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InnoReviews

AMD Ryzen 9 9900X vs Apple M5 Ultra (36-core)

AMD Ryzen 9 9900X
85.8Inno Score
VS
Apple M5 Ultra (36-core)
—Inno Score
90.1Single-core—
83.6Multi-core—
84.6Gamingspec-based52.5
1 spec wins — AMD Ryzen 9 9900X6 spec wins — Apple M5 Ultra (36-core)

InnoReviews verdict

No overall winner yet: Apple M5 Ultra (36-core) lacks the published benchmark results an Inno Score requires, so there is no Inno Score to compare — we don't rank chips on their spec sheet alone. The spec table below still shows every difference we track.

Which would you pick?

Key differences

Reasons to pick the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X

  • 22% higher Boost clock: 5.6 GHz vs 4.6 GHz
  • Lower launch price: $499 vs $12,299

Reasons to pick the Apple M5 Ultra (36-core)

  • 200% higher cores: 36 vs 12
  • 167% higher Max memory: 512 GB vs 192 GB
  • 50% higher threads: 36 vs 24
  • 25% lower process: 3 nm vs 4 nm

General

General comparison: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X versus Apple M5 Ultra (36-core)
SpecAMD Ryzen 9 9900XApple M5 Ultra (36-core)
Announced20242026
SocketAM5—
Process4 nm3 nm+25%
Base TDP120 W—
Max turbo power162 W—
Unlocked multiplierYes—
Cooler includedNo—

Cores & Clocks

Cores & Clocks comparison: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X versus Apple M5 Ultra (36-core)
SpecAMD Ryzen 9 9900XApple M5 Ultra (36-core)
Cores1236+200%
Performance cores1212
Efficiency cores024
Threads2436+50%
Base clock4.4 GHz—
Boost clock5.6 GHz+22%4.6 GHz
L2 cache12 MB—
L3 cache64 MB—

Integrated GPU

Integrated GPU comparison: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X versus Apple M5 Ultra (36-core)
SpecAMD Ryzen 9 9900XApple M5 Ultra (36-core)
iGPUAMD Radeon Graphics (2 CU RDNA 2)Apple 80-core GPU
iGPU clock2,200 MHz—

Memory

Memory comparison: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X versus Apple M5 Ultra (36-core)
SpecAMD Ryzen 9 9900XApple M5 Ultra (36-core)
Memory supportDDR5-5600—
Max memory192 GB512 GB+167%
Memory channels2—

Platform

Platform comparison: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X versus Apple M5 Ultra (36-core)
SpecAMD Ryzen 9 9900XApple M5 Ultra (36-core)
PCIe version5—
CPU PCIe lanes28—

Benchmarks

Benchmarks comparison: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X versus Apple M5 Ultra (36-core)
SpecAMD Ryzen 9 9900XApple M5 Ultra (36-core)
Geekbench 6 (single)3,300Top 6%—
Geekbench 6 (multi)19,800Top 15%—
Cinebench R23 (single)2,230Top 11%—
Cinebench R23 (multi)32,000Top 14%—
PassMark55,500Top 13%—

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