THE CRUNCH
Apple's M5 Ultra GPU has reportedly gained around 41 per cent in performance over the previous generation, according to leaked Geekbench 7 scores. The new chip scored 360,019 points, compared with 255,009 for the M3 Ultra, validating Apple's claims of significant GPU acceleration. The M5 Ultra-powered Mac Studio is already available for pre-order at $6,799.
The leaked benchmark also suggests the M5 Ultra GPU can trade blows with Nvidia's RTX 5080 in creative workflows and photo editing, sometimes beating the gaming GPU by 22 per cent. However, performance varies, with the Mac losing by as much as 100 per cent in other tests, highlighting the different strengths of integrated and discrete graphics architectures.
Pre-orders for the Mac Studio with the 36-core CPU and 80-core GPU are expected to ship on September 22, with the same starting price as the previous model.
A commenter on the report noted that the M5 Ultra's performance depends on the API used, with CUDA scores for the RTX 5080 often exceeding 400,000, while OpenCL and Vulkan scores for the Mac fall between 250,000 and 320,000.