Apple claims the M1 Ultra is the most powerful chip ever made for a personal computer, a statement quite similar to what Intel made after launching its Core i9-12900K CPU, so which one is best? Clearly, both processors will provide an enormous amount of power and offer speeds faster than most users will probably ever need. On the other hand, the demands of software and hardware continually advance, requiring more powerful processors to keep up.
Intel launched its Core i9-12900K in the fourth quarter of 2021. This top-of-the-line CPU doubles the core count of the Core i9-11900K by adding 8 efficiency cores. The ability to switch to reduced power consumption when running less demanding tasks is similar to the way Apple's M1 family of chips work. Intel also increased Level-3 cache memory to 30 megabytes which allows a greater number of instructions to run at the processor's full speed without waiting for more to be fetched from slower memory. The Core i9-12900K’s 10-nanometer process provides additional gains in speed and efficiency compared to the 14-nanometer node used in the previous generation.
With both Apple’s M1 Ultra and Intel’s Core i9-12900K processor available in computers on the market, a head-to-head battle is possible with real-world benchmarks indicating the relative performance of each. Using an ASUS desktop computer with the Core i9-12900K as the baseline in the popular Geekbench test against Apple's Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, it became apparent that this was a close match. Intel's chip tops the charts with a single-core performance of 2,029 points, while Apple's processor scored just 1,795. Intel beats Apple by 13-percent in single-core CPU speed. While this is a win for Intel, multi-core tests are more important for computers facing a heavy workload.
Multi-Core Performance Compared
Multi-core tests reveal a different story with the M1 Ultra blasting past the Core i9-12900K by a large margin. The Mac scores an amazing 24,117 points in the multi-core benchmark, the second-highest ever recorded. The Core i9-12900K scores 18,024, the highest for any Windows computer, but still lags behind the Mac by more than 25%. The M1 Ultra's score on Geekbench was bested by a 64-core AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X, which qualifies more as a workstation than a PC.
In the end, the decision between Apple's M1 Ultra and Intel's Core i9-12900K will involve more than just processor strength. While there might be instances when choosing the fastest chip will be critical, in most cases, the other computer hardware and software will play a bigger role in making the choice. For a Windows-based solution, an Intel or AMD chip will be required and the Core i9-12900 is the best choice available at a reasonable price, while Apple users can safely pick a Mac with the M1 Ultra.