All-performance 12-core M-series Apple Silicon derails Alder Lake train in tipster's puzzling Geekbench prediction

An interesting video from Max Tech has included a Geekbench multi-core result prediction for a 12-core Apple M-series chip. It’s believed this particular SoC with a 12-core CPU part could make it inside the upcoming iMac Pro that is expected to be unveiled this spring. In the hypothetical Geekbench comparison, the 10-core M1 Max chip scores 12,618 points while the 12-core Apple Silicon somehow manages an astonishing 24,884 points. The show host, Vadim Yuryev, points out that this score is accomplished by a 12-core chip that only has performance cores, with efficiency cores being superfluous in a desktop computer like the 2022 iMac Pro.

This 12-core M-series processor score seems out of this world, especially so when considering AMD chips like the Ryzen Threadripper 3990X and 3970X currently top Geekbench’s multi-core chart with scores of 25,117 points and 22,361 points, respectively. In addition, Alder Lake’s best, the i9-12900K and i9-12900KF, would be leagues away from this potent Apple Silicon with their chart averages of 17,165 points and 17,118 points, respectively. Yuryev also mentions that the iMac Pro would benefit from “50% more CPU performance” – so the puzzling prediction seems to be flawed.

However, depending on the core configuration of this mysterious Apple Silicon, which is likely going to be another M1 extension, the Geekbench 5 multi-core scores should cross the 15,000-point barrier if the chip is tempered by some efficient cores and could even make it way past 18,000 points if the SKU ends up being an all-performance chip. That latter score is still above the average for the aforementioned power-hungry Alder Lake parts and would be quite a coup for Apple in general.

As for naming and configuration, while some have opined that this could be an early M2 part, if the 12-core Apple Silicon does appear in the iMac Pro for a spring launch then it’s more likely to be an M1 extension, with names such as “M1 Max+”, “M1 Extreme”, and “M1 Ultra”, having been put forward. As for its configuration, there has been some discussion that binning would have been involved during the manufacturing process, with either 20 CPU cores being binned down to 12 or Apple utilizing an existing 12-core silicon that has been binned down to make the 10-core parts that are already in use.

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