Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) vs Intel Core i5 12500

[ 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 12500 (53/100), 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 69)
[ WINNER ]
Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU)
Apple

Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU)

97/100
View Full Specs →
Intel Core i5 12500
Intel

Intel Core i5 12500

53/100
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 i5 12500
Efficiency 93.0 Excellent WINNER 50.0 Below Average
Performance 100.0 Excellent WINNER 69.0 Average

Detailed Technical Specifications

CPU

CPU specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i5 12500
Base Frequency (E) 4.38 GHz —
Base Frequency (P) 4.61 GHz 3 GHz
E-Cores 12 —
E-Threads 12 —
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 80K (per core)
Multiplier 46x 30x
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) — 4.6 GHz

GeekBench v6

GeekBench v6 specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i5 12500
Background blur 99.8 images/sec 52.4 images/sec
Clang compilation 264.8 Klines/sec 71.5 Klines/sec
File compression 2730 MB/sec 795 MB/sec
HTML 5 Browser 769.2 pages/sec 237.9 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 762.6 Mpixels/sec 263.4 Mpixels/sec
Photo processing 260.4 images/sec 91.2 images/sec
Ray tracing 48.4 Mpixels/sec 16.5 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 438.2 pages/sec 242.7 pages/sec

General

General specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i5 12500
Codename Apple M5 Alder Lake
Instruction Set ARMv9 x86-64
Integrated GPU Apple M5 Max GPU (32-core) UHD Graphics 770
Released March 3, 2026 January 4, 2022
Type Laptop Desktop
Vendor Apple Intel
AMD Equivalent — -AMD Ryzen 5 5500
Model number — i5-12500
Successor — -Intel Core i5 14500

Memory Support

Memory Support specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i5 12500
ECC Support No Yes
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 12500
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 12500
Data compression 689.6 MBytes/sec 237.3 MBytes/sec
Data encryption 40.8 GBytes/sec 12 GBytes/sec
Extended instructions 33.4B Matrices/sec 16B Matrices/sec
Find prime numbers 553M Primes/sec 72M Primes/sec
Floating point math 186.1 GOps/sec 48 GOps/sec
Integer math 132.6 GOps/sec 61.6 GOps/sec
Physics 6847 Frames/sec 1197 Frames/sec
Random string sorting 84.9M Strings/sec 23.5M Strings/sec

Performance Per Watt

Performance Per Watt specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i5 12500
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 32.3 PPW 10.3 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 454.2 PPW 156.4 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 897.9 PPW 303.3 PPW
Blender / Watt — 2.66 PPW

iGPU

iGPU specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i5 12500
Execution Units 512 32
GPU Boost Clock 1620 MHz 1450 MHz
Integrated Graphics Apple M5 Max GPU (32-core) Intel UHD Graphics 770
ROPs 128 8
Shading Units 4096 256
TMUs 256 16
GPU Base Clock — 300 MHz
TGP — 15 W

Misc

Misc specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i5 12500
Official Site — Intel Core i5 12500 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

Looking for More Comparisons?

Browse all available head-to-head comparisons or select new devices in the comparison hub.

Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) vs Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) vs AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) vs Apple M5 Max (40-core GPU) Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) vs Apple M5 Pro (18-Core)
Browse Processors Comparisons → Launch Full Comparison Hub →