Intel's Alder Lake processor is rolling out to OEMs as it heads to market, and early benchmarks of an MSI GE76 Raider laptop sporting a 12th-gen Intel 13-core Core i9-12900HK put it ahead of Apple's flagship M1 Max.

PCWorld recently ran benchmarks against three laptops powered by three different processor classes in order to determine if the new Alder Lake CPU from Intel held up against its fiercest competition. The results of those benchmarks were no surprise to the Windows-based PC market.

Intel's Core i9-12900HK beat out both the 8-core Ryzen 9 5900HX and 8-core Core i9-11980HK. What raised eyebrows in the Mac world was how well it performed against the powerful M1 Max which handily dominated benchmark charts in 2021.

Mac vs. PC in 2022

PCWorld's sister publication, MacWorld, analyzed the findings and compared them to Apple's M1 Max and M1 Pros, both in 14-inch MacBook Pros from 2021. In both single and multicore Geekbench 5 tests, the Intel chip outperformed the ones made by Apple.

These results were solidified in additional tests run using Geekbench 5's OpenCL tests and Cinebench R23. In each case, the Intel Core i9-12900HK came out ahead of its Mac counterpart.

Not a total victory

These benchmark victories are not without their caveats. In terms of power efficiency, the M1 Pro and M1 Max are clear victors. At a maximum power draw of 39.7 watts, the M1 Max proved much more efficient than the 100-140 watts drawn by the Intel-powered laptop.

Apple may have given up its bragging rights for sheer power, but it managed to keep a firm grip on its top marks for efficiency. At least, for now.