The WH-1000XM5 Headphones takes the performance lead with a 5% higher overall score, driven by its more shader cores, more of memory, and higher TFLOPS of compute power. In gaming benchmarks at 1440p, it delivers roughly 0% more frames per second across demanding titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and Alan Wake 2.

However, the WH-1000XM5 Headphones tells a compelling value story. At $300 versus the QC Ultra Earbuds 2 Earbuds's $300 price tag, it costs $0 less while delivering performance that's only 5% behind. Its of memory is still more than enough for 1440p and even 4K gaming in most titles.

Our recommendation: for the majority of gamers targeting 1440p or even 4K with upscaling enabled, the WH-1000XM5 Headphones is the smarter purchase. The QC Ultra Earbuds 2 Earbuds only makes sense if you need the absolute maximum performance for native 4K ray tracing, professional 3D rendering, or AI workloads where the extra VRAM and compute power provide a tangible advantage.