Home > CPU Comparison > M5 (10-Core) or Ryzen 9 9950X: what's better?

Apple M5 (10-Core) vs AMD Ryzen 9 9950X

81 out of 100
Apple M5 (10-Core)
VS
89 out of 100
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X
Apple M5 (10-Core)
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X

We compared two CPUs: the 4.61 GHz Apple M5 (10-Core) (laptop) with 10-cores against the 4.3 GHz AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (desktop) 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.
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 9950X and (10-Core)
Advantages of Apple M5 (10-Core)
  • Newer - released 1 year and 4 months later
  • Around 64 GB/s (71%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • More modern manufacturing process โ€“ 3 versus 4 nanometers
  • 25% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 4276 vs 3418 points
Advantages of AMD Ryzen 9 9950X
  • Supports up to 192 GB DDR5-5600 RAM
  • Unlocked multiplier
  • Has 6 more physical cores

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
M5 (10-Core)
vs
Ryzen 9 9950X

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
M5 (10-Core)
1183
Ryzen 9 9950X +96%
2320
Cinebench 2026 (Single) - 724
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) 4456 7630
Cinebench Scores (113th 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)
M5 (10-Core) +25%
4276
Ryzen 9 9950X
3418
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
M5 (10-Core)
17862
Ryzen 9 9950X +22%
21758
File compression 1790 MB/sec 1710 MB/sec
Clang compilation 138 Klines/sec 226 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 427.3 pages/sec 391.9 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 430.7 Mpixels/sec 586.8 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 421.1 pages/sec 351.6 pages/sec
Background blur 78.7 images/sec 84.3 images/sec
Photo processing 156.2 images/sec 144.4 images/sec
Ray tracing 21.6 Mpixels/sec 55.7 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] โ€“ 1 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
M5 (10-Core) +22%
5762
Ryzen 9 9950X
4728
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
M5 (10-Core)
26779
Ryzen 9 9950X +145%
65714
Integer math 56.9 GOps/sec 241.5 GOps/sec
Floating point math 75.6 GOps/sec 158.5 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 301M Primes/sec 343M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 35.6M Strings/sec 93.7M Strings/sec
Data encryption 17.1 GBytes/sec 44.2 GBytes/sec
Data compression 296.6 MBytes/sec 891.3 MBytes/sec
Physics 3199 Frames/sec 3254 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 15.1B Matrices/sec 71.2B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] โ€“ 507 & 6583 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
M5 (10-Core)
275.89
Ryzen 9 9950X +117%
598.37

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 43.8 PPW 13.6 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 661.6 PPW 128 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 991.8 PPW 386.6 PPW
Blender / Watt 10.22 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 M5 (10-Core)
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-07-29 -> knotp37Cinebench 20260 / 3841
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-07-05 -> maheshkondrajuGeekbench 6 CPU4224 / 17165
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-12-27 -> RennsportGeekbench 6 CPU4289 / 18011
Add View all (3)
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-07-05 (greenmonalisa)Cinebench 2024136 / 2307
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-06-25 (Malanore)Cinebench 2026724 / 7630
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-04-20 -> TukiGeekbench 6 CPU3607 / 23374
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-02-07 (jimmygeneris)Cinebench 2024136 / 2114
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-01-01 (Capt Jack Swallows)Cinebench 2024136 / 2162
Add View all (34)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Apple M5 (10-Core) and AMD Ryzen 9 9950X

General

Vendor Apple Amd
Released October 15, 2025 June 3, 2024
Type Laptop Desktop
Instruction Set ARMv9 x86-64
Codename Apple M5 Zen 5 (Granite Ridge)
Model number T8142 9950X
Integrated GPU Apple M5 GPU (10-core) Radeon Graphics
Rival Equivalent - Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100) - Intel Core i9 14900K

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 4 16
P-Threads 4 32
Base Frequency (P) 4.61 GHz 4.3 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) - 5.7 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 6 -
E-Threads 6 -
Base Frequency (E) 3.0 GHz -
Total
Total Cores 10 16
Total Threads 10 32
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 46x 43x
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 80K (per core)
L2 Cache 22MB (shared) 1MB (per core)
L3 Cache - 64MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No Yes

Package

Transistors 28 billions -
Fabrication Process 3 nm 4 nm
TDP (PL1) 27 W 170 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) - 230 W
Socket Apple M-Socket AM5
Peak Temperature 100ยฐC 95ยฐC
Die Size 157.48 mmยฒ -
Desktop CPU ranking (#6th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Apple M5 GPU (10-core) Radeon Graphics
GPU Boost Clock 1620 MHz 2200 MHz
Shading Units 1280 -
TMUs 80 -
ROPs 40 -
Execution Units 160 -
iGPU FLOPS
M5 (10-Core)
4.1 TFLOPS
Ryzen 9 9950X
n/a
See: Apple M5 GPU (10-Core) benchmarks

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5X-9600 - DDR5-5600
Max. Memory Size 32 GB 192 GB
Memory Channels 8 2
Max. Memory Bandwidth 153.6 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
1 (6.3%)
15 (93.8%)
Total votes: 16

Competitors

1. AMD Ryzen 9 9950X vs Intel Core i9 14900K (2)
2. AMD Ryzen 9 9950X vs AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (5)
3. AMD Ryzen 9 9950X vs AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D (1)
4. AMD Ryzen 9 9950X vs Intel Core i9 14900KS (11)
5. AMD Ryzen 9 9950X vs AMD Ryzen 9 9900X
6. Apple M5 (10-Core) vs Apple M1
7. Apple M5 (10-Core) vs Apple M6 (12-Core) (2)
8. Apple M5 (10-Core) vs Intel Core Ultra X7 358H (3)
9. Apple M5 (10-Core) vs Apple M1 Pro
10. Apple M5 (10-Core) vs Apple M4 (10-Core) (4)
Compare other CPUs (460+)

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X or Apple M5 (10-Core)?
๐ŸŒ Register your profile and become part of NanoReview community!
Englishะ ัƒััะบะธะน