Apple M5 Pro GPU (20-core) vs Adreno X2-90

We compared two integrated laptop graphics cards: the Apple M5 Pro GPU (20-core) with 320 pipelines and 2560 shaders against the 5 months older Adreno X2-90 that utilizes 12 pipelines and 2048 shaders. Here you will find complete details about specs, efficiency, performance tests, and more.

Review

General comparison of performance in games, applications, power efficiency, and other metrics
Gaming
Performance in DirectX, OpenCL, and Vulkan games
Workstation
Perf. in 3D modeling, video editing and rendering apps
Energy Efficiency
Power consumption efficiency in different scenarios
NanoReview Final Score
Overall video card score

Key differences

Key distinctions and advantages of Adreno X2-90 over M5 Pro GPU (20-core)
Reasons to consider the Apple M5 Pro GPU (20-core)
  • Performs significantly better (up to 2x) in 3DMark Steel Nomad Lite
  • Has 35% higher memory bandwidth: 307 vs 228 GB/s
  • Has 25% more shading units (2560 vs 2048)

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
Time Spy - 3782
Solar Bay 46865 24300
Port Royal - 1592
Fire Strike - 10039
Wild Life Extreme 23737 9890
Night Raid - 57486
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 177.6 img/sec -
Face Detection 114.5 img/sec -
Horizon Detection 3.19 Gpixels/sec -
Edge Detection 4.45 Gpixels/sec -
Gaussian Blur 4.59 Gpixels/sec -
Feature Matching 0.96 Gpixels/sec -
Stereo Matching 250.4 Gpixels/sec -
Particle Physics 12529.9 FPS -
API OpenCL -
Sources: Geekbench [3]

Cinebench 2024 GPU

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

Passmark Graphics

Videocard test that focuses on compute shaders, multi-texturing, tessellation, and other features
G3D Mark Score
G2D Mark - 592
DirectX 11 - 57 FPS
DirectX 12 - 29 FPS
GPU Compute - 3638 Ops/s
Sources: PassMark [5] – 61 samples

Blender

Rendering performance test for 3D modeling
Blender GPU
Sources: Blender [9] – 94 samples

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) 8870 -
Image Segmentation (HP) 28795 -
Image Super Resolution (Q) 34820 -
Face Detection (HP) 55699 -
Pose Estimation (Q) 212347 -
Text Classification (SP) 3018 -
Machine Translation (HP) 9102 -
Object Detection (SP) 8163 -
Depth Estimation (Q) 70908 -
Style Transfer (SP) 152297 -
Framework Core ML -
Backend GPU -
Sources: Geekbench [9], [10]

Specifications

Technical specifications of Apple M5 Pro GPU (20-core) and Adreno X2-90

General

Vendor Apple Qualcomm
Build Integrated Integrated
Released March 3, 2026 September 25, 2025
Case Laptop Laptop
Purpose Professional Generic
Segment Mid-range Mid-range
Architecture Apple M GPU Adreno X2
GPU Codename Custom Adreno X2
Rival Equivalent - - Apple M4 Max GPU (40-core)
Recommended CPU - Apple M5 Pro (18-Core) or above - Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100) or above
Used in CPUs - Apple M5 Pro (18-Core) - Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite (X2E-90-100)
- Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite (X2E-88-100)
- Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-94-100)
- Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100)
Laptop GPU ranking (22nd and 35th place)

Graphics Processing Unit

Base Clock - 500 MHz
Boost Clock 1620 MHz 1700-1850 MHz (configurable)
Shading Units 2560 2048
Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) 160 128
Render Output Units (ROPs) 80 64
Compute Units (Pipelines) 320 12
Tensor Cores - No
Instructions Per Cycle 2 IPC 2 IPC

Raw Performance

Pixel Fill Rate 130 GPixel/s 109-118 GPixel/s
Texture Fill Rate 259 GTexel/s 218-237 GTexel/s
FLOPS (FP32)
8.3 TFLOPS
7-7.6 TFLOPS

Physical

Interface Custom IGP
TGP 28 W -
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Fabrication Process 3 nm 3 nm
Die Size - 220 mm²
Transistor Count 28 billion -
Max. Temperature 100°C -

Memory

Memory Type System Shared System Shared
Memory Clock 9600 MHz -
Bus 256-bit 192-bit
ECC No No
Memory Bandwidth
307 GB/s
228 GB/s

API

DirectX - 12.2
Vulkan - 1.4
OpenCL - 3.0
CUDA - No
Ray Tracing Yes Yes
DLSS No No
DisplayPort - 1.4

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Total votes: 3

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