The first benchmark result for Apple's new M5 Ultra chip has appeared in the Geekbench 7 database, offering an early glimpse at what will become Apple's most powerful processor. The chip is set to debut in the new Mac Studio, the first device Apple is shipping with the M5 Ultra.

What the benchmark shows

According to the listing, the top-end M5 Ultra with a 36-core CPU posted a single-core score of 3,774 and a multi-core score of 52,516. The result remains unverified, and scores typically vary as more entries surface, so it should be treated with some caution.

Because Apple never released an M4 Ultra, the natural comparison point is the highest-end M3 Ultra with a 32-core CPU, which averages 2,920 in single-core and 39,059 in multi-core on Geekbench 7. If the new figures hold up, the M5 Ultra delivers roughly 30% faster single-core performance and around 35% faster multi-core performance than its predecessor.

How it stacks up against Apple's claims

Apple has said the M5 Ultra offers up to 1.25× faster single-threaded CPU performance and up to 1.3× faster multi-threaded performance compared with the M3 Ultra. The leaked benchmark roughly matches those claims, and in the multi-core measure it slightly exceeds them.

Placed against Apple's wider lineup, the M5 Ultra's multi-core result of 52,516 sits comfortably at the top. It lands well ahead of the M3 Ultra (39,059), the M5 Max (35,119) and the M5 Pro (33,593). Compared with earlier flagship silicon, the M5 Ultra is up to about 2.25× faster than the original M1 Ultra and up to roughly 6× faster than the standard M1 chip.

What it costs and when you can buy it

That performance carries a steep price. In the United States, the Mac Studio with a 36-core M5 Ultra starts at $6,799, positioning it firmly as a machine for professionals with demanding workloads.

Apple's refreshed Mac Studio, offered with M5 Max and M5 Ultra chips, launches on Tuesday, September 22, alongside a new Mac mini featuring M6 and M5 Pro chips. GPU benchmark results for the M5 Ultra have not yet appeared, leaving graphics performance still to be measured.

Why it matters

The Ultra tier represents the ceiling of Apple's desktop silicon, aimed at video editors, developers, 3D artists and researchers who rely on heavy multi-threaded workloads. A generational jump of this size, if confirmed in real-world testing, would give creative and technical professionals a meaningful reason to upgrade. As always, synthetic benchmarks provide only a partial picture, and actual performance depends on the specific applications and tasks in use.