technical Specifications

CPU

CPU specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i3 12100
Base Frequency (E) 4.38 GHz —
Base Frequency (P) 4.61 GHz 3.3 GHz
E-Cores 12 —
E-Threads 12 —
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 80K (per core)
Multiplier 46x 33x
P-Cores 6 4
P-Threads 6 8
Total Cores 18 4
Total Threads 18 8
Unlocked Multiplier No No
Bus Frequency — 100 MHz
L2 Cache — 1280K (per core)
L3 Cache — 12MB (shared)
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) — 4.3 GHz

GeekBench v6

GeekBench v6 specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i3 12100
Background blur 99.8 images/sec 39.3 images/sec
Clang compilation 264.8 Klines/sec 46.7 Klines/sec
File compression 2730 MB/sec 631.3 MB/sec
HTML 5 Browser 769.2 pages/sec 170.3 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 762.6 Mpixels/sec 201.3 Mpixels/sec
Photo processing 260.4 images/sec 68.8 images/sec
Ray tracing 48.4 Mpixels/sec 10.9 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 438.2 pages/sec 222.5 pages/sec

General

General specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i3 12100
Codename Apple M5 Alder Lake
Instruction Set ARMv9 x86-64
Integrated GPU Apple M5 Max GPU (32-core) UHD Graphics 730
Released March 3, 2026 January 4, 2022
Type Laptop Desktop
Vendor Apple Intel
Model number — i3-12100
Successor — -Intel Core i3 14100

Memory Support

Memory Support specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i3 12100
ECC Support No No
Max. Memory Bandwidth 460.8 GB/s 76.8 GB/s
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 128 GB
Memory Channels 24 2
Memory Types - LPDDR5X-9600 - DDR5-4800- DDR4-3200

Package

Package specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i3 12100
Fabrication Process 3 nm 10 nm
Peak Temperature 100°C 100°C
Socket Apple M-Socket LGA-1700
TDP (PL1) 64 W 60 W
Transistors 28 billions —
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) — 89 W

PassMark

PassMark specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i3 12100
Data compression 689.6 MBytes/sec 146.2 MBytes/sec
Data encryption 40.8 GBytes/sec 7.4 GBytes/sec
Extended instructions 33.4B Matrices/sec 10B Matrices/sec
Find prime numbers 553M Primes/sec 49M Primes/sec
Floating point math 186.1 GOps/sec 29 GOps/sec
Integer math 132.6 GOps/sec 37 GOps/sec
Physics 6847 Frames/sec 778 Frames/sec
Random string sorting 84.9M Strings/sec 14.7M Strings/sec

Performance Per Watt

Performance Per Watt specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i3 12100
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 32.3 PPW 7.2 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 454.2 PPW 123.8 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 897.9 PPW 208.4 PPW
Blender / Watt — 1.86 PPW

iGPU

iGPU specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i3 12100
Execution Units 512 24
GPU Boost Clock 1620 MHz 1400 MHz
Integrated Graphics Apple M5 Max GPU (32-core) Intel UHD Graphics 730
ROPs 128 24
Shading Units 4096 192
TMUs 256 48
GPU Base Clock — 300 MHz
TGP — 15 W

Misc

Misc specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i3 12100
Official Site — Intel Core i3 12100 official page
PCI Express Lanes — 20
PCI Express Version — 5.0
Technologies — - Compute: ABM, ADX, BMI1, BMI2, CLMUL, F16C, SHA- Performance: EIST, TBT 2.0, TSX- Virtualization: VT-d, VT-x- Security: RDRAND, TXT, XD bit

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