Apple M5 Ultra (36-Core) vs M2 Ultra
100
out of 100
VS
79
out of 100
We compared two CPUs: the 4.61 GHz Apple M5 Ultra (36-Core) (desktop) with 36-cores against the 3.5 GHz M2 Ultra (laptop) with 24-cores. On this page, you'll find out which processor has better performance in benchmarks, games and other useful information.
Review
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.
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
Value for money (Beta)
Key Differences
Advantages of Apple M5 Ultra (36-Core)
- Newer - released 3 years and 4 months later
- Supports up to 512 GB LPDDR5X-9600 RAM
- More modern manufacturing process – 3 versus 5 nanometers
- 61% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 4331 vs 2685 points
- Has 12 more physical cores
- Around 409.6 GB/s (50%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
Test in Benchmarks
Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasksCinebench
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
| Cinebench 2026 (Multi) | - | 7481 |
Cinebench Scores (1st and 31st place)
GeekBench v6
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
| File compression | - | 2140 MB/sec |
| Clang compilation | - | 226.4 Klines/sec |
| HTML 5 Browser | - | 569.8 pages/sec |
| PDF Renderer | - | 603.6 Mpixels/sec |
| Text processing | - | 272.4 pages/sec |
| Background blur | - | 56.5 images/sec |
| Photo processing | - | 170.7 images/sec |
| Ray tracing | - | 33.8 Mpixels/sec |
PassMark
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
| Integer math | - | 117.4 GOps/sec |
| Floating point math | - | 148.9 GOps/sec |
| Find prime numbers | - | 712M Primes/sec |
| Random string sorting | - | 83.7M Strings/sec |
| Data encryption | - | 32 GBytes/sec |
| Data compression | - | 682.7 MBytes/sec |
| Physics | - | 7650 Frames/sec |
| Extended instructions | - | 33.2B Matrices/sec |
Blender
Blender CPU
Performance Per Watt
| Cinebench 2024 / Watt | - | 24.3 PPW |
| Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt | - | 267.3 PPW |
| Passmark CPU Mark / Watt | - | 636.8 PPW |
| Blender / Watt | - | 6.27 PPW |
These are rough calculations, as most CPUs surpass PL1 TDP wattage even in multicore workloads.
Specifications
Full technical specification of Apple M5 Ultra (36-Core) and M2 UltraGeneral
| Vendor | Apple | Apple |
| Released | August 25, 2026 | May 5, 2023 |
| Type | Desktop | Laptop |
| Instruction Set | ARMv9 | ARMv8 |
| Codename | Apple M5 | Apple M2 |
| Integrated GPU | Apple M5 Ultra GPU (80-core) | Apple M2 Ultra GPU (76-core) |
| Successor | - | - Apple M4 Ultra |
CPU
| P-Cores | 24 | 16 |
| P-Threads | 24 | 16 |
| Base Frequency (P) | 4.61 GHz | 3.5 GHz |
| E-Cores | 12 | 8 |
| E-Threads | 12 | 8 |
| Base Frequency (E) | 4.38 GHz | 2.4 GHz |
| Total Cores | 36 | 24 |
| Total Threads | 36 | 24 |
| Bus Frequency | 100 MHz | - |
| Multiplier | 46x | 35x |
| L1 Cache | 192K (per core) | 192K (per core) |
| L2 Cache | - | 64MB (shared) |
| Unlocked Multiplier | No | No |
Package
| Transistors | - | 134 billions |
| Fabrication Process | 3 nm | 5 nm |
| TDP (PL1) | - | 80 W |
| Socket | Apple M-Socket | Apple M-Socket |
| Peak Temperature | 100°C | 100°C |
Desktop CPU ranking (#1st place)
Laptop processors ranking (#24th place)
iGPU
| Integrated Graphics | Apple M5 Ultra GPU (80-core) | Apple M2 Ultra GPU (76-core) |
| GPU Base Clock | 500 MHz | - |
| GPU Boost Clock | 1620 MHz | 1398 MHz |
| Shading Units | 10240 | - |
| TMUs | 640 | - |
| ROPs | 320 | - |
| Execution Units | 1280 | - |
iGPU FLOPS
Memory Support
| Memory Types | - LPDDR5X-9600 | - LPDDR5-6400 |
| Max. Memory Size | 512 GB | 192 GB |
| Memory Channels | 64 | 8 |
| Max. Memory Bandwidth | 1228.8 GB/s | 819.2 GB/s |
| ECC Support | No | No |
Misc
| PCI Express Version | - | 4.0 |
Cast your vote
Total votes: 1