Home > CPU Comparison > Apple M3 or Ryzen 9 5900X: what's better?

Apple M3 vs AMD Ryzen 9 5900X

67 out of 100
Apple M3
VS
58 out of 100
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
Apple M3
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X

We compared two CPUs: the 4.05 GHz Apple M3 (laptop) with 8-cores against the 3.7 GHz AMD Ryzen 9 5900X (desktop) with 12-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.
๐Ÿ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Value for money (Beta)

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

Key Differences

What are the key differences between 5900X and M3
Advantages of Apple M3
  • More modern manufacturing process โ€“ 3 versus 7 nanometers
  • Around 54.72 GB/s (115%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • Newer - released 3 years and 1 month later
  • 33% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 3009 vs 2263 points
  • Includes an integrated GPU Apple M3 GPU
  • More than 10ยฐ C higher critical temperature
Advantages of AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
  • Supports up to 128 GB DDR4-3200 RAM
  • Unlocked multiplier
  • Has 4 more physical cores

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Apple M3
vs
Ryzen 9 5900X

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Apple M3 +47%
140
Ryzen 9 5900X
95
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Apple M3
712
Ryzen 9 5900X +68%
1193
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) 2341 -
Cinebench Scores (#112th 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)
Apple M3 +33%
3009
Ryzen 9 5900X
2263
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Apple M3
11815
Ryzen 9 5900X +7%
12701
File compression 1260 MB/sec 1170 MB/sec
Clang compilation 94.7 Klines/sec 126 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 264.5 pages/sec 217.8 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 313.9 Mpixels/sec 362 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 297 pages/sec 232 pages/sec
Background blur 50.2 images/sec 38.7 images/sec
Photo processing 114.8 images/sec 85.1 images/sec
Ray tracing 12.9 Mpixels/sec 31.5 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] โ€“ 438 & 441 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Apple M3 +36%
4707
Ryzen 9 5900X
3465
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Apple M3
19065
Ryzen 9 5900X +104%
38888
Integer math 42.6 GOps/sec 139.7 GOps/sec
Floating point math 48.3 GOps/sec 77.6 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 231M Primes/sec 257M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 27.3M Strings/sec 51.5M Strings/sec
Data encryption 11.5 GBytes/sec 31 GBytes/sec
Data compression 225 MBytes/sec 498.8 MBytes/sec
Physics 1867 Frames/sec 1984 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 10B Matrices/sec 33.1B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] โ€“ 1563 & 27058 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Apple M3
160.35
Ryzen 9 5900X +98%
316.84

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 35.6 PPW 11.4 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 590.8 PPW 121 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 953.3 PPW 370.4 PPW
Blender / Watt 8.02 PPW 3.02 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
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-08-22 (doannguyenmfs)Geekbench 6 CPU2991 / 11735
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-06-16 (darkknightSup)Geekbench 6 CPU2990 / 11498
Add View all (2)
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-03-19 (D)Cinebench 202467 / 893
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-11-02 (Zoli)Cinebench 202493 / 1254
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-10-12 (Otamatone)Cinebench 202492 / 981
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-10-08 (aref)Cinebench 202494 / 1015
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-08-15 (SnakeyB)Cinebench 2024120 / 380
Add View all (12)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Apple M3 and AMD Ryzen 9 5900X

General

Vendor Apple Amd
Released October 30, 2023 October 8, 2020
Type Laptop Desktop
Instruction Set ARMv8 x86-64
Codename Apple M3 Zen 3 (Vermeer)
Integrated GPU Apple M3 GPU No
Rival Equivalent - - Intel Core i9 11900K
Successor - Apple M5 (10-Core) - AMD Ryzen 9 9900X
AMD Ryzen CPU ranking (#70th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 4 12
P-Threads 4 24
Base Frequency (P) 4.05 GHz 3.7 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) - 4.8 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 4 -
E-Threads 4 -
Base Frequency (E) 2.75 GHz -
Total
Total Cores 8 12
Total Threads 8 24
Bus Frequency - 100 MHz
Multiplier 40x 37x
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 64K (per core)
L2 Cache 16MB (shared) 512K (per core)
L3 Cache - 64MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No Yes

Package

Transistors 25 billions 4.15 billions
Fabrication Process 3 nm 7 nm
TDP (PL1) 20 W 105 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) - 142 W
Socket Apple M-Socket AM4
Peak Temperature 100ยฐC 90ยฐC
Desktop CPU ranking (#83rd place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Apple M3 GPU -
GPU Base Clock 500 MHz -
GPU Boost Clock 1380 MHz -
Shading Units 1280 -
TMUs 80 -
ROPs 40 -
Execution Units 160 -
TGP 15 W -
iGPU FLOPS
Apple M3
3.5 TFLOPS
Ryzen 9 5900X
n/a
See: Apple M3 GPU (10-core) benchmarks

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5-6400 - DDR4-3200
Max. Memory Size 24 GB 128 GB
Memory Channels 8 2
Max. Memory Bandwidth 102.4 GB/s 47.68 GB/s
ECC Support No Yes

Misc

Official Site - AMD Ryzen 9 5900X official page
PCI Express Version 4.0 4.0
PCI Express Lanes - 20

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
20 (33.9%)
39 (66.1%)
Total votes: 59

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9. Apple M3 vs Apple M2 Pro
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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X or Apple M3?
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