Apple has recently rolled out its cutting-edge, proprietary M5 chip, now powering the latest iPad Pro and 14-inch MacBook Pro. Based on the freshest Geekbench benchmark results, the M5's single-core performance outstrips that of Qualcomm's X2 Elite Extreme and stands toe-to-toe with Intel's Core Ultra 9 285K, while trouncing AMD's Ryzen 9 9950X3D by a significant margin. In detail, the M5-equipped MacBook Pro scored 4263 in single-core tests and 17862 in multi-core assessments, marking a 14% uptick in single-core speed and a 21% leap in multi-core performance over its M4 predecessor. The 10-core GPU's capabilities have also been enhanced, boasting a 33% surge. Thanks to its thermal architecture, the M5 in the MacBook Pro can hit a peak clock speed of 4.61GHz, whereas the iPad Pro iteration reaches 4.43GHz.

When pitted against the PC ecosystem, the M5's single-core performance is near the pinnacle, trailing Intel's Core i9-14900KS by a mere 4.6% and falling just shy (less than 1%) of the Core Ultra 9 285K. Nonetheless, its multi-core performance still falls short of AMD and Intel's top-tier offerings, largely owing to a lower core count. However, this disparity is anticipated to diminish with the impending launch of 14-core and Pro/Max iterations.