- Apple has announced the new MacBook Pro M5 Pro and M5 Pro Max
- Both laptops are available in 14-inch and 16-inch versions.
- Price starts at $2,199 / AU$3,499
Apple has announced new MacBook Pro laptops with M5 Pro and M5 Pro Max chips, to replace last year’s M4 Pro and M4 Pro Max versions.
The new high-end MacBooks are available in 14- and 16-inch versions and, as rumors predicted, the big change is those new next-generation chips. The new MacBook Pro models look identical to their M4 predecessors, but they also get a wireless networking upgrade with Wi-Fi 8 and Bluetooth 6, thanks to Apple’s N1 chip.
Apple says you can expect four times faster AI performance compared to the previous-generation MacBook Pro and eight times faster AI power compared to the M1 chip. The price of the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Pro starts at $2,199 / AU$3,499, while you’ll be able to buy the 14-inch with M5 Pro Max from $3,599 / AU$5,799. That’s $200 / AU$200 on the M4 Pro and a $100 / AU$700 increase compared to the M4 Max.
Meanwhile, the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Pro starts at $2,699 / AU$4,299, while the M5 Pro Max version starts at $3,899 / AU$6,299. Pre-orders will open from tomorrow, March 4, with availability from March 11.
Improved performance
Apple highlighted the new AI capabilities of the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, saying they are “designed from the ground up for AI” and provide “tremendous performance improvements” compared to the previous generation.
In terms of large language model (LLM) message processing, the M5 Pro and M5 Max offer four times the performance compared to the base M5 chip and up to eight times faster imaging compared to the M1 Pro and M1 Max. There is also a faster neural engine and improved memory bandwidth, both of which can benefit AI projects.
As for non-AI CPU performance, Apple says the chips offer up to 30% better performance compared to the M4 Pro. And when it comes to graphics, Apple states that the M5 Pro and M5 Max result in a 50% increase in graphics performance compared to the M4 Pro and M4 Max. In gaming, you can expect 1.6x faster output in Cyberpunk 2077 compared to the M4 Pro, Apple says.
This is partly due to a higher number of cores in the new chips. The M5 Pro has up to 18-core CPU and 20-core GPU compared to the M4 Pro with up to 14-core CPU. The M5 Pro also features neural accelerators (which the M4 Pro lacks) and 307GB/s of memory bandwidth versus the M4 Pro’s 273GB/s.
Meanwhile, the M5 Max also has an 18-core CPU and complements it with a 40-core GPU. This is a dual-core CPU upgrade on the M4 Max. The M5 Max’s memory bandwidth has also increased from 546 GB/s to 614 GB/s.
Finally, Apple has renamed the performance cores in its chips to “supercores.” It describes them as “the highest-performance core design with the world’s fastest single-threaded performance, driven in part by increased front-end bandwidth, a new cache hierarchy, and improved branch prediction.”
Faster SSDs, at a cost
While the CPU and GPU bring notable improvements, other areas also benefit from the new releases. Battery life, which Apple Silicon has long excelled at, has been tweaked, for example. The 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Max lasts up to 20 hours compared to 18 hours for the M4 Max model, while the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Max will last 22 hours compared to 21 hours for last year’s model. The battery life of the M5 Pro remains unchanged compared to the M4 Pro.
Apple’s already fast storage has also been improved, with double the read/write speeds on the new MacBook Pros compared to last year’s offerings.
Base storage capacities have been increased. The MacBook Pro with M5 Pro chip now starts with 1TB of storage (up from 512GB), while the M5 Max edition has 2TB as standard (again, double the previous 1TB).
And in a time of major memory shortages around the world, it’s encouraging to see more generous RAM configurations with the latest MacBook Pros. While the initial quantities remain the same, Apple’s M5 Pro laptops can now be equipped with a maximum of 64GB of memory, up from 48GB. The M5 Max models remain unchanged from the M4 Max.
Still, Apple fans have not completely escaped the effects of the RAM crisis, as Apple has increased prices for the MacBook Pro range. The 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Pro starts at $2,199/AU$3,499, an increase of $200/AU$200 over the $1,999/AU$3,299 M4 Pro model, while the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Pro costs $2,699 / AU$4,299. That’s an increase of $200 / AU$300.
As for the M5 Max, you’ll pay $3,599 / AU$5,799 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro and $3,899 / AU$6,299 for the 16-inch version. Both are $100 increases over last year’s 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M4 Pro and M4 Max, but in Australia, it’s a much larger AU$700 difference.
The entry-level M5 MacBook Pro saw a price increase of $100 / AU$200 and now starts at $1,699 / AU$2,699. In exchange, its default storage capacity has been increased from 512 GB to 1 TB.
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