Apple M5 Max (40-core GPU) vs Intel Core i9 12900H

[ VERDICT ] Winner: Apple M5 Max (40-core GPU) (97/100)

Apple M5 Max (40-core GPU) leads overall with a score of 97/100 compared to Intel Core i9 12900H (55/100), offering superior measured performance and technical specifications.

Why choose Apple M5 Max (40-core GPU):
  • + Higher Efficiency score (92 vs 51)
  • + Higher Performance score (100 vs 68)
[ WINNER ]
Apple M5 Max (40-core GPU)
Apple

Apple M5 Max (40-core GPU)

97/100
View Full Specs →
Intel Core i9 12900H
Intel

Intel Core i9 12900H

55/100
View Full Specs →

Benchmark Performance Comparison

Normalized Lab Scores
Benchmark measurements and scores across compared devices
Benchmark Apple M5 Max (40-core GPU) Intel Core i9 12900H
Efficiency 92.0 Excellent WINNER 51.0 Below Average
Performance 100.0 Excellent WINNER 68.0 Average

Detailed Technical Specifications

CPU

CPU specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (40-core GPU) Intel Core i9 12900H
Base Frequency (E) 4.38 GHz 1.8 GHz
Base Frequency (P) 4.61 GHz 2.5 GHz
E-Cores 12 8
E-Threads 12 8
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 80K (per core)
Multiplier 46x 25x
P-Cores 6 6
P-Threads 6 12
Total Cores 18 14
Total Threads 18 20
Unlocked Multiplier No No
Bus Frequency — 100 MHz
L2 Cache — 1280K (per core)
L3 Cache — 24MB (shared)
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) — 3.8 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) — 5 GHz

Cinebench

Cinebench specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (40-core GPU) Intel Core i9 12900H
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) 9428 —
Cinebench 2026 (Single) 734 —

GeekBench v6

GeekBench v6 specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (40-core GPU) Intel Core i9 12900H
Background blur 106.1 images/sec 52.7 images/sec
Clang compilation 271.1 Klines/sec 97.6 Klines/sec
File compression 2990 MB/sec 898.1 MB/sec
HTML 5 Browser 811.7 pages/sec 270 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 764 Mpixels/sec 325.3 Mpixels/sec
Photo processing 303.8 images/sec 94.2 images/sec
Ray tracing 47.8 Mpixels/sec 23.8 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 457.1 pages/sec 248.3 pages/sec

General

General specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (40-core GPU) Intel Core i9 12900H
Codename Apple M5 Alder Lake
Instruction Set ARMv9 x86-64
Integrated GPU Apple M5 Max GPU (40-core) Iris Xe Graphics (96EU)
Released March 3, 2026 January 4, 2022
Type Laptop Laptop
Vendor Apple Intel
AMD Equivalent — -AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS
Model number — i9-12900H
Successor — -Intel Core Ultra 9 288V

Memory Support

Memory Support specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (40-core GPU) Intel Core i9 12900H
ECC Support No No
Max. Memory Bandwidth 614 GB/s —
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 64 GB
Memory Channels 32 2
Memory Types - LPDDR5X-9600 - DDR5-4800- DDR4-3200- LPDDR5-5200- LPDDR4x-4267

Package

Package specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (40-core GPU) Intel Core i9 12900H
Fabrication Process 3 nm 10 nm
Peak Temperature 100°C 100°C
Socket Apple M-Socket BGA-1744
TDP (PL1) 72 W 35-45 W (configurable)
Transistors 28 billions —
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) — 115 W

PassMark

PassMark specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (40-core GPU) Intel Core i9 12900H
Data compression 689.6 MBytes/sec 308.2 MBytes/sec
Data encryption 40.8 GBytes/sec 18 GBytes/sec
Extended instructions 33.4B Matrices/sec 18.4B Matrices/sec
Find prime numbers 553M Primes/sec 104M Primes/sec
Floating point math 186.1 GOps/sec 66 GOps/sec
Integer math 132.6 GOps/sec 91.3 GOps/sec
Physics 6847 Frames/sec 1700 Frames/sec
Random string sorting 84.9M Strings/sec 34.4M Strings/sec

Performance Per Watt

Performance Per Watt specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (40-core GPU) Intel Core i9 12900H
Blender / Watt 8.1 PPW 4.67 PPW
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 28.8 PPW 21.9 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 419.7 PPW 265.9 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 798.1 PPW 591 PPW

Recent User Tests

Recent User Tests specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (40-core GPU) Intel Core i9 12900H
Date Benchmark Benchmark
📘 2026-07-03->Apple lover GeekBench —
📘 2025-05-02(Toksik Vegeta) — Cinebench 2024
📘 2025-11-21(Robert L) — Cinebench 2024

iGPU

iGPU specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (40-core GPU) Intel Core i9 12900H
Execution Units 640 96
GPU Boost Clock 1620 MHz 1450 MHz
Integrated Graphics Apple M5 Max GPU (40-core) Intel Iris Xe Graphics (96EU)
ROPs 160 24
Shading Units 5120 768
TMUs 320 48
GPU Base Clock — 300 MHz
TGP — 15 W

Misc

Misc specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (40-core GPU) Intel Core i9 12900H
Official Site — Intel Core i9 12900H official page
PCI Express Lanes — 28
PCI Express Version — 4.0
Technologies — - Compute: ABM, ADX, BMI1, BMI2, CLMUL, F16C, SHA- Performance: EIST, TBT 2.0, TBT 3.0, TSX- Virtualization: VT-d, VT-x- Security: RDRAND, TXT, XD bit

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