Home > CPU Comparison > Apple M2 or Ryzen 9 5900HX: what's better?

Apple M2 vs AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX

57 out of 100
Apple M2
VS
48 out of 100
AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX
Apple M2
AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX

We compared two 8-core laptop CPUs: the 3.5 GHz Apple M2 against the 3.3 GHz AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX. On this page, you'll find out which processor has better performance in benchmarks, games and other useful information.

  1. Review
  2. Differences
  3. Performance
  4. Specs
  5. Comments

Review

General overview and comparison of the processors
Single-Core Performance
Performance in single-threaded apps and benchmarks
Multi-Core Performance
Measure performance when all cores are involved
Power Efficiency
The efficiency score of power consumption
Integrated Graphics
iGPU capabilities for gaming and 3D-intensive tasks
NanoReview Final Score
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
πŸ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Key Differences

What are the key differences between 5900HX and M2
Advantages of Apple M2
  • Around 34.13 GB/s (50%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • More modern manufacturing process – 5 versus 7 nanometers
  • Newer - released 1 year and 5 months later
  • Newer PCI Express version – 4.0
  • More powerful Apple M2 GPU integrated graphics: 2.9 vs 2.2 TFLOPS
  • 28% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 2589 vs 2027 points
Advantages of AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX
  • Supports up to 64 GB DDR4-3200 RAM
  • Unlocked multiplier

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Apple M2
vs
Ryzen 9 5900HX

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Apple M2 +45%
125
Ryzen 9 5900HX
86
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Apple M2
582
Ryzen 9 5900HX +19%
694
Submit your benchmark results

GeekBench v6

The new version of this benchmark emulates common operations often used in real-world apps
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Apple M2 +28%
2589
Ryzen 9 5900HX
2027
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Apple M2 +19%
10122
Ryzen 9 5900HX
8506
File compression 1130 MB/sec 734.8 MB/sec
Clang compilation 80.4 Klines/sec 69 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 235.3 pages/sec 145.5 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 266.1 Mpixels/sec 256.9 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 257.4 pages/sec 206.4 pages/sec
Background blur 42.1 images/sec 40.2 images/sec
Photo processing 107 images/sec 61 images/sec
Ray tracing 10.5 Mpixels/sec 17.1 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 465 & 576 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Apple M2 +23%
3883
Ryzen 9 5900HX
3151
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Apple M2
15651
Ryzen 9 5900HX +41%
22000
Integer math 37 GOps/sec 85.1 GOps/sec
Floating point math 37.5 GOps/sec 47 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 174M Primes/sec 52M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 23.7M Strings/sec 29.7M Strings/sec
Data encryption 9.5 GBytes/sec 17.9 GBytes/sec
Data compression 185.8 MBytes/sec 284.2 MBytes/sec
Physics 1667 Frames/sec 894 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 7.8B Matrices/sec 19.3B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 4611 & 4129 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Apple M2
109.19
Ryzen 9 5900HX +62%
177.14

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 32.3 PPW 12.9 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 562.3 PPW 157.5 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 869.5 PPW 407.4 PPW
Blender / Watt 6.07 PPW 3.28 PPW
These are rough calculations, as most CPUs surpass PL1 TDP wattage even in multicore workloads.

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Apple M2
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-14 (T)Geekbench 6 CPU2647 / 10245
πŸ“˜ 2026-01-05 (AR)Geekbench 6 CPU2655 / 10211
πŸ“˜ 2025-10-24 (Shivam)Geekbench 6 CPU2619 / 9900
Add View all (3)
AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX
No benchmark results yet
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Specifications

Full technical specification of Apple M2 and AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX

General

Vendor Apple Amd
Released June 6, 2022 January 12, 2021
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set ARMv8 x86-64
Codename Apple M2 Zen 3 (Cezanne)
Integrated GPU Apple M2 GPU Radeon RX Vega 8
Rival Equivalent - - Intel Core i9 11980HK
Successor - Apple M5 (10-Core) - AMD Ryzen 9 9850HX
AMD Ryzen CPU ranking (#123rd place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 4 8
P-Threads 4 16
Base Frequency (P) 3.5 GHz 3.3 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) - 4.6 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 4 -
E-Threads 4 -
Base Frequency (E) 2.4 GHz -
Total
Total Cores 8 8
Total Threads 8 16
Bus Frequency - 100 MHz
Multiplier - 33x
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 64K (per core)
L2 Cache 16MB (shared) 512K (per core)
L3 Cache - 16MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No Yes

Package

Transistors 20 billions -
Fabrication Process 5 nm 7 nm
TDP (PL1) 18 W 35-54 W (configurable)
Socket Apple M-Socket FP6
Peak Temperature - 105Β°C

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Apple M2 GPU Radeon RX Vega 8
GPU Base Clock 500 MHz 300 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1398 MHz 2100 MHz
Shading Units 1024 512
TMUs 64 32
ROPs 32 8
Execution Units 128 8
TGP 15 W 25 W
iGPU FLOPS
Apple M2 +32%
2.9 TFLOPS
Ryzen 9 5900HX
2.2 TFLOPS
More info: Radeon RX Vega 8 compared to Apple M2 GPU (8-core)

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5-6400 - DDR4-3200
- LPDDR4-4266
Max. Memory Size 24 GB 64 GB
Memory Channels 8 2
Max. Memory Bandwidth 102.4 GB/s 68.27 GB/s
ECC Support No Yes

Misc

Official Site - AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX official page
PCI Express Version 4.0 3.0
PCI Express Lanes - 16

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
169 (38.3%)
272 (61.7%)
Total votes: 441

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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX or Apple M2?
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