Home / CPU Comparison / Apple M5 10 Cores or Apple M2 Ultra: What's better?

Apple M5 10 Cores
vs
Apple M2 Ultra

Apple M5 10 Cores
vs
Apple M2 Ultra

CPU Comparison Result

Below are the results of a comparison of Apple M5 10 Cores and Apple M2 Ultra processors based on key performance characteristics, as well as power consumption and much more.

Advantages

Apple M5 10 Cores
Apple M5 10 Cores
Apple M5 10 Cores
  • Higher Performance-core Max Turbo Frequency: 4.61 GHz (4.61 GHz vs 3.50 GHz)
  • Higher Technology: Third-generation 3 nm (Third-generation 3 nm vs 5 nm)
  • Newer Launch Date: October 2025 (October 2025 vs June 2023)
Apple M2 Ultra
Apple M2 Ultra
Apple M2 Ultra
  • More Total Cores: 24 (10 vs 24)

Basic

Apple
Label Name
Apple
October 2025
Launch Date
June 2023
Laptop
Platform
Desktop
Apple custom ARM architecture
CPU Architecture
Apple Avalanche + Apple Blizzard
Apple M5
CPU Name
Apple M2 Ultra
Apple M5 10-Core
Model Name
?
The Intel processor number is just one of several factors - along with processor brand, system configurations, and system-level benchmarks - to be considered when choosing the right processor for your computing needs.
Apple M2 Ultra
TSMC N3P
Foundry
TSMC
M5
Generation
Apple M2 series

CPU Specifications

-
Interconnect Bandwidth
Over 2.5 TB/s
-
Interconnect Technology
UltraFusion
10
Total Cores
?
Cores is a hardware term that describes the number of independent central processing units in a single computing component (die or chip).
24
10
Total Threads
?
Where applicable, Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology is only available on Performance-cores.
24
4
Performance-cores
16
6
Efficient-cores
8
4.61 GHz
Max Turbo Frequency
?
Max Turbo Frequency is the maximum single-core frequency at which the processor is capable of operating using Intel® Turbo Boost Technology and, if present, Intel® Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 and Intel® Thermal Velocity Boost. Frequency is typically measured in gigahertz (GHz), or billion cycles per second.
-
3.05 GHz
Efficient-core Max Turbo Frequency
?
Maximum E-core turbo frequency derived from Intel® Turbo Boost Technology.
2.42 GHz
-
Instruction Set Extensions
NEON
4.61 GHz
Performance-core Max Turbo Frequency
?
Maximum P-core turbo frequency derived from Intel® Turbo Boost Technology.
3.50 GHz
-
Extended Instruction Set
Armv8.5-A, NEON
-
L1 Cache
P-cores: 192 KB instruction + 128 KB data per core; E-cores: 128 KB instruction + 64 KB data per core
-
L2 Cache
P-core clusters: 72 MB total; E-core clusters: 8 MB total
-
L3 Cache
96 MB system level cache
Third-generation 3 nm
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.
5 nm
-
Instruction Set
?
The instruction set is a hard program stored inside the CPU that guides and optimizes CPU operations. With these instruction sets, the CPU can run more efficiently. There are many manufacturers that design CPUs, which results in different instruction sets, such as the 8086 instruction set for the Intel camp and the RISC instruction set for the ARM camp. x86, ARM v8, and MIPS are all codes for instruction sets. Instruction sets can be extended; for example, x86 added 64-bit support to create x86-64. Manufacturers developing CPUs that are compatible with a certain instruction set need authorization from the instruction set patent holder. A typical example is Intel authorizing AMD, enabling the latter to develop CPUs compatible with the x86 instruction set.
Armv8.5-A
-
Transistor Count
134 billion

Memory Specifications

-
Memory Bus Width
1024-bit
LPDDR5X unified memory
Memory Type
?
Intel® processors come in four different types: Single Channel, Dual Channel, Triple Channel, and Flex Mode. Maximum supported memory speed may be lower when populating multiple DIMMs per channel on products that support multiple memory channels.
Unified LPDDR5-6400
-
LPDDR5 Speed
LPDDR5-6400
32 GB
Max Memory Size
?
Max memory size refers to the maximum memory capacity supported by the processor.
192 GB
-
Memory Channels
?
The number of memory channels refers to the bandwidth operation for real world application.
8
153 GB/s
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).
800 GB/s
9600 MT/s
Maximum Memory Speed
6400 MT/s

