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Apple's M5 Max Chip Achieves a New Record in First Benchmark Result

The first Geekbench 6 result for a 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M5 Max chip surfaced today, and Apple has achieved record-breaking performance. In this unconfirmed result, the M5 Max with an 18-core CPU achieved a score of 29,233 for multi-core CPU performance, which tops the 27,726 score achieved b

TechnologyBy Lauren SchaferMarch 5, 20263 min read

Last updated: March 18, 2026, 6:28 AM

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Apple's M5 Max Chip Achieves a New Record in First Benchmark Result

The first Geekbench 6 result for a 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M5 Max chip surfaced today, and Apple has achieved record-breaking performance.

In this unconfirmed result, the M5 Max with an 18-core CPU achieved a score of 29,233 for multi-core CPU performance, which tops the 27,726 score achieved by the Mac Studio's M3 Ultra chip with a 32-core CPU. M5 Max is now the fastest Apple silicon chip ever, and it even topped every other consumer PC processor in the Geekbench database.

In terms of multi-core CPU performance, the M5 Max is up to 5% faster than the M3 Ultra, and up to 14% to 15% faster than the M4 Max chip with a 16-core CPU.

Here is a comparison of the multi-core CPU results:

  • 16-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Max (18-core CPU): 29,233 (one result)
  • Mac Studio with M3 Ultra (32-core CPU): 27,726 (average of all results)
  • Mac Studio with M4 Max (16-core CPU): 26,166 (average of all results)
  • 16-inch MacBook Pro with M4 Max (16-core CPU): 25,702 (average of all results)

As for single-core CPU performance, the M5 Max with an 18-core CPU achieved a score of 4,268 in this single Geekbench result, which is line with the regular M5 chip in the base model 14-inch MacBook Pro released back in October. This is the highest single-core score of any consumer PC processor ever, topping the AMD Ryzen 9 series.

As for graphics, the M5 Max with a 40-core GPU achieved impressive Metal scores of 218,772 in one result and 232,718 in another. These scores are anywhere from 5% to 10% lower than the highest-end M3 Ultra's average Metal score of 245,053, and a little more than 20% higher than the highest-end M4 Max's average Metal score of 191,600.

All in all, the M5 Max offers up to 15% faster CPU performance and up to 20% faster GPU performance compared to the M4 Max, in line with Apple's advertised figures.

MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max are available to pre-order now, and they will begin arriving to customers and launch in stores on March 11.

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Lauren Schafer

Technology Reporter

Lauren Schafer reports on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and the intersection of technology and society. With a background in software engineering, she brings technical expertise to her coverage of how emerging technologies are reshaping industries and daily life. Her AI reporting has been featured in industry publications.

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