Home > CPU Comparison > M1 Max or Ryzen 9 5900X: what's better?

Apple M1 Max vs AMD Ryzen 9 5900X

61 out of 100
Apple M1 Max
VS
58 out of 100
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
Apple M1 Max
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X

We compared two CPUs: the 3.2 GHz Apple M1 Max (laptop) with 10-cores against the 3.7 GHz AMD Ryzen 9 5900X (desktop) with 12-cores. On this page, you'll find out which processor has better performance in benchmarks, games and other useful information.

  1. Review
  2. Differences
  3. Performance
  4. Specs
  5. Comments (1)

Review

General overview and comparison of the processors
Single-Core Performance
Performance in single-threaded apps and benchmarks
Multi-Core Performance
Measure performance when all cores are involved
Power Efficiency
The efficiency score of power consumption
The "iGPU" and "Power Efficiency" have a minor impact on the DeviceFacts Score for desktop CPU.
DeviceFacts Final Score
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
๐Ÿ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Value for money (Beta)

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Currency
VS

Key Differences

What are the key differences between 5900X and Max
Advantages of Apple M1 Max
  • Around 361.92 GB/s (759%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • Supports quad-channel memory
  • More modern manufacturing process โ€“ 5 versus 7 nanometers
  • Newer - released 1 year later
  • Includes an integrated GPU Apple M1 Max GPU (32-core)
Advantages of AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
  • Unlocked multiplier
  • Supports up to 128 GB DDR4-3200 RAM
  • Has 2 more physical cores

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
M1 Max
vs
Ryzen 9 5900X

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
M1 Max +17%
111
Ryzen 9 5900X
95
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
M1 Max
789
Ryzen 9 5900X +51%
1193
Cinebench Scores (#112th place)
Submit your benchmark results

GeekBench v6

The new version of this benchmark emulates common operations often used in real-world apps
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
M1 Max +7%
2431
Ryzen 9 5900X
2263
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
M1 Max
12673
Ryzen 9 5900X
12701
File compression 1450 MB/sec 1170 MB/sec
Clang compilation 105.1 Klines/sec 126 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 329.2 pages/sec 217.8 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 317 Mpixels/sec 362 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 249.6 pages/sec 232 pages/sec
Background blur 42.2 images/sec 38.7 images/sec
Photo processing 122.8 images/sec 85.1 images/sec
Ray tracing 14.9 Mpixels/sec 31.5 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] โ€“ 447 & 441 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
M1 Max +11%
3831
Ryzen 9 5900X
3465
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
M1 Max
22162
Ryzen 9 5900X +75%
38888
Integer math 46.1 GOps/sec 139.7 GOps/sec
Floating point math 64.5 GOps/sec 77.6 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 278M Primes/sec 257M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 32.7M Strings/sec 51.5M Strings/sec
Data encryption 12.2 GBytes/sec 31 GBytes/sec
Data compression 274.4 MBytes/sec 498.8 MBytes/sec
Physics 2833 Frames/sec 1984 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 12.8B Matrices/sec 33.1B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] โ€“ 2398 & 27058 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
M1 Max
199.2
Ryzen 9 5900X +59%
316.84

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 15.8 PPW 11.4 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 253.5 PPW 121 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 443.2 PPW 370.4 PPW
Blender / Watt 3.98 PPW 3.02 PPW
These are rough calculations, as most CPUs surpass PL1 TDP wattage even in multicore workloads.

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Apple M1 Max
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-07-04 (Daniel)Geekbench 6 CPU2459 / 13052
Add View all (1)
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-03-19 (D)Cinebench 202467 / 893
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-11-02 (Zoli)Cinebench 202493 / 1254
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-10-12 (Otamatone)Cinebench 202492 / 981
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-10-08 (aref)Cinebench 202494 / 1015
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-08-15 (SnakeyB)Cinebench 2024120 / 380
Add View all (12)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Apple M1 Max and AMD Ryzen 9 5900X

General

Vendor Apple Amd
Released October 18, 2021 October 8, 2020
Type Laptop Desktop
Instruction Set ARMv8 x86-64
Codename Apple M1 Zen 3 (Vermeer)
Integrated GPU Apple M1 Max GPU (32-core) No
Rival Equivalent - - Intel Core i9 11900K
Successor - Apple M5 Max (40-ัore GPU) - AMD Ryzen 9 9900X
AMD Ryzen CPU ranking (#70th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 8 12
P-Threads 8 24
Base Frequency (P) 3.2 GHz 3.7 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) - 4.8 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 2 -
E-Threads 2 -
Base Frequency (E) 2.1 GHz -
Total
Total Cores 10 12
Total Threads 10 24
Bus Frequency - 100 MHz
Multiplier - 37x
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 64K (per core)
L2 Cache 24MB (shared) 512K (per core)
L3 Cache - 64MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No Yes

Package

Transistors 57 billions 4.15 billions
Fabrication Process 5 nm 7 nm
TDP (PL1) 50 W 105 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) - 142 W
Socket Apple M-Socket AM4
Peak Temperature - 90ยฐC
Desktop CPU ranking (#83rd place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Apple M1 Max GPU (32-core) -
GPU Base Clock 450 MHz -
GPU Boost Clock 1296 MHz -
Shading Units 4096 -
TMUs 256 -
ROPs 128 -
Execution Units 512 -
iGPU FLOPS
M1 Max
10.6 TFLOPS
Ryzen 9 5900X
n/a
See: Apple M1 Max GPU (32-core) benchmarks

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5-6400 - DDR4-3200
Max. Memory Size 64 GB 128 GB
Memory Channels 4 2
Max. Memory Bandwidth 409.6 GB/s 47.68 GB/s
ECC Support No Yes

Misc

Official Site - AMD Ryzen 9 5900X official page
PCI Express Version - 4.0
PCI Express Lanes - 20

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
104 (28.1%)
266 (71.9%)
Total votes: 370

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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X or Apple M1 Max?
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Muta Clone January 3, 2023 at 03:37 PM
While I really like what apple is doing with their new ARM transition, I still went with the 5900x as it's my first desktop build and I didn't want to be tied to Apple's platform as I like to game once in a while and if I really want a mac experience I can always spin up a mac VM. Currently using Adobe Illustrator with everything CPU rendered and it feels really snappy for such an eye cand filled os. For my next laptop though, I'll definitely check out Apple's offerings.
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