Apple M5 Processor Series

Understanding the Apple M5 Series processors

Apple M5
Wikipedia 

Amazingly, the 1st rumors of the M5 Series Apple silicon have appeared. Apple is expected to have an annual release rhythm, so it is very likely you will see the first M5 variants in mid to late 2025.

The M5 Series are probably 2nm chips and little is known beyond that at the present time. I will add information as it becomes available.

Yehuda Rothschild Apple M4 Processor Series YouTube Channel

The brilliance of Apple silicon is the components of each one are the same. There are just more or less of them in each type.

Performance of the various M5 processors, just like their predecessors really will boil down to the base M5 processor performance. At this point specifications are wild guesstimates.

** If you are browsing this page from a phone, you may want to view the following chart in landscape mode.

Component	M5 ?	M5 Pro ?	M5 Max ?	M5 Ultra ?	M5 Extreme ?
Efficiency CPU Cores
Efficiency Clock	GHz	GHz	GHz	GHz	GHz
Performance CPU Cores
Performance Clock	GHz	GHz	GHz	GHz	GHz
Neural Engine Cores
GPU Cores options
Unified Memory options
Memory Bandwidth	GB/s	GB/s	GB/s	GB/s	GB/s
Video Decode Engines
Video Encode Engines
ProRes Encode-Decode Engines

CPU & GPU Performance Benchmarks

Thanks!
-Yehuda

Useful Links

Apple M4 Processor Series

Understanding the Apple M4 Series processors

Apple M4
Apple announced the M4 chip on May 7, 2024, along with the new seventh-generation iPad Pro models. The M4 is based on the N3E process rather than the N3B process used by the M3, and contains 28 billion transistors. It has three or four performance cores, six efficiency cores and ten GPU cores. Apple claims the M4 has up to 1.5x faster CPU performance compared to the M2.

Apple M4 Pro
The M4 Pro is a more powerful version of the M4, with eight or ten performance cores, four efficiency cores, 16 to 20 GPU cores, 16 Neural Engine cores, and up to 64 GB unified RAM with 273 GB/s memory bandwidth. It is used in the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro as well as the Mac Mini. Apple claims the CPU performance is 1.9x faster than the M1 Pro and the GPU is 2x faster than the M1 Pro.

Apple M4 Max
The M4 Max is a larger version of the M4 Pro, with ten or twelve performance cores, four efficiency cores, 32 to 40 GPU cores, 16 Neural Engine cores, and up to 128 GB unified RAM with up to 546 GB/s memory bandwidth. It is used in the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro. Apple claims the CPU performance is 2.2x faster than the M1 Max and the GPU is 1.9x faster than the M1 Max.

Apple M4 Ultra (Unannounced)

Wikipedia 

The M4 Series is built on the N3E 3nm process. The low and mid tier M4 series Macs have arrived, with high-end systems expected by mid 2025.

TSMC who manufactures these chips for Apple, is also working on 2nm chips, expected in 2025. TSMC is also working on 1.6nm or 16 angstrom (angstroms are 10 times smaller than nanometer) or A16 chips, expected as soon as 2027. There are also plans for 1nm or 10 angstrom or A10 chips at a later date.

We must be getting closer to the limit of how far we can shrink these chips. A human hair is 80,000-100,000 nanometers wide. A single gold atom is about a third of a nanometer, so you would think a 1nm process must be awfully close to the limit.

Yehuda Rothschild Apple M4 Processor Series YouTube Channel

The brilliance of Apple silicon is the components of each one are the same. There are just more or less of them in each type.

Performance of the various M4 processors, just like their predecessors really will boil down to the base M4 processor performance. At this point specifications are wild guesstimates starting with M3 Series specifications.

** If you are browsing this page from a phone, you may want to view the following chart in landscape mode.

Component	M4	M4 Pro	M4 Max	M4 Ultra ?	M4 Extreme ?
Efficiency CPU Cores	4 or 6	4	4	8	16
Efficiency Clock	2.59GHz	2.59GHz	2.59GHz	2.59GHz	2.59GHz
Performance CPU Cores	3 or 4	8 or 10	10 or 12	20 or 24	40 or 48
Performance Clock	4.52GHz	4.52GHz	4.52GHz	4.52GHz	4.52GHz
Neural Engine Cores	16	16	16	32	64
GPU Cores options	8 or 10	16 or 20	32 or 40	64 or 80	128 or 160
Unified Memory options	16GB 24GB 32GB	24GB 48GB 64GB	36GB 48GB 64GB 128GB	72GB 96GB 128GB 256GB
Memory Bandwidth	120GB/s	273GB/s	410GB/s or 546GB/s	820GB/s or 1092GB/s
Video Decode Engines	1	1	1	2	4
Video Encode Engines	1	1	2	4	8
ProRes Encode-Decode Engines	1	1	2	4	8

Assuming a 2 year processor life cycle, before the end of 2026 the M4 Series should be history and fully replaced by the Apple M5 Processor Series in newly released products.

CPU & GPU Performance Benchmarks

Buying an Apple M4 Series computer

Any Apple M4 Series computer will be an incredible experience compared to music and video production on Intel hardware. However it is highly recommended to get at least 16GB of memory (or more) and 512GB storage (or more) if you select an M4 Series system.

