Apple M5 vs. Intel Panther Lake vs. Snapdragon X2 — which chip wins?

We’ve now benchmarked every Apple M5 chip, and at the risk of spoiling the rest of this post, Apple’s latest generation processor is an absolute powerhouse. Not only do these chips offer professional-grade performance, but they also deliver exceptional efficiency, keeping you working virtually all day without needing to plug in. These chips are the real deal, but how does the competition stack up?

In this face-off, we're comparing the Apple M5 chips—namely the M5, M5 Pro, and M5 Max—to Intel's Panther Lake, AMD's Strix Halo, and even Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2. This involves running the chips through our slew of CPU, graphics, AI, and battery tests. I’m going to toss a bunch of numbers at you, but I promise to explain what they all mean along the way.

So, how do the Apple M5 chips stack up against the competition? Let's dive into the numbers.

Geekbench test results

Geekbench measures how well the processor handles everyday tasks by running a bunch of simulated workloads, from crunching numbers to processing images. It's a popular benchmark because it's straightforward and runs on pretty much any device, giving us apples-to-apples comparisons (pun intended).

We looked at two main parts: single-core and multi-core performance. Single-core is all about how fast the chip can handle one task at a time, like editing a photo. Multi-core kicks in when you're multitasking, like running multiple apps or rendering a video, by using all the chip's "cores" (think of them as mini-brains working together).

Here are the Geekbench 6 results:

The M5 chips dominate in single-core performance, averaging over 4,200 points, but Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme isn’t far behind with its 4,070 score, making it great for snappy, everyday tasks. The mid-tier 18-core and entry-level 12-core variants dip to around 3,800-3,846, putting them ahead of Intel and AMD's offerings in the 2,900-3,000 range but not quite matching Apple's speed.

For quick stuff like browsing or light editing, Apple's processors feel the most responsive, but Qualcomm's ARM-based design shows it's closing the gap fast, especially at the high end.

Multi-core is where the M5 series truly shines. The M5 Max hits nearly 30,000, blowing past everything, including the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme at 23,407 (though it does beat the base M5's 17,926). The X2's 18-core lands at 20,301, which is solid mid-pack performance, while the 12-core trails at 16,253, closer to Intel's top Panther Lake at 17,283 and AMD's Ryzen AI Max+ at 18,407.

If you're doing video encoding or running virtual machines, Apple's chips will barely break a sweat. Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 brings some serious multi-threaded muscle for an upcoming chip, especially the Extreme and 18-core models, hinting at great potential for the best Windows laptops that want to blend power with portability.

Graphics performance

Now, let's talk graphics performance. The GPU handles visuals, such as gaming and 3D modeling, and even accelerates AI effects in photo apps. 3DMark is a go-to benchmark for this since it throws intense graphical tests at the chip to see how it performs under pressure.

We focused on two tests: Solar Bay, which stresses ray tracing (fancy lighting and reflections that make games look realistic), and Wild Life Extreme, a more general graphics workout that simulates high-end mobile gaming scenarios. Scores are in frames per second (FPS). The higher the FPS, the smoother games will run.

Apple crushes it here, especially with the M5 Max pulling a whopping 268 fps in Solar Bay, which is way ahead of AMD's Strix Halo at 163 and Intel's best at 116. Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme holds its own against the base M5 at 88 fps, showing its Adreno GPU can handle modern graphics without guzzling power. Still, the lower-end X2 Elite model dips to 49.6 fps, more in line with entry-level Intel.

In Wild Life Extreme, the M5 Max's 231 fps delivers buttery-smooth graphics for demanding tasks, while competitors like Intel's Panther Lake top out at 77-99 fps and AMD's Max+ at 113 fps. Snapdragon's numbers suggest it's optimized for efficiency over raw power, making it a smart pick for thin-and-light laptops where battery life matters more than maxing out frame rates.

If you're a creator rendering 3D scenes or a gamer on the go, the M5 series delivers pro-level performance without needing a discrete graphics card. That said, Apple’s gaming offerings, especially on the AAA front, are relatively slim compared to Windows. Graphical muscle might not mean much to gamers if their favorite titles aren’t available on the best MacBooks.

Geekbench AI results

AI performance plays a major role in powering the best laptops, with features like smart photo editing, chatbots that run locally, or other on-device AI apps that run without cloud help.

Geekbench AI tests how well the chip's neural engine (a dedicated AI accelerator) handles these workloads, scoring it based on tasks such as image recognition and natural language processing. Here are the results.

Qualcomm steals the show here. The Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme blasts to 88,615, with the 18-core close behind at 87,814 and even the 12-core at 86,537, all outpacing Apple's M5 and M5 Pro (around 57,000) and Intel's Panther Lake chips (55,000-56,000). That's a huge win for on-device AI tasks thanks to Qualcomm's beefy NPU across the lineup.

AMD's Strix Halo tops out at 17,854 and bottoms at 5,171. That’s fine for basics, but not heavy lifting. We couldn't test the M5 Max, but given its setup, it'd likely slot in near the Pro. Mac users should enjoy strong AI performance, but Snapdragon X2's raw \horsepower could make Windows laptops the go-to for AI-heavy workflows once it launches.

Battery life

This is the big one for most folks, since you don’t want a laptop to run out of juice when you’re working on something important. Our battery life test involves continuous web-surfing over Wi-Fi with the display set to 150 nits of brightness. Here’s how long laptops with all the latest chips stack up against one another.

Apple sets the gold standard for laptop endurance, and the M5 series continues to uphold that legacy. The big winner here is the M5 Pro, which enabled the 16-inch MacBook Pro I reviewed to last for an astonishing 21 hours and 25 minutes! That’s well beyond a full workday unplugged.

The base M5 and Max are right there at 18 hours, outlasting most Intel Panther Lake options (14-15 hours for the high-end ones. However, the Dell XPS lasted for an excellent 20:41. Both of the AMD Ryzen AI-powered laptops we tested lasted just a bit over 11 hours, which is far behind all the other chips in this face-off.

Accounting for the fact that we’re dealing with different hardware configurations when discussing these battery life results, it’s still clear that Apple has a decisive edge over the competition. But as we’ve seen with the first Snapdragon X laptops, Qualcomm isn’t too far behind, and I expect we’ll see truly impressive results with Snapdragon X2.

Bottom line

Apple’s M5 chips help MacBooks deliver superior CPU and GPU performance, with epic battery life to boot. While its competitors are certainly catching up, there’s still a sizeable gap across some of the benchmarks we conducted. That said, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 seems to have the potential to shake things up, which is something I’m all for!

If you’re looking for a laptop that can handle everything from casual use to pro workflows with little compromise, you won’t go wrong with any of the M5 MacBooks. Until one of its competitors can offer comparable results, Apple’s silicon remains the king of the computing hill.

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