Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) vs Intel Core i5 12400

[ 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 i5 12400 (49/100), 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 64)

Benchmark Performance Comparison

Normalized Lab Scores
Benchmark measurements and scores across compared devices
Benchmark Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i5 12400
Efficiency 93.0 Excellent WINNER 50.0 Below Average
Performance 100.0 Excellent WINNER 64.0 Average

Detailed Technical Specifications

CPU

CPU specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i5 12400
Base Frequency (E) 4.38 GHz —
Base Frequency (P) 4.61 GHz 2.5 GHz
E-Cores 12 —
E-Threads 12 —
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 80K (per core)
Multiplier 46x 25x
P-Cores 6 6
P-Threads 6 12
Total Cores 18 6
Total Threads 18 12
Unlocked Multiplier No No
Bus Frequency — 100 MHz
L2 Cache — 1280K (per core)
L3 Cache — 18MB (shared)
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) — 4.4 GHz

GeekBench v6

GeekBench v6 specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i5 12400
Background blur 99.8 images/sec 49.5 images/sec
Clang compilation 264.8 Klines/sec 65.6 Klines/sec
File compression 2730 MB/sec 879.2 MB/sec
HTML 5 Browser 769.2 pages/sec 223.7 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 762.6 Mpixels/sec 275.6 Mpixels/sec
Photo processing 260.4 images/sec 81.2 images/sec
Ray tracing 48.4 Mpixels/sec 15.1 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 438.2 pages/sec 225.9 pages/sec

General

General specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i5 12400
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 — i5-12400
Successor — -Intel Core Ultra 5 225

Memory Support

Memory Support specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i5 12400
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 i5 12400
Fabrication Process 3 nm 10 nm
Peak Temperature 100°C 100°C
Socket Apple M-Socket LGA-1700
TDP (PL1) 64 W 65 W
Transistors 28 billions —
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) — 117 W

PassMark

PassMark specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i5 12400
Data compression 689.6 MBytes/sec 228 MBytes/sec
Data encryption 40.8 GBytes/sec 11.5 GBytes/sec
Extended instructions 33.4B Matrices/sec 15.5B Matrices/sec
Find prime numbers 553M Primes/sec 67M Primes/sec
Floating point math 186.1 GOps/sec 45.9 GOps/sec
Integer math 132.6 GOps/sec 58.9 GOps/sec
Physics 6847 Frames/sec 1090 Frames/sec
Random string sorting 84.9M Strings/sec 22.6M Strings/sec

Performance Per Watt

Performance Per Watt specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i5 12400
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 32.3 PPW 9.2 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 454.2 PPW 150.6 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 897.9 PPW 289.5 PPW
Blender / Watt — 2.57 PPW

iGPU

iGPU specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i5 12400
Execution Units 512 24
GPU Boost Clock 1620 MHz 1450 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

Cinebench

Cinebench specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i5 12400
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) — 1710
Cinebench 2026 (Single) — 295

Misc

Misc specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i5 12400
Official Site — Intel Core i5 12400 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

Recent User Tests

Recent User Tests specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i5 12400
Date — Benchmark
📘 2024-06-27(Renni) — Cinebench 2024
📘 2026-05-24(MortalMech) — Cinebench 2026

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