There are 9 basic form factors of Apple macOS systems with M4 Series processors expected, 5 laptops and 4 desktops.

• 13″ MacBook Air M4
• 15″ MacBook Air M4
• 14″ MacBook Pro M4
• 14″ MacBook Pro M4 Pro & M4 Max
• 16″ MacBook Pro M4 Pro & M4 Max
• 24″ iMac M4
• Mac mini M4 & M4 Pro
• Mac Studio M4 Max & M4 Ultra
• Mac Pro M4 Ultra & M4 Extreme

Thanks!
-Yehuda

Useful Links

Apple M3 Processor Series

Understanding the three Apple M3 Series processors

Apple M3
Apple announced the M3 series of chips on October 30, 2023, along with the new MacBook Pro and iMac. The M3 is based on the 3 nm process and contains 25 billion transistors, a 25% increase from the previous generation M2. It has 8 CPU cores (4 performance and 4 efficiency) and up to 10 GPU cores. Apple claims CPU improvements up to 35% and GPU improvements up to 65% compared to the M1.

Apple M3 Pro
The M3 Pro is a more powerful version of the M3, with six performance cores, six efficiency cores, 14 to 18 GPU cores, 16 Neural Engine cores, up to 36 GB unified RAM with 150 GB/s memory bandwidth, and 48% more transistors. It is used in the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro. Apple claims the CPU performance is 30 percent faster than the M1 Pro and the GPU is 40 percent faster than the M1 Pro.

Apple M3 Max
The M3 Max is a larger version of the M3 Pro, with ten or twelve performance cores, four efficiency cores, 30 to 40 GPU cores, 16 Neural Engine cores, up to 128 GB unified RAM with up to 400 GB/s memory bandwidth, and more than double the transistors. It is used in the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro. Apple claims the CPU performance is 80 percent faster than the M1 Max and the GPU is 50 percent faster than the M1 Max.

Wikipedia 

The M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max use the N3B architecture 3nm process. The N3B process is purported to have a 15% performance boost and a 30% power saving improvement over the N5P process in the M2.

Apple says the M3 Series is 30% faster than the M1 Series, and 15% faster than the M2 Series.

The M3 series is improved but probably not enough for most people to upgrade from a M2 equivalent. The M3 series is improved enough for many people to upgrade from an M1 equivalent but not all people will find value even in that upgrade.

The brilliance of Apple silicon is the components of each one are the same. There are just more or less of them in each type.

Performance of the various M3 processors, just like their predecessors really will boil down to the base M3 processor performance.

The CPU/GPU core counts are a bit unexpected, in some cases fewer than M2 Series. Also notice the M3 Pro memory bandwidth is down to 150GB/s and M3 Max 14 CPU core, 30 GPU core is 300GB/s.

Apple has re-balanced the M3 Pro and M3 Max with a larger performance gap between them. The M3 Pro has more emphasis on power efficiency than performance improvement. The M2 Pro already punches hard and power efficiency is always a good thing in a laptop, but in many ways the M3 Pro is a sidegrade from the M2 Pro. In other words in a similar performance range.

The M3 Max is a different story though. In CPU benchmarks, the M3 Max outperforms the M1 Ultra. In GPU benchmarks, the M3 Max tests close to the M1 Ultra.

The M3 Ultra will not be released

It is very interesting to note, that if you look at the M3 Max die in the image above, there appears to be no UltraFusion interconnect. This suggests that the M3 Ultra would have been a standalone chip, instead of 2 connected M3 Maxs like other Ultra series chips. At this point though, it is clear Apple had no intention of releasing an M3 Ultra.

** If you are browsing this page from a phone, you may want to view the following chart in landscape mode.

Component	M3	M3 Pro	M3 Max
Efficiency CPU Cores	4	6	4
Efficiency Clock	2.75GHz	2.75GHz	2.75GHz
Performance CPU Cores	4	5 or 6	10 or 12
Performance Clock	4.05GHz	4.05GHz	4.05GHz
Neural Engine Cores	16	16	16
GPU Cores options	8 or 10	14 or 18	30 or 40
Unified Memory options	8GB 16GB 24GB	18GB 36GB	36GB 48GB 64GB 96GB 128GB
Memory Bandwidth	100GB/s	150GB/s	300GB/s or 400GB/s
Video Decode Engines	1	1	1
Video Encode Engines	1	1	2
ProRes Encode-Decode Engines	1	1	2

Assuming a 2 year processor life cycle, before the end of 2025 the M3 Series should be history and fully replaced by the Apple M4 Processor Series in newly released products.

CPU & GPU Performance Benchmarks

Videos

Yehuda Rothschild Apple M3 Processor Series YouTube Channel

Buying an Apple M3 Series computer

Any Apple M3 Series computer will be an incredible experience compared to music and video production on Intel hardware. However it is highly recommended to get at least 16GB of memory (or more) and 512GB storage (or more) if you select an M3 Series system.

There are 6 basic form factors of Apple macOS systems with M3 Series processors, 5 laptops and 1 desktop.

• 13″ MacBook Air M3
• 15″ MacBook Air M3
• 14″ MacBook Pro M3
• 14″ MacBook Pro M3 Pro & M3 Max
• 16″ MacBook Pro M3 Pro & M3 Max
• 24″ iMac M3

Thanks!
-Yehuda

Useful Links