- Apple’s M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBooks are imminent, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman
- Gurman claims that both MacBooks could arrive “as early as the week of March 2”
- Both are rumored to use the same chip.
Apple’s M5 lineup isn’t complete yet, as fans await the launches of the M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook chips, and fortunately, it looks like silicon may be closer than ever.
The MacBook M5 Pro and M5 Max will launch “as early as the week of March 2,” according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. This comes after a notable delay in the shipment of MacBook M4 Max orders, indicating a supply shortage, and Gurman believes it is “a telltale sign that new models are arriving.”
It’s also worth noting that a recent leak reported by 9to5Mac suggests that both the M5 Pro and M5 Max models may, in fact, be powered by the same chip. This claim comes directly from tech enthusiast Yadim Yuryev, who stated that there is no sign that a different M5 Pro chip has been found in a beta code leak.
We have seen a similar case with Nvidia, which has used the same die in the RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5080 GPUs, with the former offering performance quite close to its predecessor.
Apple’s choice to use the same base chip (if the rumors are legitimate) points to a possible case of ‘chip binning’ for manufacturing, which is a process in which semiconductors are examined and sorted immediately after initial production, with partially defective (but still functional) chips used for lower-end or less powerful products, in this case, the M5 Pro.
To throw away or not to throw away
To be clear, there’s no immediate need to panic about unreliable MacBooks; Binning is a common industry practice, ensuring chip manufacturing remains resource- and cost-efficient, although it effectively means that M5 Pro buyers may end up purchasing lower-quality chips that didn’t make the cut for the M5 Max devices.
But that shouldn’t deter consumers from the upcoming M5 Pro Macs. Apple MacBooks typically ship in excellent condition with a high degree of quality control, and the chip-bundling process reduces waste, increases product availability, and improves affordability for the consumer.
Gurman’s claims of a March 2 release date tell us that it shouldn’t be long until the M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook models are reviewed and analyzed, and it will be interesting to see the potential differences, especially with how high the M5 Pro’s performance ceiling is expected to be.
Both the M3, M4 Pro and Max chips use different base silicon dies, so we could be in for a significant change for the high-end MacBooks in the M5 line.
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