Apple's new M5 Pro and M5 Max chips boost performance by up to 30% with 18-core CPU, up to 40 GPU cores, and enhanced AI capabilities for professional workflows.
© Apple
Apple has unveiled its new Apple M5 Pro and Apple M5 Max processors, designed for professional MacBook Pro laptops. Both chips are built on the company's Fusion Architecture, which integrates two third-generation dies manufactured using a 3-nanometer process into a single system-on-a-chip. The platform includes a central processing unit, a next-generation graphics module, Neural Engine, Media Engine, a unified memory controller, and Thunderbolt 5 support.
The processors feature an 18-core CPU with six high-performance "super cores" and 12 energy-efficient cores for multi-threaded workloads. According to the manufacturer, performance gains in professional scenarios can reach up to 30% compared to the previous generation. The graphics subsystem scales up to 20 cores in the M5 Pro and up to 40 cores in the M5 Max. Each graphics core incorporates a neural accelerator, which allows peak computational power for AI tasks to increase more than fourfold over the previous version and significantly surpass the performance of M1-series chips.
The M5 Pro supports up to 64 GB of unified memory with bandwidth up to 307 GB/s, while the M5 Max supports up to 128 GB with bandwidth up to 614 GB/s. This expands capabilities for working with 3D graphics, complex simulations, high-resolution video editing, and running language models locally. Additionally, the chips feature an updated 16-core Neural Engine, a media engine with hardware support for H.264, HEVC, AV1, and ProRes, as well as hardware memory protection mechanisms. Apple representatives note that the new chips maintain a focus on energy efficiency, aligning with the company's strategy to reduce its carbon footprint by 2030.