- Apple’s M5 appeared in leaked benchmark with Geekbench
- It showed an impressive result in terms of processor performance, beating Qualcomm’s powerful Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme SoC.
- The M5 also seems to be taking over some powerful desktop processors, but we need to be careful here.
If you’re wondering how fast Apple’s new M5 chip could be, the answer is indeed quite spicy, if the grapevine is anything to go by.
As Tom’s Hardware reports, the M5, which powers the new 14-inch MacBook Pro (and the refreshed iPad Pro as well as the Vision Pro), is actually faster. than Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme for single-core performance, based on a leaked Geekbench result that Tech Info highlighted on X.
iPad Pro M5 (version 10c) vs Macbook Pro M5The iPad Pro M5 is clocked at 4.43 GHzThe MacBook Pro M5 is clocked at 4.61 GHz P Core Clock speedsiPad Pro: 4.1K ST and 16.3K MTMacBook Pro: 4.2K ST and 17.8K MTWaiting to take a look at the power consumption graph….. pic.twitter.com/UQT2HpPhmuOctober 17, 2025
Sprinkle with seasoning, but as you can see from the article above, the comparison on The M5 in the MacBook Pro runs at 4.61 GHz compared to 4.43 GHz in the iPad Pro.
However, what’s more interesting is taking the results of the M5 14-inch MacBook Pro – 4,263 points in the single-core CPU test and 17,862 in multi-core – and comparing them to other chips.
Tom’s Hardware did just that, noting that the Snapdragon
Tom’s Hardware also compared the M5’s scores to some powerful desktop PC processors, based on those chips’ averages from the Geekbench database (calculated by our sister site), with the following results.
|
Processor |
Single-core result |
Multi-core result |
|
Apple M5 |
4,263 |
17,862 |
|
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D |
3,399 |
22,093 |
|
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X |
3,385 |
21,431 |
|
Intel Core i9-14900KS |
3,239 |
23,187 |
|
Intel Core Ultra 9 285K |
3,217 |
22,739 |
As you can see, the single-core scores are revealing to say the least, with the Apple M5 leaves these desktop monsters in the dust.
Multi-core performance is very different though, and before we get too carried away, let’s dig a little deeper with these comparisons.
Analysis: Getting the better of the Elite Extreme – sort of
First of all, we need to be careful about any benchmark leaks, and further remember that it is just a benchmark, and at that, just a benchmark. Single result for the M5 – so not a representative average like the desktop processor scores that Tom’s compares to Apple’s new SoC.
For example, if we look at the fastest single-core Geekbench test score for Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285K (unlike average) is 4,306 – so just a bit faster than the M5. Still, it’s extremely impressive that the M5 nearly matches this flagship Intel processor; there is no doubt about it.
When it comes to multi-core, the M5 lags behind the big desktop players by 20-30%, but those CPUs of course have much higher core counts than 10 cores. The Snapdragon
Still, overall, there’s no denying that, based on this glimpse of the M5’s performance – and it’s only a fleeting glimpse, and only a leak – Apple appears to have once again struck a winner with its own SoCs.
And of course, beefier models of the M5 are still coming with more cores and better multi-core performance – there’s going to be some excitement around the reveal of the M5 Pro and Max.
