Apple’s latest M5 Max is shaping up to be a fascinating upgrade—not necessarily because it leaves the M4 Max in the dust, but because it manages something far more surprising: it edges out the workstation-class M3 Ultra in multi-core performance, despite having nearly half the CPU cores.
At the heart of the M5 Max is Apple’s new Fusion Architecture, which reportedly makes it easier to pack in more CPU cores than before. That matters because Apple’s “Max” chips had effectively been stuck at a 16-core CPU limit in previous generations. With the M5 Max, Apple breaks past that ceiling and introduces an 18-core CPU design, combining six efficiency-focused cores with 12 performance cores.
Recent Geekbench 6 benchmark results show the M5 Max delivering only a modest step forward versus the M4 Max, especially considering it’s the newer flagship. In single-core performance, the M5 Max posts a 4,268 score compared to the M4 Max at 4,049, which works out to about a 5.4 percent gain. Multi-core performance is a bit more noticeable: 29,233 for the M5 Max versus 26,509 for the M4 Max, a roughly 10.3 percent improvement. For buyers expecting a dramatic leap from one generation to the next, these numbers may feel underwhelming and could make some Mac owners reconsider upgrading.
Where the story gets far more interesting is the matchup against Apple’s M3 Ultra. Even with the M3 Ultra featuring a massive 32-core CPU, the M5 Max comes out ahead in Geekbench 6. On single-core, the M5 Max scores 4,268 versus the M3 Ultra’s 3,247—about a 31.4 percent advantage, which isn’t too shocking given likely clock speed and architectural differences. The real surprise is multi-core: the M5 Max reaches 29,233, topping the M3 Ultra’s 28,169 by around 3.8 percent. In other words, the M5 Max appears to become Apple’s fastest chip in Geekbench 6 multi-core testing, even when compared with the company’s higher-tier “Ultra” silicon.
These results also highlight a bigger shift in Apple Silicon design strategy. A move to an advanced 2.5D chiplet packaging approach is said to be a key reason Apple can now go beyond the previous 16-core CPU ceiling in Max-class chips. For performance-focused users, that could signal more scalable designs going forward—especially if Apple continues to refine efficiency and scheduling so that additional cores translate into real-world speedups, not just bigger spec sheets.
Now the big question is how the M5 Max will stack up against upcoming ARM competitors and the broader x86 ecosystem. With Apple pushing core counts higher and still managing strong per-core performance, the next wave of comparisons should be especially telling for anyone debating between a high-end MacBook Pro or top-tier Windows laptops and workstations.
