Which AMD GPU Is Equivalent To The Apple M5?

Apple products have never really been known for their gaming abilities, but its newer M5 chips are actually quite powerful. For instance, the 10-core M5 that’s built into the iPad Pro and MacBook Air can reach clock speeds of up to 4.6 GHz and deliver a steady 30 frames per second on relatively modern titles like “Baldur’s Gate 3,” though some games, such as “Assassin’s Creed Shadows,” require you to lower the graphics settings to achieve this.

That’s a solid result, but these devices are fairly expensive. Luckily, it’s possible to get similar performance using a significantly cheaper AMD GPU. This helps keep the price down and may make your investment last longer since you can upgrade the rest of your PC and won’t have to get rid of the whole device when it starts slowing down or stops receiving support. The M5 is an integrated graphics card, so discrete AMD graphics cards weren’t considered.

Additionally, while there are more powerful M5 variants, this comparison focuses on finding the closest equivalent to the 10-core version. The nearest option that can be readily slotted into a typical PC is the Radeon 780M, which comes integrated into the Ryzen 7 8700G CPU. This has fewer cores but an additional six threads, plus a slightly higher maximum clock speed (5.1 GHz). Obviously, it’s not a perfect match, but it’s the closest you’re going to get with an AMD iGPU.

Let’s begin with the basics: the 780M initially launched in 2023, so it’s a couple of years older than the M5. It has 12 graphics cores compared to the M5’s eight, though in single-core stress tests using Cinebench 2024, the M5 came out on top, with a median score of 200 versus AMD’s 109. As you might expect, the 780M fared better on multicore tests, though not by much, averaging 986 to Apple’s 972. Here’s how the two compared when playing games at medium settings:

• “Cyberpunk 2077”: 37 (M5) / 30 (780M)

• “Baldur’s Gate 3”: 53 (M5) / 28 (780M)

• “Assassin’s Creed Shadows”: 27 (M5) / 20 (780M)

• “Shadow of the Tomb Raider”: 63 (M5)/ 41 (780M)

These GPUs are more closely matched where gaming is concerned, at least on medium settings. However, the M5 consistently won out with newer titles or at higher graphics settings. Still, a Ryzen 8 8700G currently costs around $260, less than one-fifth the price of a MacBook Air, so some disparity is to be expected. If you’re primarily concerned with playing older games or don’t mind lowering your settings, the 780M would be a more economical alternative to Apple’s M5. However, if you need more power, consider an RX 7600M or 9060XT. You’re also not limited to just AMD cards: Plenty of popular graphics card brands exist, which all but guarantee there’s a GPU out there somewhere that meets your requirements and budget.