Apple M5 GPU (8-Core) vs M2 GPU (8-core)

We compared two integrated laptop professional GPUs: the Apple M5 GPU (8-Core) with 128 pipelines and 1024 shaders against the 3 years and 9 months older M2 GPU (8-core) that utilizes 128 pipelines and 1024 shaders. Here you will find complete details about specs, efficiency, performance tests, and more.

Please note that the tests on the Apple M5 GPU (8-Core) are done on an engineering sample provided by our insiders. The data will be more accurate after the final version of this GPU is available.

Key differences

Key distinctions and advantages of M2 GPU (8-core) over M5 GPU (8-Core)
Reasons to consider the Apple M5 GPU (8-Core)
  • Performs significantly better (up to 92%) in 3DMark Steel Nomad Lite
  • Manufactured using a more efficient 3 nm process technology
  • Has 49% higher memory bandwidth: 153 vs 102.4 GB/s

Benchmarks

Graphics cards’ performance in recent benchmarking apps

3D Mark

Multiplatform graphics benchmark suite that directly correlates with performance in modern games
Steel Nomad Lite Score
Solar Bay 19617 7316
Wild Life Extreme 9804 5676
Sources: 3DMark [1], [2]

GeekBench 6 GPU Compute

GPU test for computational tasks (image processing, photography, computer vision, and ML)
GB6 Compute Score
Background Blur - 58.7 img/sec
Face Detection - 35.2 img/sec
Horizon Detection - 1.1 Gpixels/sec
Edge Detection - 1.82 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian Blur - 1.2 Gpixels/sec
Feature Matching - 0.37 Gpixels/sec
Stereo Matching - 96 Gpixels/sec
Particle Physics - 3825.9 FPS
API - OpenCL
Sources: Geekbench [3]

Cinebench 2024 GPU

Hardware benchmark using Maxon's Cinema 4D rendering engine
Cinebench 2024 GPU

Blender

Rendering performance test for 3D modeling
Blender GPU
1855.31
Sources: Blender [9], [10] – 40 & 81 samples

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Apple M5 GPU (8-Core)
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-06-08 (h)Geekbench 6 OpenCL40417
Apple M2 GPU (8-core)
No benchmark results yet

Artificial Intelligence Tests

Performance in machine learning and artificial intelligence tasks

GeekBench 6 ML

Tests throughput of AI operations in single, half, and quantized precision
GB6 ML Single Precision
GB6 ML Half Precision
GB6 ML Quantized
Image Classification (SP) - 3242
Image Segmentation (HP) - 4890
Image Super Resolution (Q) - 7149
Face Detection (HP) - 10340
Pose Estimation (Q) - 21268
Text Classification (SP) - 2268
Machine Translation (HP) - 1122
Object Detection (SP) - 3007
Depth Estimation (Q) - 13941
Style Transfer (SP) - 35943
Framework - Core ML
Backend - GPU
Sources: Geekbench [9]

Specifications

Technical specifications of Apple M5 GPU (8-Core) and M2 GPU (8-core)

General

Vendor Apple Apple
Build Integrated Integrated
Released March 3, 2026 June 6, 2022
Case Laptop Laptop
Purpose Professional Professional
Segment Mid-range Mid-range
Architecture Apple M GPU Apple M GPU
GPU Codename Custom -
Successor - - Apple M5 GPU (10-Core)
Recommended CPU - Apple M5 (8-сore GPU) or above - Apple M2 or above
Used in CPUs - Apple M5 (8-сore GPU) - Apple M2
Laptop GPU ranking (#89th place)

Graphics Processing Unit

Base Clock - 500 MHz
Boost Clock 1620 MHz 1398 MHz
Shading Units 1024 1024
Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) 64 64
Render Output Units (ROPs) 32 32
Compute Units (Pipelines) 128 128
Instructions Per Cycle 2 IPC 2 IPC

Raw Performance

Pixel Fill Rate 52 GPixel/s 45 GPixel/s
Texture Fill Rate 104 GTexel/s 89 GTexel/s
FLOPS (FP32)
3.3 TFLOPS
2.9 TFLOPS

Physical

Interface Custom Custom
TGP - 15 W
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Fabrication Process 3 nm 5 nm
Transistor Count 28 billion 11.6 billion
Max. Temperature 100°C 94°C

Memory

Memory Type System Shared System Shared
Memory Clock 9600 MHz 6400 MHz
Effective Memory Speed - 12800 Mbps
Bus 128-bit 128-bit
ECC No No
Memory Bandwidth
153 GB/s
102.4 GB/s

API

Ray Tracing Yes No
DLSS No No

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