The M1 Ultra does not outperform Nvidia’s RTX 3090 GPU, despite Apple’s charts

According to benchmark tests conducted by The Verge, the new M1 Ultra processor cannot match Nvidia’s RTX 3090 in terms of raw GPU performance, despite Apple’s promises and charts.

M1 Ultra Fails to Outperform Nvidia’s RTX 3090 GPU

When the M1 Ultra was first announced, Apple released a graphic showing the new processor outperforming the “highest-end discrete GPU” in “relative performance,” but without specifying what tests were used to arrive at those conclusions. Apple showed the M1 Ultra surpassing the RTX 3090 at a specific power level, but with its restricted graphics, Apple isn’t showing the complete story.

The Verge chose to put the M1 Ultra up against the Nvidia RTX 3090 in Geekbench 5 graphics tests, and it’s no surprise that it can’t match Nvidia’s processor at full power. The Mac Studio outperformed the 16-core Mac Pro, but only by roughly half as much as the RTX 3090. Nevertheless, the M1 Ultra is otherwise fantastic, and can swiftly carry out data sharing. It’s puzzling why Apple chose this test since it’s deceptive to users because it doesn’t account for the entire spectrum of Nvidia’s processor.

Apple’s M1 Ultra is effectively two M1 Max processors joined together, and as The Verge pointed out in its complete Mac Studio review, Apple has managed to pull double the performance of the M1 Max out of the M1 Ultra, which is a significant achievement that no other chip maker can equal.