In the latest M5 Ultra benchmarks, the chip inside the Mac Studio averages 51,807 in Geekbench 7 multi-core, about 20% ahead of the 64-core Threadripper PRO 9985WX, the fastest PC processor on the same chart. The 80-core GPU lands about 5% behind the RTX 5090 in Blender, though the M5 Ultra still trails it in Geekbench’s OpenCL test and loses to 64-core Threadrippers in long CPU renders.
The Mac Studio with M5 Ultra starts at $5,499, so the fair comparisons are workstation processors and high-end graphics cards rather than gaming hardware. The sections below take the Intel and AMD processors first, then the Nvidia graphics cards, then games and local AI.
M5 Ultra Benchmarks Lead on CPU
The 36-core M5 Ultra averages 51,807 in Geekbench 7 multi-core and 3,721 in single-core. The chip scores about 32% higher in multi-core than the M3 Ultra, which matches Apple’s claim of up to 1.3x faster multithreaded performance. The 30-core version of the chip averages 47,115, which still beats every PC processor in the table below.
The fastest PC processors on the same chart are AMD’s workstation chips. The 64-core Threadripper PRO 9985WX averages 43,049, the 96-core Threadripper PRO 7995WX averages 42,007 and the 64-core Threadripper 9980X averages 38,826, so the 36-core M5 Ultra leads them by about 20%, 23% and 33%.
| Processor | Cores | Geekbench 7 single-core | Geekbench 7 multi-core |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple M5 Ultra | 36 | 3,721 | 51,807 |
| Apple M5 Ultra | 30 | 3,716 | 47,115 |
| AMD Threadripper PRO 9985WX | 64 | 2,772 | 43,049 |
| Apple M3 Ultra | 32 | 2,920 | 39,139 |
| AMD Threadripper 9980X | 64 | 2,869 | 38,826 |
| AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 | 16 | 3,164 | 28,112 |
| AMD Ryzen 9 9950X | 16 | 3,071 | 26,187 |
| Intel Core Ultra 9 285K | 24 | 2,813 | 25,658 |
The M5 Ultra pulls further ahead of desktop chips for regular PCs. The Core Ultra 9 285K averages 25,658 in multi-core and the Ryzen 9 9950X averages 26,187, so the M5 Ultra scores about twice as much. In single-core, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 at 3,164 is the fastest AMD or Intel chip on the chart, and the M5 Ultra is about 18% ahead of it.
Geekbench runs short tests, so it rewards fast cores more than sheer core count. In one of the early Mac Studio reviews, the M5 Ultra finished behind the 64-core Threadripper 7980X and 9980X and the 56-core Intel Xeon w-3495X in Blender CPU rendering. The same review found the Mac Studio ahead of the Threadripper 9980X in a HandBrake 4K to 1080p conversion, finishing in 1 minute 4 seconds, about 8 seconds faster.
RTX 5090 Stays Ahead on GPU
In Blender 5.2.0, the 80-core M5 Ultra GPU has a median score of 15,326, against 16,099 for the RTX 5090. The Mac Studio is about 5% behind Nvidia’s flagship GeForce card, about 33% ahead of the RTX 4090 and about 67% ahead of the RTX 5080.
The 64-core GPU version scores 13,514, which is still about 17% ahead of the RTX 4090. The 80-core chip is also about 88% faster than the 40-core M5 Max at 8,151, so most of the doubling in GPU cores carries over. These M5 Ultra scores rest on nine submissions for the 80-core GPU and twelve for the 64-core GPU, so they can still shift.
Blender runs on Metal on the Mac and on OptiX on RTX cards. Geekbench 7’s OpenCL test is the one GPU test that runs on both platforms, and the Mac scores lower in it. The 80-core M5 Ultra scores 218,058, which is below the RTX 4080 at 231,658, the RTX 5080 at 264,742, the RTX 4090 at 293,923 and the RTX 5090 at 374,515.
| Graphics chip | Blender 5.2.0 median | Geekbench 7 OpenCL |
|---|---|---|
| Nvidia RTX 5090 | 16,099 | 374,515 |
| Apple M5 Ultra (80-core GPU) | 15,326 | 218,058 |
| Apple M5 Ultra (64-core GPU) | 13,514 | 198,796 |
| Nvidia RTX 4090 | 11,553 | 293,923 |
| Nvidia RTX 5080 | 9,155 | 264,742 |
| Nvidia RTX 4080 | 8,284 | 231,658 |
| Apple M5 Max (40-core GPU) | 8,151 | 153,472 |
Apple deprecated OpenCL in 2018, and the Blender result shows the chip doing much better in apps built for Metal. The 218,058 score falls inside the range of 209,000 to 229,000 that we projected before launch from Apple’s own Metal-to-OpenCL conversion rates.
The Mac Studio and an RTX 5090 PC differ most in power draw. The Mac Studio with the 80-core M5 Ultra and 512GB of memory draws 9 W at idle and up to 385 W at maximum, measured at the wall for the whole computer. The RTX 5090 card alone is rated at 575 W of total graphics power, so a complete RTX 5090 PC draws more than the entire Mac Studio at full load.
Gaming Mostly Trails an RTX 5090 PC
On the 64-core GPU model, one review measured Assassin’s Creed Shadows at 51 fps, against 140 fps on an Alienware Area-51 with a Core Ultra 9 285K and an RTX 5090. Borderlands 3 ran at 73 fps against 119 fps, while Cyberpunk 2077 went the other way at 77 fps against 56 fps.
Another review ran Cyberpunk 2077 with ray tracing at Ultra settings in 1080p and measured 66 fps, behind RTX 5090 systems and roughly level with an RTX 5070 desktop.
Mac Studio Fits Bigger AI Models
Apple sells the M5 Ultra with up to 512GB of unified memory and 1.2TB/s of memory bandwidth, while an RTX 5090 has 32GB of its own memory. The extra memory lets you load much larger models on the Mac Studio than on an RTX 5090 card, and models such as GLM-5.3-Flash already run locally on the chip.
In a comparison with Nvidia’s DGX Spark, one review found the Mac Studio faster at prompt processing and almost four times faster at generating tokens. Another review noted that the RTX 5090 still processes prompts faster in raw terms, and Apple’s own claim is up to 4x faster LLM prompt processing in LM Studio than on the M3 Ultra.
Reviewers called the memory and storage upgrades expensive, and both are locked in at purchase. The 512GB configuration costs $22,299, which is $16,800 above the $5,499 starting price.
Who Should Buy the M5 Ultra
If you are choosing between Mac Studio chips, the M5 Max starts at $2,499, which is $3,000 below the $5,499 starting price of the M5 Ultra. The 40-core M5 Max scores 8,151 in Blender against 15,326 for the 80-core M5 Ultra, so rendering is the clearest reason to pay for the Ultra. The 512GB configuration only makes sense if your models need more than the 32GB of memory on an RTX 5090.
