Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) vs Intel Core Ultra 5 125U

[ VERDICT ] Winner: Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) (97/100)

Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) leads overall with a score of 97/100 compared to Intel Core Ultra 5 125U (48/100), offering superior measured performance and technical specifications.

Why choose Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU):
  • + Higher Efficiency score (93 vs 68)
  • + Higher Performance score (100 vs 60)
[ WINNER ]
Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU)
Apple

Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU)

97/100
View Full Specs →
Intel Core Ultra 5 125U
Intel

Intel Core Ultra 5 125U

48/100
View Full Specs →

Benchmark Performance Comparison

Normalized Lab Scores
Benchmark measurements and scores across compared devices
Benchmark Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core Ultra 5 125U
Efficiency 93.0 Excellent WINNER 68.0 Average
Performance 100.0 Excellent WINNER 60.0 Average

Detailed Technical Specifications

CPU

CPU specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core Ultra 5 125U
Base Frequency (E) 4.38 GHz 0.8 GHz
Base Frequency (P) 4.61 GHz 1.3 GHz
E-Cores 12 10
E-Threads 12 10
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 112K (per core)
Multiplier 46x 13x
P-Cores 6 2
P-Threads 6 4
Total Cores 18 12
Total Threads 18 14
Unlocked Multiplier No No
Bus Frequency — 100 MHz
L2 Cache — 2MB (per core)
L3 Cache — 12MB (shared)
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) — 3.6 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) — 4.3 GHz

GeekBench v6

GeekBench v6 specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core Ultra 5 125U
Background blur 99.8 images/sec 40.3 images/sec
Clang compilation 264.8 Klines/sec 65.6 Klines/sec
File compression 2730 MB/sec 958.1 MB/sec
HTML 5 Browser 769.2 pages/sec 223.8 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 762.6 Mpixels/sec 243.9 Mpixels/sec
Photo processing 260.4 images/sec 93.4 images/sec
Ray tracing 48.4 Mpixels/sec 13.8 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 438.2 pages/sec 213.2 pages/sec

General

General specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core Ultra 5 125U
Codename Apple M5 Meteor Lake
Instruction Set ARMv9 x86-64
Integrated GPU Apple M5 Max GPU (32-core) Arc Graphics (4-Cores)
Released March 3, 2026 December 14, 2023
Type Laptop Laptop
Vendor Apple Intel
AMD Equivalent — -AMD Ryzen 5 8540U
Model number — 125U
Successor — -Intel Core Ultra 5 225U

Memory Support

Memory Support specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core Ultra 5 125U
ECC Support No No
Max. Memory Bandwidth 460.8 GB/s 89.6 GB/s
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 96 GB
Memory Channels 24 2
Memory Types - LPDDR5X-9600 - LPDDR5-7467- LPDDR5x-7467- DDR5-5600

Package

Package specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core Ultra 5 125U
Fabrication Process 3 nm 7 nm
Peak Temperature 100°C 110°C
Socket Apple M-Socket FCBGA-2049
TDP (PL1) 64 W 12 W
Transistors 28 billions —
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) — 57 W

PassMark

PassMark specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core Ultra 5 125U
Data compression 689.6 MBytes/sec 188.5 MBytes/sec
Data encryption 40.8 GBytes/sec 11.7 GBytes/sec
Extended instructions 33.4B Matrices/sec 10.7B Matrices/sec
Find prime numbers 553M Primes/sec 64M Primes/sec
Floating point math 186.1 GOps/sec 40.2 GOps/sec
Integer math 132.6 GOps/sec 55.8 GOps/sec
Physics 6847 Frames/sec 1063 Frames/sec
Random string sorting 84.9M Strings/sec 20.8M Strings/sec

Performance Per Watt

Performance Per Watt specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core Ultra 5 125U
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 32.3 PPW 41.1 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 454.2 PPW 761.3 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 897.9 PPW 1396.5 PPW
Blender / Watt — 9.14 PPW

iGPU

iGPU specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core Ultra 5 125U
Execution Units 512 64
GPU Boost Clock 1620 MHz 1850 MHz
Integrated Graphics Apple M5 Max GPU (32-core) Arc Graphics (4-Cores)
ROPs 128 16
Shading Units 4096 512
TMUs 256 32
GPU Base Clock — 300 MHz
TGP — 14 W

Misc

Misc specifications comparison
Specification Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) Intel Core Ultra 5 125U
Official Site — Intel Core Ultra 5 125U official page
PCI Express Lanes — 20
PCI Express Version — 4.0
Technologies — - Compute: ABM, ADX, AI Boost NPU 3, BMI1, BMI2, CLMUL, DLBoost 3.0, F16C, SHA, VNNI- Performance: EIST, TBT 2.0, TSX- Virtualization: VT-d, VT-x- Security: RDRAND, TXT, XD bit, vPro

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