Study and performances analysis of magnet design on rotor surface of permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) based on finite element method (FEM) is presented. Three-phase PMSM has been investigated and numerical simulation performed using FEM with the aid of ANSYS Maxwell 2018.1 software. This research presents the positional variation of permanent magnets and their effects on the performance of the three-phase PMSM. The FEM is used as a technique for simulation besides the possibility of dealing with nonlinear equations. The PMSM involves a complex electromagnetic reaction, the authors used the ANSYS program to analyze and represent the performance of the motor under variable conditions. The case studied in this proposal is for three phases 220V, 50Hz, 0.55kW PMSM. Five rotor topologies namely, (i) spoke/tangential, (ii) saturable bridge/ U-shape (iii) V-shape (iv) radial, and (v) segmented bridge permanent magnet (PM) rotor is considered in the study. The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of a variety of rotor designs with different positions of magnets on efficiency, phase current, air gap magnetic flux density, and torque of PMSM. The ANSYS software has been used to model and simulate all topologies considered. In addition to the overall efficiency at steady state, electromagnetic and mechanical parameters are evaluated for each topology and comparative results are reported. The developed 2-D model shows the magnetic field distribution and performance of operational parameters under transient and steady-state conditions. The rotor shape with the smallest magnet volume is highly affecting the torque, magnetic flux, efficiency, and torque ripple. Radial force distribution with demagnetization of PM is also studied and results are reported. The obtained results show that significant changes in motor performance because of variation of PM design.