M5 Ultra Chip's Impressive Performance Boost Revealed in First Benchmark Result

Tuesday September 15, 2026 11:00 am PDT by Joe Rossignol

The first unverified benchmark result for Apple's new M5 Ultra chip surfaced in the Geekbench 7 database today, offering a look at the chip's impressive performance gains. The new Mac Studio will be Apple's first device to be equipped with the M5 Ultra.

M5 Ultra Hero
Here is how the highest-end M5 Ultra chip with a 36-core CPU scored:

Single-core CPU score: 3,774
Multi-core CPU score: 52,516

Apple never released an M4 Ultra chip. Here are the average scores for the highest-end M3 Ultra chip with a 32-core CPU on Geekbench 7:

Single-core CPU score: 2,920
Multi-core CPU score: 39,059

Unsurprisingly, the M5 Ultra is Apple's fastest chip ever. If this Geekbench result is accurate, it has up to around 30% faster single-core CPU performance and up to around 35% faster multi-core performance compared to the M3 Ultra. But, it comes at a steep cost. In the U.S., the Mac Studio with a 36-core M5 Ultra starts at $6,799.

Apple said the M5 Ultra has up to 1.25× faster single-threaded CPU performance and up to 1.3× faster multi-threaded CPU performance compared to the M3 Ultra, so the benchmark result roughly aligns with or even beats those advertised claims. However, keep in mind that there wil be some variance in scores as additional results surface.

Here is where the M5 Ultra slots in for maximum multi-core CPU performance:

M5 Ultra: 52,516
M3 Ultra: 39,059
M5 Max: 35,119
M5 Pro: 33,593
M4 Max: 29,047
M2 Ultra: 28,789
M4 Pro: 24,894
M3 Max: 24,649
M1 Ultra: 23,328
M6: 22,783
M5: 17,948
M2 Max: 17,387
M3 Pro: 16,880
M2 Pro: 16,725
M4: 15,477
M1 Max: 14,299
M1 Pro: 13,914
M3: 11,650
M2: 9,809
M1: 8,582

Based on these scores, the M5 Ultra is up to 2.25× faster than Apple's original M1 Ultra chip and up to 6× faster compared to the regular M1 chip.

As always, real-world performance varies.

The new Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra chips and the new Mac mini with M6 and M5 Pro chips launch on Tuesday, September 22.

We are still waiting for GPU results for the M5 Ultra to appear in the Geekbench 7 database.

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Tags: Benchmarks, Geekbench

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Top Rated Comments

Squashi

4 weeks ago

Cannot wait to play Chess on that bad boy

Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Makosuke

4 weeks ago

Interestingly, if you look at the current Geekbench 7 browser, there is a single M6 result in there, showing a single-core score of 4071, which is the absolute top of anything in the database.

More interestingly, right underneath it in the 3980-4040 rangeare many dozens of "iPhone19,2" and "iPhone19,3" results (plus a few "iPhone19,7"), which it seems very plausible are iPhone 18 pros and Duos, although the browser amusingly identifies the CPU as "Intel Pentium II/III 4928 MHz (6 cores)". There seem to be too many of those for it to be a fake, review or test units seem far more likely.

And, given that they're the same architecture, that kinda backs the lone M6 result as being real, which would mean it's the fastest single-core CPU in existence right now.

Which, if real, shows the M6 having a plausible multi-core of 22,783. That puts it right in the M4 Pro / M3 Max range, and also tells us that the M5 Pro Mini is going to get you about 50% more multi-core performance and about 10% slower single-core.

As for this M5 Ultra result, it's still in the browser, and currently sitting at the number 5 slot on all-time Geekbench 7 multi-core CPU results. The only things above it are three 64-core Threadripper PRO 9985WX results and a single EPYC 9B45 with 192 cores.

That's a pretty fast CPU.

Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)

BigMcGuire

4 weeks ago

So what is better for WoW: A stronger single core M6 or M5 Pro Mac mini?

TLDR: The GPUs matter more for WoW. (Pro/Max Chips).

I have an M1 Max in a 16' MBP. It plays WoW perfectly hooked up to an Apple Studio Display. Obviously not on high.

Also I prefer WoW Classic BC Anniversary so - on medium settings I can keep 60fps easily with the M1 Max.

My M4 MacBook Air is slightly faster than my M1 Max in day to day operations but bogs down quickly when doing multiple things at once (Parallels, multiple CPU intensive tasks) whereas my M1 Max acts like it isn't even sweating.

Also the M4 MacBook Air can only do 20fps WoW Classic BC Anniversary to my Apple Studio Display and gets really hot really quick.

Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)

uczcret

4 weeks ago

https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/compare/16894743?baseline=17167222

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/apples-18-core-m5-max-destroys-96-core-ryzen-threadripper-pro-9995wx-in-geekbench-gpu-performance-is-much-less-impressive

Geekbench 6 scores do not map onto Geekbench 7 scores.

Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Joe Rossignol

4 weeks ago

It would be pretty weird if it wasn’t.

Added in an "unsurprisingly" for you ;)

Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Makosuke

4 weeks ago

CPU score worse than M5 Max?? That can’t be correct.

M5 Max gets 4,349 on Single-Core, but M5 Ultra is 3,774

I'm not sure where you got that 4,349, but the current Geekbench 7 browser database Mac Benchmarks list shows the M5 Max at 3,692-3,731 single-core depending on model, so this single M5 Ultra result (which does now appear in the overall browser) of 3,774 is exactly in line with that.

It wouldn't be particularly surprising if the single-core were a little lower due to the thermals, but not that much. This is just a guess, but maybe you're looking at Geekbench 6 results?

Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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