Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) vs Intel Core i9 12950HX

[ 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 i9 12950HX (59/100), offering superior measured performance and technical specifications.

Why choose Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU):
  • + Higher Efficiency score (93 vs 52)
  • + Higher Performance score (100 vs 72)

Benchmark Performance Comparison

Normalized Lab Scores
Benchmark measurements and scores across compared devices
Benchmark Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i9 12950HX
Efficiency 93.0 Excellent WINNER 52.0 Below Average
Performance 100.0 Excellent WINNER 72.0 Good

Detailed Technical Specifications

CPU

CPU specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i9 12950HX
Base Frequency (E) 4.38 GHz 1.7 GHz
Base Frequency (P) 4.61 GHz 2.3 GHz
E-Cores 12 8
E-Threads 12 8
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 80K (per core)
Multiplier 46x 23x
P-Cores 6 8
P-Threads 6 16
Total Cores 18 16
Total Threads 18 24
Unlocked Multiplier No Yes
Bus Frequency — 100 MHz
L2 Cache — 1280K (per core)
L3 Cache — 30MB (shared)
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) — 3.6 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) — 5 GHz

GeekBench v6

GeekBench v6 specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i9 12950HX
Background blur 99.8 images/sec 56.3 images/sec
Clang compilation 264.8 Klines/sec 119.5 Klines/sec
File compression 2730 MB/sec 1090 MB/sec
HTML 5 Browser 769.2 pages/sec 338.5 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 762.6 Mpixels/sec 426.1 Mpixels/sec
Photo processing 260.4 images/sec 114.5 images/sec
Ray tracing 48.4 Mpixels/sec 27.9 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 438.2 pages/sec 259.2 pages/sec

General

General specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i9 12950HX
Codename Apple M5 Alder Lake
Instruction Set ARMv9 x86-64
Integrated GPU Apple M5 Max GPU (32-core) UHD Graphics (32EU)
Released March 3, 2026 May 10, 2022
Type Laptop Laptop
Vendor Apple Intel
Model number — i9-12950HX
Successor — -Intel Core i9 13950HX

Memory Support

Memory Support specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i9 12950HX
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 i9 12950HX
Fabrication Process 3 nm 10 nm
Peak Temperature 100°C 100°C
Socket Apple M-Socket BGA-1964
TDP (PL1) 64 W 45-55 W (configurable)
Transistors 28 billions —
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) — 157 W

PassMark

PassMark specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i9 12950HX
Data compression 689.6 MBytes/sec 361.3 MBytes/sec
Data encryption 40.8 GBytes/sec 20.9 GBytes/sec
Extended instructions 33.4B Matrices/sec 21.9B Matrices/sec
Find prime numbers 553M Primes/sec 132M Primes/sec
Floating point math 186.1 GOps/sec 78 GOps/sec
Integer math 132.6 GOps/sec 105.7 GOps/sec
Physics 6847 Frames/sec 2060 Frames/sec
Random string sorting 84.9M Strings/sec 40.3M Strings/sec

Performance Per Watt

Performance Per Watt specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i9 12950HX
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 32.3 PPW 23.3 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 454.2 PPW 259.3 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 897.9 PPW 563.5 PPW
Blender / Watt — 4.58 PPW

iGPU

iGPU specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core i9 12950HX
Execution Units 512 32
GPU Boost Clock 1620 MHz 1550 MHz
Integrated Graphics Apple M5 Max GPU (32-core) Intel UHD Graphics (32EU)
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 i9 12950HX
Official Site — Intel Core i9 12950HX 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, TBT 3.0, TSX- Virtualization: VT-d, VT-x- Security: RDRAND, TXT, XD bit, vPro

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