Skip to Content

Apple's M5 Max Chip Achieves a New Record in First Benchmark Result

The first Geekbench 6 result for a 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M5 Max chip surfaced today, and Apple has achieved record-breaking performance.

Apple M5 Pro M5 Max chips
In this unconfirmed result, the M5 Max with an 18-core CPU achieved a score of 29,233 for multi-core CPU performance, which tops the 27,726 score achieved by the Mac Studio's M3 Ultra chip with a 32-core CPU. M5 Max is now the fastest Apple silicon chip ever, and it even topped every other consumer PC processor in the Geekbench database.

In terms of multi-core CPU performance, the M5 Max is up to 5% faster than the M3 Ultra, and up to 14% to 15% faster than the M4 Max chip with a 16-core CPU.

Here is a comparison of the multi-core CPU results:

  • 16-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Max (18-core CPU): 29,233 (one result)
  • Mac Studio with M3 Ultra (32-core CPU): 27,726 (average of all results)
  • Mac Studio with M4 Max (16-core CPU): 26,166 (average of all results)
  • 16-inch MacBook Pro with M4 Max (16-core CPU): 25,702 (average of all results)

As for single-core CPU performance, the M5 Max with an 18-core CPU achieved a score of 4,268 in this single Geekbench result, which is line with the regular M5 chip in the base model 14-inch MacBook Pro released back in October. This is the highest single-core score of any consumer PC processor ever, topping the AMD Ryzen 9 series.

As for graphics, the M5 Max with a 40-core GPU achieved impressive Metal scores of 218,772 in one result and 232,718 in another. These scores are anywhere from 5% to 10% lower than the highest-end M3 Ultra's average Metal score of 245,053, and a little more than 20% higher than the highest-end M4 Max's average Metal score of 191,600.

All in all, the M5 Max offers up to 15% faster CPU performance and up to 20% faster GPU performance compared to the M4 Max, in line with Apple's advertised figures.

MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max are available to pre-order now, and they will begin arriving to customers and launch in stores on March 11.

Related Roundup: MacBook Pro
Buyer's Guide: MacBook Pro (Buy Now)
Related Forum: MacBook Pro

Popular Stories

Multicolored Low Cost A18 Pro MacBook Feature

Apple Accidentally Leaks 'MacBook Neo'

Tuesday March 3, 2026 7:00 am PST by
Apple appears to have prematurely revealed the name of its rumored lower-cost MacBook model, which is expected to be announced this Wednesday. A regulatory document for a "MacBook Neo" (Model A3404) has appeared on Apple's website. Unfortunately, there are no further details or images available yet. While the PDF file does not contain the "MacBook Neo" name, it briefly appeared in a link...
MacBook Neo Feature Pastel 1

Apple Announces $599 'MacBook Neo' With A18 Pro Chip

Wednesday March 4, 2026 6:15 am PST by
Apple today announced the "MacBook Neo," an all-new kind of low-cost Mac featuring the A18 Pro chip for $599. The MacBook Neo is the first Mac to be powered by an iPhone chip; the A18 Pro debuted in 2024's iPhone 16 Pro models. Apple says it is up to 50% faster for everyday tasks than the bestselling PC with the latest shipping Intel Core Ultra 5, up to 3x faster for on-device AI workloads,...
imac video apple feature

Apple Unveils Two New Products

Monday March 2, 2026 7:49 am PST by
Apple today introduced two new devices, including the iPhone 17e and an updated iPad Air. iPhone 17e features the same overall design as the iPhone 16e, but it gains Apple's A19 chip, MagSafe for magnetic wireless charging and magnetic accessories, Apple's second-generation C1X modem for faster 5G, and a doubled 256GB of base storage. In the U.S., the iPhone 17e starts at $599, just like the ...

Top Rated Comments

4 hours ago at 03:53 pm
Really hope they come out with a M5 Ultra with 1TB+ memory Studio.. literally everyone wants to run local LLMs. Come on Apple!
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ghostface147 Avatar
4 hours ago at 03:56 pm
That’s it! Trading in my M4 Max 16” MBPro for an M5 Max same model, must open Excel up to 15% faster!
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
anakinfan8 Avatar
4 hours ago at 04:01 pm
Every Apple Silicon update is John Ternus yelling "MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE"
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
exodiusprime Avatar
4 hours ago at 03:57 pm
It's always amazing to see how far technology advances 🤯 Things that seem bleeding-fast now will seem ancient years later 🫠 Been using an M1 Pro for a minute, but it may be time to upgrade soon!
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
4 hours ago at 03:59 pm

The improvement over M4 max is only 14%? That’s not a lot. In the worst intel days the improvements are around 5%
well, that's likely due to fact of them deciding to use less performance cores and achieve a small gain over a larger one to improve battery instead. that's theory anyways. remember an m3 max is 12 performance and only 4 effiicency, this thing is basically 6 performance and 12 "balanced" cores which is to say they're supposedly better than efficiency but not as good as performance cores.

could you imagine if they actually did have 12 performance (ie super cores now) and 6 balanced? but i imagine with how delayed M5 was too they gotta save some oomf for M6 too.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
iamaydo Avatar
3 hours ago at 04:09 pm

Really hope they come out with a M5 Ultra with 1TB+ memory Studio.. literally everyone wants to run local LLMs. Come on Apple!
I don’t think people are willing to pay the price for memory right now to run local LLMs.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)