Home > CPU Comparison > M5 (10-Core) or Apple M2: what's better?

Apple M5 (10-Core) vs Apple M2

81 out of 100
Apple M5 (10-Core)
VS
57 out of 100
Apple M2
Apple M5 (10-Core)
Apple M2

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 4.61 GHz Apple M5 (10-Core) with 10-cores against the 3.5 GHz Apple M2 with 8-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
Integrated Graphics
iGPU capabilities for gaming and 3D-intensive tasks
NanoReview Final Score
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
πŸ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Key Differences

What are the key differences between M2 and (10-Core)
Advantages of Apple M5 (10-Core)
  • Newer - released 3 years and 5 months later
  • More modern manufacturing process – 3 versus 5 nanometers
  • 65% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 4276 vs 2589 points
  • Around 51.2 GB/s (50%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • More powerful Apple M5 GPU (10-core) integrated graphics: 4.1 vs 2.9 TFLOPS
  • Has 2 more physical cores
  • Supports up to 32 GB LPDDR5X-9600 RAM

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
M5 (10-Core)
vs
Apple M2

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
M5 (10-Core) +66%
208
Apple M2
125
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
M5 (10-Core) +103%
1183
Apple M2
582
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) 4456 -
Cinebench Scores (#113th 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) +65%
4276
Apple M2
2589
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
M5 (10-Core) +76%
17862
Apple M2
10122
File compression 1790 MB/sec 1130 MB/sec
Clang compilation 138 Klines/sec 80.4 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 427.3 pages/sec 235.3 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 430.7 Mpixels/sec 266.1 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 421.1 pages/sec 257.4 pages/sec
Background blur 78.7 images/sec 42.1 images/sec
Photo processing 156.2 images/sec 107 images/sec
Ray tracing 21.6 Mpixels/sec 10.5 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 465 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
M5 (10-Core) +48%
5762
Apple M2
3883
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
M5 (10-Core) +71%
26779
Apple M2
15651
Integer math 56.9 GOps/sec 37 GOps/sec
Floating point math 75.6 GOps/sec 37.5 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 301M Primes/sec 174M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 35.6M Strings/sec 23.7M Strings/sec
Data encryption 17.1 GBytes/sec 9.5 GBytes/sec
Data compression 296.6 MBytes/sec 185.8 MBytes/sec
Physics 3199 Frames/sec 1667 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 15.1B Matrices/sec 7.8B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 507 & 4611 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
M5 (10-Core) +153%
275.89
Apple M2
109.19

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 43.8 PPW 32.3 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 661.6 PPW 562.3 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 991.8 PPW 869.5 PPW
Blender / Watt 10.22 PPW 6.07 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
πŸ“˜ 2026-07-29 -> knotp37Cinebench 20260 / 3841
πŸ“˜ 2026-07-05 -> maheshkondrajuGeekbench 6 CPU4224 / 17165
πŸ“˜ 2025-12-27 -> RennsportGeekbench 6 CPU4289 / 18011
Add View all (3)
Apple M2
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-14 (T)Geekbench 6 CPU2647 / 10245
πŸ“˜ 2026-01-05 (AR)Geekbench 6 CPU2655 / 10211
πŸ“˜ 2025-10-24 (Shivam)Geekbench 6 CPU2619 / 9900
Add View all (3)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Apple M5 (10-Core) and Apple M2

General

Vendor Apple Apple
Released October 15, 2025 June 6, 2022
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set ARMv9 ARMv8
Codename Apple M5 Apple M2
Model number T8142 -
Integrated GPU Apple M5 GPU (10-core) Apple M2 GPU
Rival Equivalent - Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100) -
Successor - - Apple M5 (10-Core)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 4 4
P-Threads 4 4
Base Frequency (P) 4.61 GHz 3.5 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 6 4
E-Threads 6 4
Base Frequency (E) 3.0 GHz 2.4 GHz
Total
Total Cores 10 8
Total Threads 10 8
Bus Frequency 100 MHz -
Multiplier 46x -
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 22MB (shared) 16MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Transistors 28 billions 20 billions
Fabrication Process 3 nm 5 nm
TDP (PL1) 27 W 18 W
Socket Apple M-Socket Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100Β°C -
Die Size 157.48 mmΒ² -
Laptop processors ranking (21st and 133rd place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Apple M5 GPU (10-core) Apple M2 GPU
GPU Base Clock - 500 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1620 MHz 1398 MHz
Shading Units 1280 1024
TMUs 80 64
ROPs 40 32
Execution Units 160 128
TGP - 15 W
iGPU FLOPS
M5 (10-Core) +41%
4.1 TFLOPS
Apple M2
2.9 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M2 GPU (8-core) compared to M5 GPU (10-Core)

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5X-9600 - LPDDR5-6400
Max. Memory Size 32 GB 24 GB
Memory Channels 8 8
Max. Memory Bandwidth 153.6 GB/s 102.4 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

PCI Express Version - 4.0

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
31 (64.6%)
17 (35.4%)
Total votes: 48

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7. Apple M2 vs Apple M4 (10-Core)
8. Apple M2 vs Apple M3
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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M2 or M5 (10-Core)?
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