Apple unveils new MacBook Pro with faster M5 chips

Apple announced the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips for its new MacBook Pro, using an Apple-designed fusion architecture that combines two dies into one SoC.

Apple said both chips have an 18-core CPU with six performance cores and 12 efficiency cores, and it called the super core “the world’s fastest CPU core.”

The M5 Max GPU scales up to 40 cores, while M5 Pro has up to 20 cores; each GPU core includes a Neural Accelerator for AI tasks.

Apple said M5 Pro supports up to 64GB of unified memory at 307GB/s, and M5 Max supports up to 128GB at 614GB/s.

Apple claimed up to 35% higher ray tracing performance for M5 Pro versus M4 Pro, and up to 30% for M5 Max versus M4 Max.

The chips include a faster 16-core Neural Engine, a new Media Engine with AV1 decode and ProRes hardware support, and built-in Thunderbolt 5 controllers.

The new MacBook Pro is available for pre-order starting March 5, with availability from March 11.

🔗 Source: Apple

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Apple’s ‘fastest core’ claim is tied to a new chip design

Apple introduced a new “Fusion Architecture” that joins two dies into one system on a chip (SoC) 1.
That setup supports an 18-core CPU layout on both the M5 Pro and M5 Max 2.
Apple calls its top-performing CPU core the “super core,” and it says the chip uses six performance cores plus 12 efficiency cores 2.
A Windows 11 virtualization test reported an M5 single-thread CPU-Z score about 68% higher than an Intel Core i9-14900KS, based on one enthusiast result and limited to that benchmark 3.

The new chips may reshape upgrade decisions and the competitive landscape

The M5 Pro and M5 Max share the same 18-core CPU design, so the higher-priced M5 Max mainly suits buyers who want more GPU cores or a higher unified memory ceiling 2.
That overlap could steer many professional users toward the M5 Pro and make the purchase choice simpler.
Tom’s Guide lab tests put Intel Panther Lake chips close to Apple’s M5 in multi-core Geekbench 6, plus higher results in 3DMark Steel Nomad and Solar Bay integrated graphics 4.
In those tests, an M5 MacBook Pro ran about three hours longer than the Panther Lake Windows laptops, though Tom’s Guide said the match-up was not “apples-to-apples” 4.