Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) vs GeForce RTX 5090

[ VERDICT ] Winner: GeForce RTX 5090 (96/100)

GeForce RTX 5090 leads overall with a score of 96/100 compared to Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) (38/100), offering superior measured performance and technical specifications.

Benchmark Performance Comparison

Normalized Lab Scores
Benchmark measurements and scores across compared devices
Benchmark Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) GeForce RTX 5090
Efficiency 75.0 Good WINNER 48.0 Poor
Gaming 26.0 Poor 100.0 Excellent WINNER

Detailed Technical Specifications

3D Mark

3D Mark specifications comparison
Specification Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) GeForce RTX 5090
Solar Bay 30368 236689
Wild Life Extreme 24948 108751
Fire Strike 87569
Night Raid 206648
Port Royal 38202
Time Spy 46873

API

API specifications comparison
Specification Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) GeForce RTX 5090
DLSS No DLSS 4
Ray Tracing No Yes
CUDA 12.0
DirectX 12.2
DisplayPort 2.1b
OpenCL 3.0
OpenGL 4.6
Vulkan 1.4

GeekBench 6 ML

GeekBench 6 ML specifications comparison
Specification Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) GeForce RTX 5090
Backend GPU DirectML
Depth Estimation (Q) 31105 85572
Face Detection (HP) 27965 114685
Framework Core ML ONNX
Image Classification (SP) 6657 18948
Image Segmentation (HP) 13854 55109
Image Super Resolution (Q) 18642 58478
Machine Translation (HP) 2052 8184
Object Detection (SP) 6495 27802
Pose Estimation (Q) 83144 344729
Style Transfer (SP) 135686 687080
Text Classification (SP) 2377 4464

GeekBench 6 OpenCL

GeekBench 6 OpenCL specifications comparison
Specification Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) GeForce RTX 5090
API OpenCL OpenCL
Background Blur 149 img/sec 333 img/sec
Edge Detection 6.88 Gpixels/sec 33.7 Gpixels/sec
Face Detection 98.1 img/sec 298.5 img/sec
Feature Matching 0.73 Gpixels/sec 2.53 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian Blur 4.44 Gpixels/sec 34.5 Gpixels/sec
Horizon Detection 3.8 Gpixels/sec 21.7 Gpixels/sec
Particle Physics 11144.2 FPS 59146.9 FPS
Stereo Matching 264.9 Gpixels/sec 2850 Gpixels/sec

General

General specifications comparison
Specification Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) GeForce RTX 5090
Architecture Apple M GPU Blackwell 2.0
Build Integrated Discrete
Case Laptop Desktop
Nvidia Equivalent -GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop
Purpose Professional Gaming
Released January 17, 2023 January 7, 2025
Segment High-end High-end
Successor -Apple M5 Max GPU (40-core)
Used in CPUs -Apple M2 Max
Vendor Apple Nvidia
GPU Codename GB202-300
Launch price (MSRP) $1999
Recommended CPU -Intel Core Ultra 9 285Kor above

Graphics Processing Unit

Graphics Processing Unit specifications comparison
Specification Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) GeForce RTX 5090
Base Clock 450 MHz 2017 MHz
Boost Clock 1398 MHz 2407 MHz
Compute Units (Pipelines) 608 170
Instructions Per Cycle 2 IPC 2 IPC
Render Output Units (ROPs) 152 176
Shading Units 4864 21760
Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) 304 680
L1 Cache 128KB per cluster
L2 Cache 96MB shared
Ray-tracing Cores 170
Tensor Cores 680

Memory

Memory specifications comparison
Specification Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) GeForce RTX 5090
Bus 512-bit 512-bit
ECC No No
Effective Memory Speed 12800 Mbps 28000 Mbps
Memory Clock 6400 MHz 1750 MHz
Memory Type System Shared GDDR7
Memory Size 32 GB

Physical

Physical specifications comparison
Specification Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) GeForce RTX 5090
Fabrication Process 5 nm 4 nm
Interface Custom PCIe 5.0 x16
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Max. Temperature 94°C
TGP 70 W 575 W
Transistor Count 52 billion 92.2 billion
Die Size 750 mm²
Transistor Density 122.93 MTr/mm²

Raw Performance

Raw Performance specifications comparison
Specification Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) GeForce RTX 5090
Pixel Fill Rate 212 GPixel/s 424 GPixel/s
Texture Fill Rate 425 GTexel/s 1637 GTexel/s

Games

Games specifications comparison
Specification Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) GeForce RTX 5090
1080p High 299
1080p Ultra 254
1440p Ultra 207
4K Ultra 125
CoD: Modern Warfare III 334322260184
Counter-Strike 2 36326520299
Cyberpunk 2077 26123316077
Far Cry 6 237202190121
Forza Horizon 5 336247233187
Ghost of Tsushima 221185175113
Hogwarts Legacy 24919916697
Margin of Error Low
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 329302238128
The Witcher 3 364327237123

Passmark Graphics

Passmark Graphics specifications comparison
Specification Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) GeForce RTX 5090
DirectX 11 341 FPS
DirectX 12 179 FPS
G2D Mark 1410
GPU Compute 24360 Ops/s

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