The Apple M4 Ultra is a strong contender for professional rendering and tasks benefiting from its Neural Engine and power efficiency. The Intel Core i9-15900K remains a solid choice for gaming and AI-intensive applications, despite its higher power consumption and cooling needs. The choice depends on the primary use case and priorities.
| Attribute | Apple M4 Ultra | Intel Core i9-15900K |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Apple M4 Ultra | Intel Core i9-15900K |
| Architecture | CPU: 32 Cores (24 performance cores and 8 efficiency cores), GPU: 80-core integrated GPU, Neural Engine: 16-core Neural Engine | 8 Performance-cores (P-cores) and 16 Efficiency-cores (E-cores), Lion Cove and Skymont architectures for P-cores and E-cores, respectively, Xe-LPG architecture with 64 Execution Units (EUs), 4th generation AI acceleration |
| Clock Speed (Base and Boost) | Base Frequency (Performance Cores): 4.52 GHz, Base Frequency (Efficiency Cores): 2.89 GHz | P-cores boost up to 5.8 GHz (estimated), E-cores boost up to 4.4 GHz (estimated) |
| Manufacturing Process (nm) | 3nm | Intel's 20A process node for the CPU cores, TSMC's 3nm process for the integrated GPU |
| Cache (L1, L2, L3) | Not specified in the provided context. | L2 Cache: 20MB for P-cores and 16MB for E-cores, L3 Cache: 36MB |
| Integrated Graphics Performance | Apple M4 Ultra GPU (80-core), GPU Base Clock: 500 MHz, Estimated Compute Power: 36.9 TFLOPS | i9-15900K achieves 240+ FPS at 1440p and 180+ FPS at 4K in games |
| Memory Support | Type: LPDDR5X-8533, Maximum Capacity: 192 GB | DDR5, DDR5-6400, 2 Channels |
| Power Consumption (TDP) | Not specified in the provided context. | TDP (PL1): 125W, Maximum Power Consumption (PL2): 177W |
| Thermal Design (Cooling Requirements) | Advanced cooling solutions may be required to handle the heat generated by the M4 Ultra chip. | Advanced cooling solutions may be needed to prevent thermal throttling, average temperature of 85 C |
| Compatibility | Motherboard Socket: Apple M-Socket, Operating System: macOS | Motherboard Socket: LGA1851 |
| Price | Not officially announced. | 80,000 rubles |
| Availability | Expected in 2025, potentially debuting in Mac Studio and Mac Pro. | Not available |
| Single-Core Performance (Benchmark Scores) | Cinebench R23 (Single-Core): 2199, Geekbench 6 (Single-Core): 4062 | Not available |
| Multi-Core Performance (Benchmark Scores) | Cinebench R23 (Multi-Core): 44781, Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core): 32871 | Cinebench R23 (Multi-Core): 43118 |
| Rendering Performance | Completes Blender tasks in 95 seconds, 4K rendering in Adobe Premiere in 160 seconds. | Completes Blender tasks in 125 seconds, 4K rendering in Adobe Premiere in 180 seconds. |
| Gaming Performance | Reaches 180+ FPS at 1440p and 140+ FPS at 4K | Achieves 240+ FPS at 1440p and 180+ FPS at 4K |