Apple announces new MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, raises MacBook starting prices
Source: Mashable Tech
Apple’s big week continues as the company dropped a slew of new products on Tuesday.
The biggest release? A new MacBook Pro with Apple’s newest and most powerful chipsets, the M5 Pro and M5 Max.
The MacBook Pro with the M5 chip came out back in October, so the release of the M5 Pro and M5 Max was long overdue based on Apple’s previous release cycles with its in‑house Silicon chipset. Mashable gave the MacBook Pro M5 a stellar review, and these long‑awaited MacBook Pros with the M5 Pro and M5 Max are basically just more powerful versions of that device for professional users with advanced computing needs.
MacBooks are getting more expensive
Before getting into specs, the first thing to mention is that Apple has surprisingly raised MacBook Pro prices across the board. The 14‑inch MacBook Pro M5 previously started at $1,599; Apple has raised the price by $100, making the new starting price $1,699. Apple also eliminated the 512 GB storage option, making 1 TB the new base model—so buyers get double the storage for the extra cost.
The newest members of the MacBook Pro family start at higher price points:
| Model | Starting price | CPU cores | GPU cores | RAM | Storage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14‑inch M5 Pro | $2,199 | 15‑core | 16‑core | 24 GB | 1 TB |
| 16‑inch M5 Pro | $2,699 | 18‑core | 20‑core | 24 GB | 1 TB |
| 14‑inch M5 Max | $3,599 | 18‑core | 32‑core | 36 GB | 2 TB |
| 16‑inch M5 Max | $3,899 | 18‑core | 32‑core | 36 GB | 2 TB |
Both the M5 Pro models are $200 more than their M4 Pro predecessors, while the M5 Max models are the most expensive options, reflecting their ultra‑powerful specifications.
MacBook Pro M5 Pro and M5 Max: Specs and performance upgrades
Credit: Apple
According to Apple, the new MacBook Pro M5 Pro and M5 Max together provide up to four times the AI performance compared to the equivalent M4 chipsets and up to eight times the AI performance versus the original M1 chips (2020). They also feature Apple’s new N1 wireless networking chip, which improves Wi‑Fi and Bluetooth reliability, twice‑faster SSD performance, and up to 24 hours of battery life.
M5 Pro performance gains
- Up to 7.8× faster AI image generation vs. MacBook Pro with M1 Pro, and up to 3.7× faster vs. M4 Pro.
- Up to 6.9× faster LLM prompt processing vs. M1 Pro, and up to 3.9× faster vs. M4 Pro.
- Up to 5.2× faster 3D rendering in Maxon Redshift vs. M1 Pro, and up to 1.4× faster vs. M4 Pro.
- Up to 1.6× faster gaming performance with ray tracing (e.g., Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition) vs. M4 Pro.
M5 Max performance gains
- Up to 8× faster AI image generation vs. MacBook Pro with M1 Max, and up to 3.8× faster vs. M4 Max.
- Up to 6.7× faster LLM prompt processing vs. M1 Max, and up to 4× faster vs. M4 Max.
- Up to 5.4× faster video effects rendering in Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve Studio vs. M1 Max, and up to 3× faster vs. M4 Max.
- Up to 3.5× faster AI video‑enhancing in Topaz Video vs. M4 Max.
Along with Tuesday’s MacBook Pro announcements, Apple also unveiled a new MacBook Air with the M5 chipset and a new Apple Studio Display.