The first real gaming benchmarks for Apple’s new M5 Max are starting to roll in, and the early spotlight is on Cyberpunk 2077—one of the most demanding modern games and now available on macOS. Apple’s latest top-end chip brings an improved Fusion Architecture to the M5 Pro and M5 Max, but GPU scalability still tops out at 40 GPU cores on the M5 Max. That makes this an interesting test of just how far Apple Silicon can push AAA gaming performance in 2026.
A new comparison puts a 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M5 Max (18-core CPU, 40-core GPU) up against a Lenovo Legion gaming laptop equipped with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Laptop GPU. For additional context, results from an RTX 4090-powered gaming laptop are also included, since that class of machine remains one of the fastest options for traditional laptop gaming performance.
One of the most notable details: Cyberpunk 2077 was benchmarked on the M5 Max MacBook Pro while running on battery power, with the tester noting performance would be the same even when plugged in. That’s a meaningful point for anyone who cares about gaming away from an outlet, because many high-powered Windows gaming laptops typically reduce performance significantly when unplugged.
Using comparable graphics settings across systems—High textures, ray tracing enabled (including ray-traced reflections, sun shadows, local shadows, and ray-traced lighting set to Psycho), with frame generation off, resolution scaling off, and path tracing disabled—the M5 Max lands closer to the RTX 5080 laptop than some might expect in average frame rate.
Here are the reported average FPS results in Cyberpunk 2077:
– RTX 5080 gaming laptop (2,560 x 1,440): 26.95 FPS
– M5 Max MacBook Pro, 18-core CPU / 40-core GPU (2,336 x 1,460): 22.91 FPS
– RTX 4090 gaming laptop (2,560 x 1,600): 37.41 FPS
In this specific test, the RTX 4090 laptop comes out on top, delivering about 38.8 percent higher performance than the RTX 5080 laptop and roughly 63.3 percent higher performance than the M5 Max MacBook Pro. Meanwhile, the M5 Max trails the RTX 5080 by around 4 FPS on average, which is a smaller gap than many would expect considering the typical differences between Apple Silicon and high-wattage discrete GPUs in demanding ray-traced workloads.
There is one potential wrinkle: the RTX 4090 laptop was running Cyberpunk 2077 version 2.21, while the RTX 5080 machine and the M5 Max MacBook Pro were reportedly running version 2.31. That version difference could be worth revisiting, since patches can affect performance, especially in a game as frequently updated and complex as Cyberpunk 2077.
It’s also worth keeping expectations grounded. Cyberpunk 2077 remains a brutal benchmark—particularly with ray tracing settings pushed high—and it’s not necessarily the kind of title that flatters any laptop unless you lean heavily on upscaling or frame generation. Even so, the M5 Max result is notable because it’s achieved on battery, and a comparable unplugged test on many RTX-powered gaming laptops would likely show a sharper performance drop.
These numbers also aren’t the final word on M5 Max gaming. More benchmarks across different games and engines will paint a clearer picture of where Apple’s latest chip shines—especially in titles that are better optimized for macOS and Apple’s graphics stack. For shoppers weighing an upgrade, the M5 Max MacBook Pro is already appearing for pre-order in both 14-inch and 16-inch sizes, with pricing starting at $3,899.
