Home > CPU Comparison > M3 Ultra or Ryzen 9 9950X: what's better?

Apple M3 Ultra vs AMD Ryzen 9 9950X

95 out of 100
Apple M3 Ultra
VS
92 out of 100
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X
Apple M3 Ultra
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X

We compared two desktop CPUs: the 4.05 GHz Apple M3 Ultra with 32-cores against the 4.3 GHz AMD Ryzen 9 9950X with 16-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
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
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Value for money (Beta)

Global average CPU prices are used by default! For better accuracy, enter your current prices and click β€œCalculate".
Currency
VS

Key Differences

What are the key differences between 9950X and Ultra
Advantages of Apple M3 Ultra
  • Around 729.7 GB/s (814%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • Supports up to 512 GB LPDDR5-6400 RAM
  • Has 16 more physical cores
  • Newer - released 9 months later
  • More modern manufacturing process – 3 versus 4 nanometers
Advantages of AMD Ryzen 9 9950X
  • Unlocked multiplier

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
M3 Ultra
vs
Ryzen 9 9950X

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
M3 Ultra +3%
141
Ryzen 9 9950X
137
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
M3 Ultra +29%
2994
Ryzen 9 9950X
2320
Cinebench 2026 (Single) - 724
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) 11987 7630
Cinebench Scores (2nd and 10th place)
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)
M3 Ultra
3266
Ryzen 9 9950X +5%
3418
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
M3 Ultra +37%
29755
Ryzen 9 9950X
21758
File compression 2690 MB/sec 1710 MB/sec
Clang compilation 319.2 Klines/sec 226 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 819.6 pages/sec 391.9 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 701.5 Mpixels/sec 586.8 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 327.5 pages/sec 351.6 pages/sec
Background blur 63.2 images/sec 84.3 images/sec
Photo processing 190.9 images/sec 144.4 images/sec
Ray tracing 61.5 Mpixels/sec 55.7 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 1 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
M3 Ultra +7%
5064
Ryzen 9 9950X
4728
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
M3 Ultra +11%
72850
Ryzen 9 9950X
65714
Integer math 181.6 GOps/sec 241.5 GOps/sec
Floating point math 183.5 GOps/sec 158.5 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 1063M Primes/sec 343M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 123.1M Strings/sec 93.7M Strings/sec
Data encryption 49.4 GBytes/sec 44.2 GBytes/sec
Data compression 1076.9 MBytes/sec 891.3 MBytes/sec
Physics 8863 Frames/sec 3254 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 55.1B Matrices/sec 71.2B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 27 & 6583 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
M3 Ultra +20%
717.7
Ryzen 9 9950X
598.37

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 21.4 PPW 13.6 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 212.5 PPW 128 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 520.4 PPW 386.6 PPW
Blender / Watt 5.13 PPW 3.52 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 M3 Ultra
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2025-08-13 (Losito)Cinebench 202493 / 2422
πŸ“˜ 2025-03-17 (Luigi9212)Cinebench 2024148 / 2818
πŸ“˜ 2025-03-16 (Tyler)Cinebench 2024133 / 2753
Add View all (3)
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-07-05 (greenmonalisa)Cinebench 2024136 / 2307
πŸ“˜ 2026-06-25 (Malanore)Cinebench 2026724 / 7630
πŸ“˜ 2026-04-20 -> TukiGeekbench 6 CPU3607 / 23374
πŸ“˜ 2026-02-07 (jimmygeneris)Cinebench 2024136 / 2114
πŸ“˜ 2026-01-01 (Capt Jack Swallows)Cinebench 2024136 / 2162
Add View all (34)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Apple M3 Ultra and AMD Ryzen 9 9950X

General

Vendor Apple Amd
Released March 5, 2025 June 3, 2024
Type Desktop Desktop
Instruction Set ARMv8 x86-64
Codename Apple M3 Zen 5 (Granite Ridge)
Model number - 9950X
Integrated GPU Apple M3 Ultra GPU (80-core) Radeon Graphics
Rival Equivalent - - Intel Core i9 14900K

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 24 16
P-Threads 24 32
Base Frequency (P) 4.05 GHz 4.3 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) - 5.7 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 8 -
E-Threads 8 -
Base Frequency (E) 2.75 GHz -
Total
Total Cores 32 16
Total Threads 32 32
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 40x 43x
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 80K (per core)
L2 Cache 64MB (shared) 1MB (per core)
L3 Cache - 64MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No Yes

Package

Transistors 184 billions -
Fabrication Process 3 nm 4 nm
TDP (PL1) 140 W 170 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) - 230 W
Socket Apple M-Socket AM5
Peak Temperature 100Β°C 95Β°C
Desktop CPU ranking (4th and 6th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Apple M3 Ultra GPU (80-core) Radeon Graphics
GPU Boost Clock 1380 MHz 2200 MHz
Shading Units 10240 -
TMUs 640 -
ROPs 320 -
Execution Units 1280 -
TGP 140 W -
iGPU FLOPS
M3 Ultra
28.3 TFLOPS
Ryzen 9 9950X
n/a
See: Apple M3 Ultra GPU (80-core) benchmarks

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5-6400 - DDR5-5600
Max. Memory Size 512 GB 192 GB
Memory Channels 64 2
Max. Memory Bandwidth 819.3 GB/s 89.6 GB/s
ECC Support No Yes

Misc

Official Site - AMD Ryzen 9 9950X official page
PCI Express Version - 5.0
PCI Express Lanes - 28

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
51 (70.8%)
21 (29.2%)
Total votes: 72

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6. Apple M3 Ultra vs Apple M2 Ultra
7. Apple M3 Ultra vs Apple M4 Max (16-Core)
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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X or Apple M3 Ultra?
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