Apple’s new M5 chip series has started rolling out, beginning with the M5 MacBook Pro, a small update to the 14” M4 MacBook Pro. Let’s go over all of the differences, as well as the biggest disappointment.
Similarities
Firstly, the price is still the same, starting at $1599.
On the outside, everything is basically the same as the M4 MacBook Pro. Same 2 color choices of Space Black and Silver, same Liquid Retina XDR display with the option for nano-coating for $150 extra, and so forth.
So all the differences are on the inside, and.. there’s not much.
Storage Configuration
Memory and Storage still start at 16 and 512 gigs, respectively, but one difference is the M5 MacBook Pro can be configured all the way to 4 TB for an extra $600 over 2 TB, which was the previously maximum for the M4 MacBook Pro.
M5 Chip: CPU and GPU
Other than that, the big difference is, of course, the new M5 chip. Compared to the M4, it’s got the same number of 10 CPU and 10 GPU cores, but the M5 GPU now has a neural accelerator in each core, which promises to deliver up to 3.5x the AI performance and 1.6x the graphics performance compared to M4, or 6x faster AI and 6.8x faster graphics compared to M1.
Initial Geekbench numbers seem to put the GPU about 30% faster than M4, and within the M3 Pro performance range, while M4 Pro’s 16-core GPU is another 30% faster than M5.
The CPU, to no surprise, is also faster, with initial benchmarks putting it at 10% faster than M4 in single-core, and 15% faster in multi-core. Compared to the M1, it’s almost twice as fast.
So in terms of performance, the biggest gains seem to be on the graphics and AI side this generation.
M5 Chip: Memory and Neural Engine
In addition, the M5 chip delivers 153 GB/s of memory bandwidth, 28% faster than the M4’s 120 GB/s. It also has a faster and more efficient neural engine that works in conjunction with the GPU Neural Accelerators for AI workloads.
I couldn’t find an exact TOPS number to compare with the M4’s 38 TOPs, but the battery life for video doesn’t seem to have changed at all from M4, still being touted as 24 hours.
The Disappointment
The biggest disappointment about the M5 MacBook Pro is that it still has Wi-Fi 6E like the M4 model, and not Wi-Fi 7. Not sure if that’s an indication that even M5 Pro and Max models will also offer only Wi-Fi 6E.
Summary
To summarize, the M5 MacBook Pro offers the following over the M4:
- M5 chip with 10-15% faster CPU, 30% faster GPU, and up to 3.5x faster AI performance
- 28% faster memory bandwidth
- Potentially longer battery life for AI tasks
- And the option to configure with 4TB of storage instead of maxing out at 2TB
An incremental update for sure, and not worth the upgrade if you already have anything past an M1 chip machine, unless you have very specific AI workloads that benefit.
But even if you have an 8GB M1 MacBook Air that is feeling outdated, consider waiting for the M5 MacBook Air instead.
