Apple's 18-core M5 Max processor has achieved leading scores in the Geekbench 6 benchmark, significantly outperforming its predecessor and even beating AMD's 96-core Ryzen Threadripper Pro 9995WX in both single-thread and multi-thread tests. However, the article notes this multi-thread comparison is limited, as Geekbench's short, bursty workloads do not fully utilize ultra-high-core-count CPUs like the Threadripper and favor processors with fewer, faster cores.
The M5 Max's performance is attributed to its new core designs, featuring six 'super' performance cores, and a memory subsystem offering exceptionally high bandwidth. In contrast, the M5 Max's GPU compute performance, while substantial, is presented as less groundbreaking compared to its dominant CPU results.
The main topics covered are the M5 Max's CPU benchmark performance versus competitors, the limitations of synthetic benchmarks for real-world assessment, the chip's architectural features, and a note on its GPU capabilities.
Apple's 18-core M5 Max destroys 96-core Ryzen Threadripper Pro 9995WX in Geekbench — GPU performance is much less impressive
What about real-world workloads?
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Apple's desktop and notebook processors traditionally lead the pack in single-thread workloads, as industry-leading single-thread performance has been the company's focus for a long time. However, Apple's M5 Max processors not only outperform rivals by a huge margin in single-thread workloads, but beat all of them — including the 96-core AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 9995WX — in multi-thread workloads in the Geekbench 6 benchmark. However, when it comes to GPU compute performance, not everything is that rosy for the M5 Max.
Single-thread and multi-thread champion
According to recent Geekbench 6 results, Apple's 18-core M5 Max not only beats its direct predecessor, the 16-core M4 Max, in single-thread (4,353 points) and multi-thread workloads (29,644 points), but also the 32-core M3 Ultra that is supposed to be Apple's unbeatable multi-thread machine.
Furthermore, Apple's new flagship CPU beats AMD's 96-core Ryzen Threadripper Pro 9995WX in single-thread (which is not surprising) and multi-thread workloads in Geekbench 6. It should be noted that while most Threadripper Pro 9995WX CPUs score around 26,000 GB6 points in multi-thread workloads, there is one example when this processor hits 30,170 points, which is a bit ahead of M5 Max's 29,644 points.
There is a major catch here as the Geekbench 6 multi-thread benchmark is a brief, bursty test intended to mimic common consumer tasks such as archive compression, PDF processing, and image editing. Its short runtime and bursty nature prevent it from fully stressing ultra-high-core-count processors like the Ryzen Threadripper Pro 9995WX.
Furthermore, many of the suite’s multi-threaded subtests scale efficiently only to roughly 8 – 32 threads, which leaves much of such CPUs' parallel capacity idle, but which creates an almost perfect environment for Apple's CPUs that feature a relatively modest number of cores, but which evolve noticeably in terms of per-core performance from one generation to another. Also, keep in mind that Geekbench 6 is a synthetic benchmark that reflects the potential of the tested hardware but may not reflect its performance in real-world applications.
Apple's M5 Max processor in its maximum configuration packs six 'super' performance (SP) cores featuring increased front-end bandwidth (i.e., wider decoder?), enhanced branch prediction, and a new cache hierarchy to deliver unbeatable single-thread performance as well as 12 new performance (P) cores designed to deliver power-efficient multithreaded performance in professional applications, up from 16 cores (12P + 4E cores) offered by the M4 Max. We do not know details about microarchitectures of Apple's 'super' performance and performance cores, though the 12% single-thread performance difference between M5 Max's SP and M4 Max's P cores is evident.
As for the memory subsystem, the M5 Max features up to 128 GB of LPDDR5X-9600 memory connected to the host via a 512-bit interface, offering 614 GB/s of bandwidth, up 12% from M4 Max (546 GB/s). For now, no workstation processor can match the memory bandwidth of M5 Max or M4 Max. Efficient cache and memory subsystems are crucial for single-thread performance, so this part of the M5 Max also played a significant role in its performance boost compared to the predecessor.
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Not quite a GeForce RTX 5090
In addition to its revamped CPU subsystem, Apple's M5 Max also boasts a new GPU that is based on a PowerVR-derived microarchitecture developed by Apple. As it turns out, a big integrated GPU and plenty of memory bandwidth can deliver serious GPU compute oomph: the M5 Max scores 232,718 points on the GeekBench 6 GPU compute benchmark when using the Metal API. Apple's previous-generation M4 Max scores up to 204,453 points in the same tests. Evidently, the new GPU is better than the predecessor, but not that significantly.
When compared to non-Apple GPUs, the one inside the M5 Max easily beats the iGPU inside the Ryzen AI Max+ 395, which scores 133,447 points when unconstrained by thermals. When it comes to discrete graphics cards, Apple's flagship iGPU is ahead of Nvidia's GeForce RTX 5070 (207,061 points, Vulkan), but trails the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti (253,890 points, Vulkan) and has no chance against the GeForce RTX 5090. Still, building an integrated GPU that delivers compute performance comparable to one of the best graphics cards is a breakthrough.
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Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.
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