Apple’s long-rumored M5 Pro- and M5 Max-powered MacBook Pros are finally official. The new laptops look visually the same, but pack updated internals that promise a massive leap in performance.
“MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max redefines what’s possible on a pro laptop, now up to 4x faster than the previous generation,” said John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, in a press release Tuesday.
New MacBook Pros are all about the M5 Pro and M5 Max
The new MacBook Pros are Apple’s first to feature its M5 Pro and M5 Max chips. Building on last year’s M5 chip, they bring a significant jump in performance. They use Apple’s new Fusion Architecture and feature a CPU with up to 18 cores. This includes six super cores, which the company says are the world’s fastest CPU cores, paired with 12 performance cores. Combined, this delivers a 30% speed boost, according to Apple.
Compared to the M4 Pro/Max, the M5 Pro/Max GPU delivers 50% faster GPU performance. AI performance gets an even bigger boost, with up to four times faster LLM prompt processing. The new Neural Engine is faster and more power-efficient, enabling it to run on-device AI tasks faster.
Apple claims major speed boosts, even over last year’s M4 Pro models:
- Up to 7.8x faster AI image generation performance when compared to MacBook Pro with M1 Pro, and up to 3.7x faster than MacBook Pro with M4 Pro.
- Up to 6.9x faster LLM prompt processing when compared to MacBook Pro with M1 Pro, and up to 3.9x faster than MacBook Pro with M4 Pro.
- Up to 5.2x faster 3D rendering in Maxon Redshift when compared to MacBook Pro with M1 Pro, and up to 1.4x faster than MacBook Pro with M4 Pro.
- Up to 1.6x faster gaming performance with ray tracing in games like Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition when compared to MacBook Pro with M4 Pro.
Memory bandwidth sees a notable jump as well — up to 307GB/s on the M5 Pro and 614GB/s on the M5 Max. This should significantly benefit demanding workloads like 3D rendering, large code compilation and AI model inference.
Storage and connectivity get a bump, too
Besides a faster chip, Apple uses faster NAND storage on its new MacBook Pros, with speeds reaching up to 14.5GB/s. More importantly, it bumped the base storage across the board. M5 Pro MacBook Pros now ship with 1TB storage as standard, while Max models will come with 2TB storage.
Apple’s N1 chip also makes it over to its Pro laptop, handling Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The new laptops support Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, the latest connectivity standards.
Despite the speed upgrades, battery life remains unchanged. The company says the new laptops still offer up to 24 hours of battery life.
Preorders for the M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro open this Wednesday. Retail availability will begin on Wednesday, March 11.
Unfortunately, the upgrades come with a higher price tag. The 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Pro starts at $2,199, while the 16-inch model starts at $2,699. Models equipped with the M5 Max are priced at $3,599 for the 14-inch version and $3,899 for the 16-inch. That’s a $200 price bump across the lineup.
Rajesh has been writing about consumer technology for over a decade, with a strong focus on iPhones, Macs and Apple’s ecosystem. He enjoys digging into Apple software updates, hardware changes, and discovering new Mac apps that make work faster and more enjoyable.
