The high-end M5 MacBook Pro chips are almost here: Here’s why the wait was worth it

When we reviewed the first Mac with an M5 processor, the 14-inch MacBook Pro, we were pleasantly surprised. While most laptops haven’t changed much (aside from a much faster SSD), the jump from the M4 to the M5 has seen a pretty significant increase in performance.

Although it still uses a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU as in the previous M4, the M5 version of the MacBook Pro saw single-core CPU gains of around 13%, an even larger multi-core increase of around 22%, and an extremely impressive graphics performance increase of 35-50%.

This year, perhaps in just a few weeks, we’ll meet the rest of the family, starting with the M5 Pro and M5 Max in the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro, likely followed by the spring launches of the M5 Pro Mac mini and M5 Max and M5 Ultra in Mac Studio. Here’s what we expect from these new chips.

Same number of cores, but big improvements

We don’t think Apple will increase the maximum number of CPU or GPU cores. Rather, we expect the M5 Pro to still have a maximum of 14 CPU cores, and the M5 Max a maximum of 16 cores. Some product configurations may have fewer, as Apple has always done.

Likewise, the GPU will likely have a maximum configuration of 20 cores for the M5 Pro and 40 cores for the M5 Max. We expect other details, such as memory bandwidth, video encoders, etc., to follow a similar pattern to what we saw with the base M5.

In other words, by looking at the performance increase between the standard M4 and the M4 Pro/Max, and then applying it to the base M5, we can come up with a pretty good estimate of what the M5 Pro/Max’s performance will be.

These are pretty stellar estimated scores for the top-of-the-line M5 Max. Around 4,500 for single-core CPU performance is a lot, but over 31,000 for the multi-core score is staggering. It’s in the same league as the chart-topping 64-core AMD Threadripper processors.

The M5 Max could be the first Apple GPU to surpass 250,000 points on the Geekbench 6 GPU compute test. Even the M3 Ultra, with its 80 GPU cores, only landed a hair below. If Apple can achieve this with half as many GPU cores in just two generations of processors, that represents an impressive rate of improvement.

The most impressive gains on the base M5 were in graphics performance, and if that holds true for the M5 Pro and Max, we’re in for a treat. A score above 2,300 on Steel Nomad is a bit better than the portable version of the GeForce RTX 4050. The larger M5 Max, with a score above 4,600, would be comparable to a GeForce RTX 4070. Apple is still far from matching the performance of the best modern desktop GPUs (like the GeForce RTX 5080 with a score above 10,000), but it would be a big step forward.

Flexible configurations?

The M5 Pro and M5 Max may have one more chip up their sleeve: more flexible configurations. A recent rumor suggested that the M5 Pro and Max would be made with separate CPU and GPU areas, linked together on the same silicon substrate. In other words, separate pieces of silicon form a single chip. This would allow Apple to freely mix and match the number of CPU and GPU cores.

It’s unlikely Apple will allow any configuration you can think of, but it may be possible to buy an M5 Pro or M5 Max chip with more GPUs and fewer CPUs, if that’s a better balance for the workloads you’re running.

This is all thanks to chips made using a new TSMC packaging technology called SoIC-mH (System-on-Integrated-Chip, Molding Horizontal). It could also allow Apple to integrate RAM more tightly into the packaging, to improve memory bandwidth.

Flexible configurations like this would be new to Macs since the end of the Intel era, and there’s no guarantee that this will happen. Apple could use this new technology simply to have separate silicon for the CPU and GPU to improve efficiencies and heat dissipation, both of which should be improved compared to a single monolithic chip.

We shouldn’t have to wait long to find out what Apple is up to. The M5 Pro and Max chips are expected to debut soon, perhaps later this month, when Apple Creator Studio arrives on Wednesday, January 28.