M5 Pro and M5 Max are surprisingly big departures from older Apple Silicon
The second die is where the two chips differ; The M5 Pro features up to 20 GPU cores, a unique media encode/decode engine, and a memory controller with up to 307 GB/s bandwidth. The M5 Max includes up to 40 GPU cores, a pair of media encode/decode engines, and a memory controller that provides up to 614 GB/s of memory bandwidth (note that All in the GPU appears to be doubled, implying that Apple is actually sticking two M5 Pro GPUs together to create an M5 Max GPU).
Apple’s datasheets now list three distinct types of processor cores: “super” cores, performance cores, and efficiency cores.
Credit: Apple
Apple’s datasheets now list three distinct types of processor cores: “super” cores, performance cores, and efficiency cores.
Credit: Apple
Apple is also introducing a third, distinct type of processor core beyond the typical “performance cores” and “efficiency cores” that were included in older M-series processors.
At the top, you have the “super cores,” which are Apple’s new M5-era branding for what it used to call “performance cores.” This change is retroactive and also applies to the regular M5; Apple’s spec sheet for the MacBook Pro M5 once referred to the big cores as “performance cores” but now calls them “super cores.”
At the bottom of the hierarchy, you always have “efficiency cores” optimized for low power consumption. The M5 still uses six efficient cores, and unlike the super cores, they haven’t been renamed since yesterday. These cores improve multi-core performance, but they first prioritize lower power consumption and lower temperatures because they need to accommodate fanless devices like the iPad Pro and MacBook Air.
And now, in the middle, we have a new type of “performance core” used exclusively in the M5 Pro and M5 Max.
This is actually a new third type of CPU core design, distinct from both the super cores and the efficiency cores of the M5. They apparently use similar designs to super cores, but prioritize multi-threaded performance over fast single-core performance. Apple’s approach with the new performance cores resembles what AMD uses in its laptop silicon: It has larger Zen 4 and Zen 5 CPU cores, optimized for maximum clock speeds and higher power consumption, and smaller Zen 4c and Zen 5c cores that support the same capabilities but run slower and are optimized to use less space on the chip.
