Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) vs Intel Core i7 9700K

[ 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 9700K (41/100), 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 52)
[ WINNER ]
Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU)
Apple

Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU)

97/100
View Full Specs →
Intel Core i7 9700K
Intel

Intel Core i7 9700K

41/100
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 9700K
Efficiency 93.0 Excellent WINNER 41.0 Poor
Performance 100.0 Excellent WINNER 52.0 Below Average

Detailed Technical Specifications

CPU

CPU specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i7 9700K
Base Frequency (E) 4.38 GHz —
Base Frequency (P) 4.61 GHz 3.6 GHz
E-Cores 12 —
E-Threads 12 —
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 64K (per core)
Multiplier 46x 36x
P-Cores 6 8
P-Threads 6 8
Total Cores 18 8
Total Threads 18 8
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) — 4.9 GHz

GeekBench v6

GeekBench v6 specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i7 9700K
Background blur 99.8 images/sec 52.6 images/sec
Clang compilation 264.8 Klines/sec 63.1 Klines/sec
File compression 2730 MB/sec 666.4 MB/sec
HTML 5 Browser 769.2 pages/sec 191 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 762.6 Mpixels/sec 262.2 Mpixels/sec
Photo processing 260.4 images/sec 74.1 images/sec
Ray tracing 48.4 Mpixels/sec 11.3 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 438.2 pages/sec 182.9 pages/sec

General

General specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i7 9700K
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 8, 2018
Type Laptop Desktop
Vendor Apple Intel
AMD Equivalent — -AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
Model number — i7-9700K
Successor — -Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus

Memory Support

Memory Support specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i7 9700K
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 9700K
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 9700K
Data compression 689.6 MBytes/sec 207.1 MBytes/sec
Data encryption 40.8 GBytes/sec 4.6 GBytes/sec
Extended instructions 33.4B Matrices/sec 18.1B Matrices/sec
Find prime numbers 553M Primes/sec 51M Primes/sec
Floating point math 186.1 GOps/sec 35.5 GOps/sec
Integer math 132.6 GOps/sec 41.4 GOps/sec
Physics 6847 Frames/sec 878 Frames/sec
Random string sorting 84.9M Strings/sec 25.6M Strings/sec

Performance Per Watt

Performance Per Watt specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i7 9700K
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 32.3 PPW 5.7 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 454.2 PPW 88.8 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 897.9 PPW 151.7 PPW
Blender / Watt — 1.41 PPW

iGPU

iGPU specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i7 9700K
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 9700K
Official Site — Intel Core i7 9700K official page
PCI Express Lanes — 16
PCI Express Version — 3.0
Technologies — - Compute: BMI1, BMI2, CLMUL, F16C- Performance: Boost 2.0, EIST, TSX- Virtualization: VT-d, VT-x- Security: TXT, XD bit, vPro

Recent User Tests

Recent User Tests specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i7 9700K
Date — Benchmark
📘 2025-01-04(Brian) — Cinebench 2024
📘 2025-02-17(chuckie) — Cinebench 2024
📘 2025-03-29(Bobby) — GeekBench
📘 2025-10-22(Texhex) — Cinebench 2024

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