GPU Specifications

Thunderbolt / DisplayPort over USB-C; HDMI
External Display Standard
Thunderbolt 4, HDMI 2.1
Apple M5 10-core GPU
GPU Name
Apple M2 Ultra GPU
Supported
Hardware-accelerated ray tracing
-
Up to two external displays: two 6K at 60Hz or 4K at 144Hz; or one 8K at 60Hz, 5K at 120Hz or 4K at 240Hz
Max External Display Resolution
Up to eight 4K 60Hz displays, six 6K 60Hz displays, or three 8K 60Hz displays; HDMI up to 8K 60Hz or 4K 240Hz
-
Video Concurrency
Up to 22 streams of 8K ProRes 422 video
H.264, HEVC, ProRes, ProRes RAW, AV1; hardware-accelerated; frame rate not disclosed
Video Decode
H.264, HEVC, ProRes, ProRes RAW
H.264, HEVC, ProRes, ProRes RAW; hardware-accelerated; frame rate not disclosed
Video Encode
H.264, HEVC, ProRes, ProRes RAW
-
Video Processing Unit
Apple media engine with ProRes acceleration
-
GPU Max Dynamic Frequency
1400 MHz
-
Graphics Base Frequency
?
Graphics Base frequency refers to the rated/guaranteed graphics render clock frequency in MHz.
450 MHz
10
Graphics Core Count
76
Up to 8K at 60Hz or 4K at 240Hz
Max Resolution
-
-
Number of Displays Supported
Up to 8 displays
Metal
GPU APIs
Metal, OpenCL
-
Graphics Performance
Up to 26.98 TFLOPS FP32
Hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAW; AV1 decode
Media Engine
Hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes, and ProRes RAW
1
Video Decode Engines
2
1
Video Encode Engines
4
1
ProRes Encode/Decode Engines
4
-
OpenCL Support
?
OpenCL (Open Computing Language) is a multi-platform API (Application Programming Interface) for heterogeneous parallel programming.
Yes

AI Specifications

Apple Neural Engine with Neural Accelerators in GPU cores
AI Engine
32-core Apple Neural Engine
16
Neural Engine Core Count
32
16-core Neural Engine
NPU Name
Apple Neural Engine
-
NPU Performance
31.6 TOPS

Connectivity

Supported
Bluetooth Support
Yes
-
Bluetooth Version
Bluetooth 5.3
-
Wi-Fi Standard
Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax)

Interfaces and Ports

Thunderbolt 4
Thunderbolt Support
Yes, Thunderbolt 4 up to 40 Gb/s
USB 4 up to 40Gb/s
USB Version
USB4
Supported
USB4 Support
Yes, USB4 up to 40 Gb/s

Miscellaneous

-
Hardware-Verified Secure Boot
Yes, Apple silicon secure boot chain of trust
-
Runtime Anti-Exploitation
Hardware-verified secure boot and runtime anti-exploitation technologies

Benchmarks

Cinebench R23 Single Core
Apple M5 10 Cores
2459 +45%
Apple M2 Ultra
1695
Cinebench R23 Multi Core
Apple M5 10 Cores
15893
Apple M2 Ultra
28570 +80%
Geekbench 6 Single Core
Apple M5 10 Cores
4228 +52%
Apple M2 Ultra
2776
Geekbench 6 Multi Core
Apple M5 10 Cores
17314
Apple M2 Ultra
21430 +24%
Geekbench 5 Single Core
Apple M5 10 Cores
2974 +53%
Apple M2 Ultra
1940
Geekbench 5 Multi Core
Apple M5 10 Cores
15736
Apple M2 Ultra
27860 +77%
Passmark CPU Single Core
Apple M5 10 Cores
5749 +37%
Apple M2 Ultra
4208
Passmark CPU Multi Core
Apple M5 10 Cores
26996
Apple M2 Ultra
50932 +89%
Cinebench 2024 Single Core
Apple M5 10 Cores
200 +59%
Apple M2 Ultra
126
Cinebench 2024 Multi Core
Apple M5 10 Cores
1030
Apple M2 Ultra
1918 +86%
Cinebench 2024 GPU
Apple M5 10 Cores
6139
Apple M2 Ultra
8668 +41%
Blender
Apple M5 10 Cores
377
Apple M2 Ultra
502 +33%

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