Amazing Apple M1X Geekbench multi-core result more likely produced by an AMD Ryzen 9 5950X rather than a rumored 20-core Cupertino beast

There is plenty of excitement about what Apple could produce with an M1X processor, or whatever the rumored 12-core (or even up to 20-core) successor to the Apple M1 will be called. Noted tipster @harukaze5719 shared a carefully cropped image from Geekbench that was sent to them with the claim that it was an Apple M1X at work as part of a “MacBook Pro18,1”-labeled system. Unsurprisingly, the leaker and followers cast doubt over the result, although it is interesting to see what people expect from the potential Apple M1X.

Of course, scouring through the Geekbench database does not reveal this particular listing in all of its glory, and you would expect a 12-core/20-core Apple M1X that can apparently outpace a regular M1 chip by over 140% in the multi-core benchmark to also show a significant gain in the single-core test, which it does not. In fact, the score of 1,602 points is lower than the minimum we have recorded with the Apple M1 in our own tests (1,727 points in a MacBook Air 2020). Secondly, Geekbench records, and especially small excerpts of Geekbench listings, aren’t the hardest things in the world to alter.

As pointed out by @Cat_Merc, it seems more than possible the alleged Apple M1X listing is actually a doctored record for the 16-core AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, which would certainly produce a huge multi-core result on Geekbench. So while this particular “leak” is most likely fake, it still points to high expectations for the M1X processor. The chip has been rumored to be coming with 8 performance cores and 4 energy-efficient cores and will purportedly be revealed in an upcoming MacBook Pro 16. However, it has even been reported that the direct successor to the M1 could come with “as many as 16 power cores and four efficiency cores”, which would certainly give AMD’s Ryzen 5000 chip a run for its money.

Buy the Apple MacBook Pro with M1 chip on Amazon