GeForce RTX 5090 vs Apple M5 Max GPU (40-core)

We performed a head-to-head comparison of the GeForce RTX 5090 32 GB with 170 pipelines and 21760 shaders against the 1 year and 2 months newer Apple M5 Max GPU (40-core) that utilizes 640 pipelines and 5120 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
AI/ML
Capabilities for machine learning and AI-related tasks
Energy Efficiency
Power consumption efficiency in different scenarios
NanoReview Final Score
Overall video card score
The "Energy Efficiency" metric has less impact on the NanoReview Score for desktop GPU.

Key differences

Key distinctions and advantages of M5 Max GPU (40-core) over RTX 5090
Reasons to consider the GeForce RTX 5090
  • Performs significantly better (up to 3x) in 3DMark Steel Nomad Lite
  • 6.3x higher maximum theoretical performance (104.8 vs 16.6 TFLOPS)
  • Supports Nvidia DLSS 4 technology
  • Has 2.9x higher memory bandwidth: 1792 vs 614 GB/s
  • Achieves 2.9x more points in the GeekBench 6 Compute test (419K vs 146K)
  • Has 4.3x more shading units (21760 vs 5120)
Reasons to consider the Apple M5 Max GPU (40-core)
  • Manufactured using a more efficient 3 nm process technology

Gaming Performance

Frame rate comparison across popular AAA titles at different resolutions

Games

FPS Table
Forza Horizon 5
336
247
233
187
-
The Witcher 3
364
327
237
123
-
Counter-Strike 2
363
265
202
99
-
Far Cry 6
237
202
190
121
-
Hogwarts Legacy
249
199
166
97
-
CoD: Modern Warfare III
334
322
260
184
-
Ghost of Tsushima
221
185
175
113
-
Cyberpunk 2077
261
233
160
77
-
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
329
302
238
128
-
Average FPS by Resolution
1080p High 299 -
1080p Ultra 254 -
1440p Ultra 207 -
4K Ultra 125 -
Margin of Error Low Low

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
RTX 5090 +197%
52764
Time Spy 46873 -
Solar Bay 236689 79263
Port Royal 38202 -
Fire Strike 87569 -
Wild Life Extreme 108751 42423
Night Raid 206648 -
Sources: 3DMark [1], [2]

GeekBench 6 OpenCL

GPU test for computational tasks (image processing, photography, computer vision, and ML)
GB6 Compute Score
RTX 5090 +186%
419309
Background Blur 333 img/sec 257 img/sec
Face Detection 298.5 img/sec 182.1 img/sec
Horizon Detection 21.7 Gpixels/sec 5.4 Gpixels/sec
Edge Detection 33.7 Gpixels/sec 8.33 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian Blur 34.5 Gpixels/sec 8.86 Gpixels/sec
Feature Matching 2.53 Gpixels/sec 1.28 Gpixels/sec
Stereo Matching 2850 Gpixels/sec 455.4 Gpixels/sec
Particle Physics 59146.9 FPS 21658 FPS
API OpenCL OpenCL
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]

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 1410 -
DirectX 11 341 FPS -
DirectX 12 179 FPS -
GPU Compute 24360 Ops/s -
Sources: PassMark [5]10378 samples

Blender

Rendering performance test for 3D modeling
Blender GPU
RTX 5090 +86%
15058.41
Sources: Blender [9], [10]3165 & 201 samples

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
GeForce RTX 5090
No benchmark results yet
Apple M5 Max GPU (40-core)
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-04-16 -> Apple loverGeekBench146276
📘 2026-03-25 (Steven)Cinebench 20249283
📘 2026-03-25 (Steven)Steel Nomad Light18486

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
RTX 5090 +83%
53861
GB6 ML Half Precision
RTX 5090 +75%
81080
GB6 ML Quantized
38938
Image Classification (SP) 18948 10711
Image Segmentation (HP) 55109 42406
Image Super Resolution (Q) 58478 42905
Face Detection (HP) 114685 73489
Pose Estimation (Q) 344729 289766
Text Classification (SP) 4464 6087
Machine Translation (HP) 8184 8881
Object Detection (SP) 27802 10130
Depth Estimation (Q) 85572 84224
Style Transfer (SP) 687080 264552
Framework ONNX Core ML
Backend DirectML GPU
Sources: Geekbench [9], [10]
Results were compared using different ML frameworks

Specifications

Technical specifications of GeForce RTX 5090 and Apple M5 Max GPU (40-core)

General

Vendor Nvidia Apple
Build Discrete Integrated
Released January 7, 2025 March 3, 2026
Launch price (MSRP) $1999 -
Case Desktop Laptop
Purpose Gaming Professional
Segment High-end Mid-range
Architecture Blackwell 2.0 Apple M GPU
GPU Codename GB202-300 Custom
Recommended CPU - Intel Core Ultra 9 285K or above - Apple M5 Max (40-сore GPU) or above
Used in CPUs - - Apple M5 Max (40-сore GPU)
Desktop GPU rating (#2nd place)
Laptop GPU ranking (#6th place)

Graphics Processing Unit

Base Clock 2017 MHz -
Boost Clock 2407 MHz 1620 MHz
Shading Units 21760 5120
Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) 680 320
Render Output Units (ROPs) 176 160
Compute Units (Pipelines) 170 640
Tensor Cores 680 -
Ray-tracing Cores 170 -
L1 Cache 128KB per cluster -
L2 Cache 96MB shared -
Instructions Per Cycle 2 IPC 2 IPC

Raw Performance

Pixel Fill Rate 424 GPixel/s 259 GPixel/s
Texture Fill Rate 1637 GTexel/s 518 GTexel/s
FLOPS (FP32)
RTX 5090 +531%
104.8 TFLOPS
16.6 TFLOPS

Physical

Interface PCIe 5.0 x16 Custom
TGP 575 W -
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Fabrication Process 4 nm 3 nm
Die Size 750 mm² -
Transistor Count 92.2 billion 28 billion
Transistor Density 122.93 MTr/mm² -
Max. Temperature - 100°C

Memory

Memory Type GDDR7 System Shared
Memory Size 32 GB -
Memory Clock 1750 MHz 9600 MHz
Effective Memory Speed 28000 Mbps -
Bus 512-bit 512-bit
ECC No No
Memory Bandwidth
RTX 5090 +192%
1792 GB/s

API

DirectX 12.2 -
Vulkan 1.4 -
OpenGL 4.6 -
OpenCL 3.0 -
CUDA 12.0 -
Ray Tracing Yes Yes
DLSS DLSS 4 No
DisplayPort 2.1b -

Cast your vote

Choose between two graphics cards
45 (84.9%)
8 (15.1%)
Total votes: 53

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