Home / CPU Comparison / AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D or Apple M5 Ultra 36 Cores: What's better?

AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D

vs

Apple M5 Ultra 36 Cores

CPU Comparison Result

Below are the results of a comparison of AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D and Apple M5 Ultra 36 Cores processors based on key performance characteristics, as well as power consumption and much more.

Advantages

AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D

Higher Memory Type: DDR5 (DDR5 vs Unified memory)

Apple M5 Ultra 36 Cores

More Total Cores: 36 (8 vs 36)
Higher Technology: 3 nm (TSMC 4nm FinFET vs 3 nm)
Newer Launch Date: August 2026 (November 2024 vs August 2026)

Basic

AMD

Label Name

Apple

November 2024

Launch Date

August 2026

Desktop

Platform

Desktop

CPU Architecture

Apple M5

CPU Name

Apple M5 Ultra

Ryzen 7 9800X3D

Model Name

Apple M5 Ultra 36 Cores

Granite Ridge AM5

Code Name

Zen 5

Generation

Windows 11 - 64-Bit Edition, Windows 10 - 64-Bit Edition, RHEL x86 64-Bit, Ubuntu x86 64-Bit

OS Support

CPU Specifications

Interconnect Bandwidth

Over 4.4 TB/s

Interconnect Technology

UltraFusion quad-die architecture

Super-core Max Frequency

4.61 GHz

Total Cores

Cores is a hardware term that describes the number of independent central processing units in a single computing component (die or chip).

Total Threads

Performance-cores

Super-cores

4.7 GHz

Basic Frequency

Up to 5.2 GHz

Max Turbo Frequency

640 KB

L1 Cache

8 MB

L2 Cache

96 MB

L3 Cache

AM5

CPU Socket

The socket is the component that provides the mechanical and electrical connections between the processor and motherboard.

Yes

Unlocked for Overclocking

TSMC 4nm FinFET

Technology

Lithography refers to the semiconductor technology used to manufacture an integrated circuit, and is reported in nanometer (nm), indicative of the size of features built on the semiconductor.

3 nm

120W

TDP

95°C

Max. Operating Temperature

Junction Temperature is the maximum temperature allowed at the processor die.

PCIe® 5.0

PCI Express Version

PCI Express Revision is the supported version of the PCI Express standard. Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (or PCIe) is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard for attaching hardware devices to a computer. The different PCI Express versions support different data rates.

x86-64

Instruction Set

An instruction set architecture (ISA) defines the instructions a processor can execute. Common architectures include x86-64, ARM and RISC-V. The ISA determines software compatibility, while optional instruction extensions add specialized capabilities.

Memory Specifications

DDR5

Memory Type

Unified memory

256 GB

Max Memory Size

Max memory size refers to the maximum memory capacity supported by the processor.

512 GB

Memory Channels

The number of memory channels refers to the bandwidth operation for real world application.

Max Memory Bandwidth

Max Memory bandwidth is the maximum rate at which data can be read from or stored into a semiconductor memory by the processor (in GB/s).

1.2 TB/s

2x1R DDR5-5600, 2x2R DDR5-5600, 4x1R DDR5-3600, 4x2R DDR5-3600

Maximum Memory Speed

Yes (Requires mobo support)

ECC Memory Support

ECC Memory Supported indicates processor support for Error-Correcting Code memory. ECC memory is a type of system memory that can detect and correct common kinds of internal data corruption. Note that ECC memory support requires both processor and chipset support.

GPU Specifications

External Display Standard

DisplayPort 2.1, HDMI 2.1

GPU Name

Apple M5 Ultra 80-core GPU

Hardware-accelerated ray tracing

Supported

Max External Display Resolution

Up to 8K at 60Hz

Video Concurrency

Up to 33 streams of 8K ProRes 422 at 30 fps

Video Decode

H.264, HEVC, ProRes, ProRes RAW, AV1

Video Encode

H.264, HEVC, ProRes, ProRes RAW

AMD Radeon™ Graphics

Integrated Graphics Model

An integrated GPU refers to the graphics core that is integrated into the CPU processor. Leveraging the processor's powerful computational capabilities and intelligent power efficiency management, it delivers outstanding graphics performance and a smooth application experience at a lower power consumption.

Graphics Core Count

2200 MHz

Graphics Frequency

Max Resolution

Up to 8K at 60Hz

Number of Displays Supported

GPU APIs

Metal

Media Engine

Hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAW; AV1 decode

Video Decode Engines

Video Encode Engines