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Apple M5 Ultra (36-core)
Apple's M5 Ultra fuses two M5 Max chips via UltraFusion into a 36-core CPU (12 super cores, 24 performance cores) and up to an 80-core GPU, which Apple calls its most powerful chip yet. Exclusive to the Mac Studio, it supports up to 512GB of unified memory at 1.2TB/s bandwidth, with Apple claiming up to 1.3x the multithreaded CPU performance of the M3 Ultra.
Pros
- 36-core CPU (12 super cores plus 24 performance cores) built by fusing two M5 Max chips with UltraFusion
- Supports up to 512GB of unified memory at 1.2TB/s of bandwidth, enough to keep very large AI models entirely in local memory
- Up to an 80-core GPU with a Neural Accelerator in every core, which Apple says gives up to 4.5x the AI compute of the M3 Ultra
- In review testing, its bursty single- and multi-core CPU benchmark scores beat a 64-core AMD Threadripper and a 56-core Intel Xeon workstation chip despite having far fewer cores
- The Ultra-configured Mac Studio's two front ports are full Thunderbolt 5 (up to 120Gb/s) instead of the M5 Max model's slower USB-C front ports; both share four Thunderbolt 5 ports on the rear
Cons
- Only available in the Mac Studio: the tested 36-core/80-core GPU unit with 256GB of memory and 4TB of storage costs $12,299, while Apple's cheapest M5 Ultra (30-core CPU/64-core GPU) starts at $5,499
- In sustained multi-threaded CPU rendering tests it trailed a 64-core AMD Threadripper and a 56-core Intel Xeon workstation chip despite the price
- The 512GB memory configuration does not ship until late October 2026, about a month after the chip's September 22 launch
- Apple has not officially disclosed the chip's clock speeds or cache sizes
Awaiting benchmarks
No Inno Score yet: single-core and multi-core still need a published benchmark result. The sub-scores below come from the spec sheet.
Full specifications
Everything we track for the Apple M5 Ultra (36-core)
General
- Announced
- 2026
- Process
- 3 nm
Cores & Clocks
- Cores
- 36
- Performance cores
- 12
- Efficiency cores
- 24
- Threads
- 36
- Boost clock
- 4.6 GHz
Integrated GPU
- iGPU
- Apple 80-core GPU
Memory
- Max memory
- 512 GB
Quick answers
Is the Apple M5 Ultra (36-core) good in 2026?
We haven't scored the Apple M5 Ultra (36-core) yet: there are no published single-core and multi-core benchmark results for it in our database, and we don't score chips on their spec sheet alone. Apple's M5 Ultra fuses two M5 Max chips via UltraFusion into a 36-core CPU (12 super cores, 24 performance cores) and up to an 80-core GPU, which Apple calls its most powerful chip yet. Exclusive to the Mac Studio, it supports up to 512GB of unified memory at 1.2TB/s bandwidth, with Apple claiming up to 1.3x the multithreaded CPU performance of the M3 Ultra.
What are the key specs of the Apple M5 Ultra (36-core)?
Cores: 36 · Threads: 36 · Boost clock: 4.6 GHz
What are the closest alternatives to the Apple M5 Ultra (36-core)?
Its closest rivals on InnoReviews are Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, Intel Core i9-14900KS, Intel Core i9-14900K — open the comparison pages for a spec-by-spec breakdown.
