Home > CPU Comparison > M3 Max or Ryzen 9 9950X: what's better?

Apple M3 Max vs AMD Ryzen 9 9950X

83 out of 100
Apple M3 Max
VS
89 out of 100
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X
Apple M3 Max
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X

We compared two 16-core CPUs: the 4.05 GHz Apple M3 Max (laptop) against the 4.3 GHz AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (desktop). 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.
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Value for money (Beta)

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Currency
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Key Differences

What are the key differences between 9950X and Max
Advantages of Apple M3 Max
  • Around 320 GB/s (357%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • More modern manufacturing process โ€“ 3 versus 4 nanometers
Advantages of AMD Ryzen 9 9950X
  • Unlocked multiplier
  • Supports up to 192 GB DDR5-5600 RAM
  • Newer PCI Express version โ€“ 5.0
  • Newer - released 7 months later

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
M3 Max
vs
Ryzen 9 9950X

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
M3 Max +4%
142
Ryzen 9 9950X
137
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
M3 Max
1698
Ryzen 9 9950X +37%
2320
Cinebench 2026 (Single) - 724
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) 5133 7630
Cinebench Scores (51st and 10th 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)
M3 Max
3227
Ryzen 9 9950X +6%
3418
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
M3 Max
21167
Ryzen 9 9950X +3%
21758
File compression 2190 MB/sec 1710 MB/sec
Clang compilation 198.5 Klines/sec 226 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 557.3 pages/sec 391.9 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 648.9 Mpixels/sec 586.8 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 309.1 pages/sec 351.6 pages/sec
Background blur 68.9 images/sec 84.3 images/sec
Photo processing 183.5 images/sec 144.4 images/sec
Ray tracing 30.6 Mpixels/sec 55.7 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] โ€“ 678 & 1 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
M3 Max +1%
4780
Ryzen 9 9950X
4728
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
M3 Max
41211
Ryzen 9 9950X +59%
65714
Integer math 91.2 GOps/sec 241.5 GOps/sec
Floating point math 131.5 GOps/sec 158.5 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 573M Primes/sec 343M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 61.7M Strings/sec 93.7M Strings/sec
Data encryption 24.7 GBytes/sec 44.2 GBytes/sec
Data compression 530.4 MBytes/sec 891.3 MBytes/sec
Physics 4332 Frames/sec 3254 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 24.2B Matrices/sec 71.2B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] โ€“ 409 & 6583 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
M3 Max
403.83
Ryzen 9 9950X +48%
598.37

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 30.3 PPW 13.6 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 378 PPW 128 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 735.9 PPW 386.6 PPW
Blender / Watt 7.21 PPW 3.52 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 M3 Max
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2024-09-27 (JayZeppelin)Cinebench 2024142 / 1698
๐Ÿ“˜ 2024-04-27 (Guest #1)Cinebench 2024141 / 1459
Add View all (2)
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-07-05 (greenmonalisa)Cinebench 2024136 / 2307
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-06-25 (Malanore)Cinebench 2026724 / 7630
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-04-20 -> TukiGeekbench 6 CPU3607 / 23374
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-02-07 (jimmygeneris)Cinebench 2024136 / 2114
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-01-01 (Capt Jack Swallows)Cinebench 2024136 / 2162
Add View all (34)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Apple M3 Max and AMD Ryzen 9 9950X

General

Vendor Apple Amd
Released October 30, 2023 June 3, 2024
Type Laptop Desktop
Instruction Set ARMv8 x86-64
Codename Apple M3 Zen 5 (Granite Ridge)
Model number - 9950X
Integrated GPU Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) Radeon Graphics
Rival Equivalent - - Intel Core i9 14900K
Successor - Apple M5 Max (40-ัore GPU) -

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 12 16
P-Threads 12 32
Base Frequency (P) 4.05 GHz 4.3 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) - 5.7 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 4 -
E-Threads 4 -
Base Frequency (E) 2.75 GHz -
Total
Total Cores 16 16
Total Threads 16 32
Bus Frequency - 100 MHz
Multiplier 40x 43x
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 80K (per core)
L2 Cache 32MB (shared) 1MB (per core)
L3 Cache - 64MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No Yes

Package

Transistors 92 billions -
Fabrication Process 3 nm 4 nm
TDP (PL1) 56 W 170 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) - 230 W
Socket Apple M-Socket AM5
Peak Temperature 100ยฐC 95ยฐC
Desktop CPU ranking (#6th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) Radeon Graphics
GPU Base Clock 500 MHz -
GPU Boost Clock 1380 MHz 2200 MHz
Shading Units 5120 -
TMUs 320 -
ROPs 160 -
Execution Units 640 -
TGP 60 W -
iGPU FLOPS
M3 Max
14.1 TFLOPS
Ryzen 9 9950X
n/a
See: Apple M3 Max GPU (40-core) benchmarks

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5-6400 - DDR5-5600
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 192 GB
Memory Channels 32 2
Max. Memory Bandwidth 409.6 GB/s 89.6 GB/s
ECC Support No Yes

Misc

Official Site - AMD Ryzen 9 9950X official page
PCI Express Version 4.0 5.0
PCI Express Lanes - 28

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
13 (17.1%)
63 (82.9%)
Total votes: 76

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5. Apple M3 Max vs Apple M4 Pro (12-Core)
6. AMD Ryzen 9 9950X vs AMD Ryzen 9 9900X
7. AMD Ryzen 9 9950X vs Intel Core i9 14900K (2)
8. AMD Ryzen 9 9950X vs Intel Core i9 14900KS (11)
9. AMD Ryzen 9 9950X vs AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D (1)
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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X or Apple M3 Max?
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Someone September 10, 2024 at 10:33 AM
The 9950X may be a little faster in single core and faster in multi core but efficiency wise the M3 Max has 40 watt TDP compared to 170 from 9950X. Thats more than 4 times more efficient.
+1 Reply
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