AMD Ryzen 9 5900X vs Apple M1 Max
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
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The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X is a high-end 12-core, hyperthreaded (SMT) Vermeer series desktop processor that can process 24 threads simultaneously. Introduced on October 8, 2020, the Ryzen 9 5900X is the fastest 12-core processor and is specified at 105 watts TDP. The top model, the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, offers even more power and at the same time offers another 4 cores and 8 threads.
The Ryzen 9 5900X clocks with 3.7 GHz base clock and reaches up to 4.8 GHz on one core in turbo mode. However, when all 12 cores are loaded, up to 4.5 GHz is still possible.
The performance of the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X is consistently excellent in all applications and significantly better than the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X. AMD has been able to significantly improve its single thread performance in particular and even beats the Intel Core i9-10900K in this discipline. The multi-thread performance could also be improved. In an in-house duel, the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X can even take on an AMD Threadripper 2950X.
The internal structure of the processor has not changed fundamentally at first glance. The CCX structure has changed a bit compared to Zen2, because now a CCX consists of up to 8 CPU cores. So each individual core can access the complete L3 cache (32 MByte). Furthermore the CCX modules are connected to each other via the same I/O die, which we already know from Zen2. According to AMD, the Infinity-Fabric should now reach clock rates of up to 2 GHz, which in turn allows a RAM clock of 4.000 MHz without performance loss.
For the manufacturing processes, AMD also relies on TSCM for the Vermeer processors for the 7nm production of the CPU cores, although the I/O die is still supplied in 12nm by Globalfoundries.
In games, the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X is convincing thanks to the significantly improved IPC. With the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, streaming can be done simultaneously with gaming. But if you only want to play games, you are well advised to take a closer look at the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X or the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X.
Apple M1 Max
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The Apple M1 Max is a System on a Chip (SoC) from Apple that is found in the late 2021 MacBook Pro 14 and 16-inch models. It offers all 10 cores available in the chip divided in eight performance cores (P-cores with 600 - 3220 MHz) and two power-efficiency cores (E-cores with 600 - 2064 MHz). There is no Turbo Boost for single cores or short burst periods. The cores are similar to the cores in the Apple M1.
The big cores (codename Firestorm) offer 192 KB instruction cache, 128 KB data cache, and 24 MB shared L2 cache (up from 12 MB in the M1). The four efficiency cores (codename Icestorm) are a lot smaller and offer only 128 KB instruction cache, 64 KB data cache, and 4 MB shared cache. CPU and GPU can both use the 48 MB SLC (System Level Cache). The efficiency cores (E cluster) clock with 600 - 2064 MHz, the performance cores (P cluster) with 600 - 3228 MHz.
The unified memory (32 or 64 GB LPDDR5-6400) next to the chip is connected by a 512 bit memory controller (200 GB/s bandwidth) and can be used by the GPU and CPU. This is the main difference to the M1 Pro and the CPU performance is quite similar.
The biggest difference to the M1 Pro is the bigger integrated GPU with 24 or 32 cores (up from 16).
Furthermore, the SoC integrates a fast 16 core neural engine, a secure enclave (e.g., for encryption), a unified memory architecture, Thunderbolt 4 controller, an ISP, and media de- and encoders (including two ProRes engines).
The M1 Pro is manufactured in 5 nm at TSMC and integrates 57 billion transistors. The peak power consumption of the chip was advertised around 30W for CPU intensive tasks.
| Model | AMD Ryzen 9 5900X | Apple M1 Max | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Codename | Vermeer (Zen3) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Series | AMD Vermeer (Ryzen 5000) | Apple M1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Series: M1 |
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| Clock | 3700 - 4800 MHz | 2060 - 3220 MHz | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| L1 Cache | 768 KB | 2.9 MB | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| L2 Cache | 6 MB | 28 MB | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| L3 Cache | 64 MB | 48 MB | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cores / Threads | 12 / 24 | 10 / 10 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| TDP | 105 Watt | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Technology | 7 nm | 5 nm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Die Size | 2x 80.7 + 125 (I/O) mm2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Socket | AM4 (1331) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Features | MMX(+), SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, SSE4A, x86-64, AMD-V, AES, AVX, AVX2, FMA3, SHA, Precision Boost 2 | ARMv8 Instruction Set | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Architecture | x86 | ARM | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| $549 U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Announced | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Transistors | 57000 Million | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| iGPU | Apple M1 Max 32-Core GPU |
Benchmarks
Average Benchmarks AMD Ryzen 9 5900X → 100% n=14
Average Benchmarks Apple M1 Max → 92% n=14
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance
1 This benchmark is not used for the average calculation
