Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) vs Intel Core i7 8700K

[ 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 i7 8700K (38/100), offering superior measured performance and technical specifications.

Why choose Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU):
  • + Higher Efficiency score (93 vs 41)
  • + Higher Performance score (100 vs 49)
[ WINNER ]
Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU)
Apple

Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU)

97/100
View Full Specs →
Intel Core i7 8700K
Intel

Intel Core i7 8700K

38/100
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 i7 8700K
Efficiency 93.0 Excellent WINNER 41.0 Poor
Performance 100.0 Excellent WINNER 49.0 Poor

Detailed Technical Specifications

CPU

CPU specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i7 8700K
Base Frequency (E) 4.38 GHz —
Base Frequency (P) 4.61 GHz 3.7 GHz
E-Cores 12 —
E-Threads 12 —
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 64K (per core)
Multiplier 46x 37x
P-Cores 6 6
P-Threads 6 12
Total Cores 18 6
Total Threads 18 12
Unlocked Multiplier No Yes
Bus Bandwidth — 8 GT/s
Bus Frequency — 100 MHz
L2 Cache — 256K (per core)
L3 Cache — 12MB (shared)
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) — 4.7 GHz

GeekBench v6

GeekBench v6 specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i7 8700K
Background blur 99.8 images/sec 38 images/sec
Clang compilation 264.8 Klines/sec 52.2 Klines/sec
File compression 2730 MB/sec 509.8 MB/sec
HTML 5 Browser 769.2 pages/sec 149.8 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 762.6 Mpixels/sec 210.4 Mpixels/sec
Photo processing 260.4 images/sec 61.1 images/sec
Ray tracing 48.4 Mpixels/sec 10.8 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 438.2 pages/sec 165.3 pages/sec

General

General specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i7 8700K
Codename Apple M5 Coffee Lake
Instruction Set ARMv9 x86-64
Integrated GPU Apple M5 Max GPU (32-core) UHD Graphics 630
Released March 3, 2026 October 5, 2017
Type Laptop Desktop
Vendor Apple Intel
AMD Equivalent — -AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
Model number — i7-8700K
Successor — -Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus

Memory Support

Memory Support specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i7 8700K
ECC Support No No
Max. Memory Bandwidth 460.8 GB/s 41.6 GB/s
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 128 GB
Memory Channels 24 2
Memory Types - LPDDR5X-9600 - DDR4-2666

Package

Package specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i7 8700K
Fabrication Process 3 nm 14 nm
Peak Temperature 100°C 100°C
Socket Apple M-Socket LGA-1151
TDP (PL1) 64 W 95 W
Transistors 28 billions —

PassMark

PassMark specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i7 8700K
Data compression 689.6 MBytes/sec 198.7 MBytes/sec
Data encryption 40.8 GBytes/sec 4.8 GBytes/sec
Extended instructions 33.4B Matrices/sec 13.5B Matrices/sec
Find prime numbers 553M Primes/sec 39M Primes/sec
Floating point math 186.1 GOps/sec 28.5 GOps/sec
Integer math 132.6 GOps/sec 45.9 GOps/sec
Physics 6847 Frames/sec 811 Frames/sec
Random string sorting 84.9M Strings/sec 25.2M Strings/sec

Performance Per Watt

Performance Per Watt specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i7 8700K
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 32.3 PPW 5.3 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 454.2 PPW 72.9 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 897.9 PPW 142.8 PPW
Blender / Watt — 1.34 PPW

iGPU

iGPU specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i7 8700K
Execution Units 512 24
GPU Boost Clock 1620 MHz 1200 MHz
Integrated Graphics Apple M5 Max GPU (32-core) Intel UHD Graphics 630
ROPs 128 3
Shading Units 4096 192
TMUs 256 24
GPU Base Clock — 350 MHz
TGP — 15 W

Misc

Misc specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i7 8700K
Official Site — Intel Core i7 8700K official page
PCI Express Lanes — 16
PCI Express Version — 3.0
Technologies — - Compute: BMI1, BMI2, CLMUL, F16C- Performance: Boost 2.0, EIST, HTT, TSX- Virtualization: VT-d, VT-x- Security: TXT, XD bit

Recent User Tests

Recent User Tests specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i7 8700K
Date — Benchmark
📘 2024-04-21(Ian Geraldi Cordeiro) — Cinebench 2024
📘 2024-12-01(AzureWizzard) — Cinebench 2024
📘 2025-02-14(Mike) — Cinebench 2024
📘 2025-03-09(angry beaver) — Cinebench 2024
📘 2025-03-12(SPUUD) — Cinebench 2024

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