Apple M2 Ultra appears on Geekbench 5

At this year’s WWDC23, Apple unsurprisingly unveiled the 2023 Mac Pro, its principal attraction being the inclusion of Apple’s most potent M2 Ultra chip. The official announcement boasted a multiple-fold performance lead over the previous Intel version of the Mac Pro. However, it is well known that the older Mac Pro models that Apple is comparing against are all from 2019. So, how does it compare against the latest x86 architecture CPU? Recent benchmark results suggest that Apple’s M2 Ultra performance does not crush the x86 architecture CPUs of Intel and AMD.

Video creator @VadimYryev found results from the new Mac14,14 model in GeekBench 5’s score library, presumably erroneously uploaded by a media outlet that received an early review unit. This M2 Ultra-powered Mac Pro scored 1956 in single-core and 27945 in multi-core tests. Although this shows a considerable improvement compared to Apple’s previous M1 Ultra, it falls short when compared to the latest CPUs from Intel and AMD. It can’t outperform the Intel Core i9-13900K (single-core 2343, multi-core 28956), let alone Intel’s Xeon W9-3495X, which, like the Mac Pro, is also aimed at workstations.

Compared to the “ARM replacing x86” momentum when the M1 chip was first introduced—variously outperforming Intel’s contemporaneous mobile CPUs—the performance improvement in the M2 generation isn’t as dramatic. Apple’s main enhancement lies in increased memory width, support for larger capacities, and the incorporation of the UltraFusion design, which allows two M2 Max chips to be combined into one M2 Ultra. There’s also an increased number of dedicated processing chips, dramatically accelerating video and AI processing speeds.

Of course, it’s fair to say that purely benchmarking software like Geekbench 5 only provides a rough performance reference. There’s a considerable gap between these scores and actual working conditions. Moreover, the M2 Ultra boasts a higher memory bandwidth, stronger media encoding/decoding, and NPU capabilities, none of which can be exhibited in benchmarks. Ultimately, the strength and usability of its performance should be judged based on actual usage scenarios with the Mac Pro and Mac Studio.