Apple M5 Ultra (30-Core) vs M3 Ultra

We compared two desktop CPUs: the 4.61 GHz Apple M5 Ultra (30-Core) with 30-cores against the 4.05 GHz M3 Ultra with 32-cores. On this page, you'll find out which processor has better performance in benchmarks, games and other useful information.

Please note that the tests on the Apple M5 Ultra (30-Core) are done on an engineering sample provided by our insiders. The data will be more accurate after the final version of this CPU is available.

Key Differences

What are the key differences between Ultra and (30-Core)
Advantages of Apple M5 Ultra (30-Core)
  • Newer - released 1 year and 6 months later
  • Around 409.5 GB/s (50%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • 31% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 4288 vs 3266 points
Advantages of Apple M3 Ultra
  • Has 2 more physical cores

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
3551
2994
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) - 11987
Cinebench Scores (#2nd place)

GeekBench v6

The new version of this benchmark emulates common operations often used in real-world apps
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
4288
3266
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
37003
29755
File compression - 2690 MB/sec
Clang compilation - 319.2 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser - 819.6 pages/sec
PDF Renderer - 701.5 Mpixels/sec
Text processing - 327.5 pages/sec
Background blur - 63.2 images/sec
Photo processing - 190.9 images/sec
Ray tracing - 61.5 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1]

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Integer math - 181.6 GOps/sec
Floating point math - 183.5 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers - 1063M Primes/sec
Random string sorting - 123.1M Strings/sec
Data encryption - 49.4 GBytes/sec
Data compression - 1076.9 MBytes/sec
Physics - 8863 Frames/sec
Extended instructions - 55.1B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3]27 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt - 21.4 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt - 212.5 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt - 520.4 PPW
Blender / Watt - 5.13 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 M5 Ultra (30-Core)
No benchmark results yet
Apple M3 Ultra
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2025-08-13 (Losito)Cinebench 202493 / 2422
📘 2025-03-17 (Luigi9212)Cinebench 2024148 / 2818
📘 2025-03-16 (Tyler)Cinebench 2024133 / 2753

Specifications

Full technical specification of Apple M5 Ultra (30-Core) and M3 Ultra

General

Vendor Apple Apple
Released August 25, 2026 March 5, 2025
Type Desktop Desktop
Instruction Set ARMv9 ARMv8
Codename Apple M5 Apple M3
Integrated GPU Apple M5 Ultra GPU (64-core) Apple M3 Ultra GPU (80-core)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 20 24
P-Threads 20 24
Base Frequency (P) 4.61 GHz 4.05 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 10 8
E-Threads 10 8
Base Frequency (E) 4.38 GHz 2.75 GHz
Total
Total Cores 30 32
Total Threads 30 32
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 46x 40x
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache - 64MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Transistors - 184 billions
Fabrication Process 3 nm 3 nm
TDP (PL1) - 140 W
Socket Apple M-Socket Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100°C 100°C
Desktop CPU ranking (#4th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Apple M5 Ultra GPU (64-core) Apple M3 Ultra GPU (80-core)
GPU Base Clock 500 MHz -
GPU Boost Clock 1620 MHz 1380 MHz
Shading Units 8192 10240
TMUs 640 640
ROPs 320 320
Execution Units 1024 1280
TGP - 140 W
iGPU FLOPS
26.5 TFLOPS
M3 Ultra +7%
28.3 TFLOPS

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5X-9600 - LPDDR5-6400
Max. Memory Size 512 GB 512 GB
Memory Channels 64 64
Max. Memory Bandwidth 1228.8 GB/s 819.3 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M3 Ultra or M5 Ultra (30-Core)?
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