Home > CPU Comparison > Apple M2 or Ryzen Threadripper 3990X: what's better?

Apple M2 vs AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X

57 out of 100
Apple M2
VS
65 out of 100
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X
Apple M2
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X

We compared two CPUs: the 3.5 GHz Apple M2 (laptop) with 8-cores against the 2.9 GHz AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X (desktop) with 64-cores. 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
The "iGPU" and "Power Efficiency" have a minor impact on the NanoReview Score for desktop CPU.
NanoReview Final Score
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Value for money (Beta)

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Currency
VS

Key Differences

What are the key differences between 3990X and M2
Advantages of Apple M2
  • Newer - released 2 years and 5 months later
  • 50% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 2589 vs 1724 points
  • More modern manufacturing process – 5 versus 7 nanometers
  • Includes an integrated GPU Apple M2 GPU
Advantages of AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X
  • Supports up to 256 GB DDR4-3200 RAM
  • Has 56 more physical cores
  • Unlocked multiplier

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Apple M2
vs
Ryzen Threadripper 3990X

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
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)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
File compression 1130 MB/sec 1150 MB/sec
Clang compilation 80.4 Klines/sec 265.5 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 235.3 pages/sec 369.7 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 266.1 Mpixels/sec 372 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 257.4 pages/sec 135.5 pages/sec
Background blur 42.1 images/sec 41.2 images/sec
Photo processing 107 images/sec 109.7 images/sec
Ray tracing 10.5 Mpixels/sec 87.7 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 465 & 197 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Integer math 37 GOps/sec 493.6 GOps/sec
Floating point math 37.5 GOps/sec 283 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 174M Primes/sec 421M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 23.7M Strings/sec 186.5M Strings/sec
Data encryption 9.5 GBytes/sec 130.2 GBytes/sec
Data compression 185.8 MBytes/sec 1934.6 MBytes/sec
Physics 1667 Frames/sec 2946 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 7.8B Matrices/sec 116.4B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 4611 & 313 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Apple M2
109.19
Ryzen Threadripper 3990X +892%
1083.19

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 32.3 PPW 15 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 562.3 PPW 58.8 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 869.5 PPW 284.4 PPW
Blender / Watt 6.07 PPW 3.87 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
📘 2026-03-14 (T)Geekbench 6 CPU2647 / 10245
📘 2026-01-05 (AR)Geekbench 6 CPU2655 / 10211
📘 2025-10-24 (Shivam)Geekbench 6 CPU2619 / 9900
Add View all (3)
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X
No benchmark results yet
Add

Specifications

Full technical specification of Apple M2 and AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X

General

Vendor Apple Amd
Released June 6, 2022 January 10, 2020
Type Laptop Desktop
Instruction Set ARMv8 x86-64
Codename Apple M2 -
Integrated GPU Apple M2 GPU No
Successor - Apple M5 (10-Core) -
AMD Ryzen CPU ranking (#44th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 4 64
P-Threads 4 128
Base Frequency (P) 3.5 GHz 2.9 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) - 4.3 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 4 -
E-Threads 4 -
Base Frequency (E) 2.4 GHz -
Total
Total Cores 8 64
Total Threads 8 128
Bus Frequency - 100 MHz
Multiplier - 29x
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 64K (per core)
L2 Cache 16MB (shared) 512K (per core)
L3 Cache - 128MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No Yes

Package

Transistors 20 billions 30.4 billions
Fabrication Process 5 nm 7 nm
TDP (PL1) 18 W 280 W
Socket Apple M-Socket sTRX4
Peak Temperature - 95°C
Desktop CPU ranking (#63rd place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Apple M2 GPU -
GPU Base Clock 500 MHz -
GPU Boost Clock 1398 MHz -
Shading Units 1024 -
TMUs 64 -
ROPs 32 -
Execution Units 128 -
TGP 15 W -
iGPU FLOPS
See: Apple M2 GPU (8-core) benchmarks

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5-6400 - DDR4-3200
Max. Memory Size 24 GB 256 GB
Memory Channels 8 4
Max. Memory Bandwidth 102.4 GB/s 102.4 GB/s
ECC Support No Yes

Misc

Official Site - AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X official page
PCI Express Version 4.0 4.0
PCI Express Lanes - 64

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
8 (22.9%)
27 (77.1%)
Total votes: 35

Competitors

1. Apple M2 vs Apple M4 (10-Core)
2. Apple M2 vs Apple M2 Pro (2)
3. Apple M2 vs Intel Core Ultra 7 155H
4. Apple M2 vs Intel Core i7 12700H (2)
5. Apple M2 vs Apple M3
6. Apple M2 vs Intel Core i5 12500H (7)
7. AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X vs Intel Core i9 12900K (1)
8. AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X vs Intel Core i7 13700K
Compare other CPUs (460+)

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X or Apple M2?
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