M5 vs M4: Apple’s New Chip Surprises in Speed and AI Tests

Apple has finally launched its latest M5 chip, and it has proved to be a major leap forward from the M4 generation which has been particularly evidenced in the areas of graphics, AI performance, and efficiency. M5 is now the heart chip of the new iPad Pro and MacBook Pro 14" and early tests indicate that the gap between Apple’s chip and the competition is getting wider, as well as between the previous chip models from the same manufacturer.

The M5 processor from Apple maintains the same 10-core configuration found in the M4 — comprising four performance cores and six efficiency cores — but the crucial changes are all in the background. The GPU now features integrated Neural Accelerators which take care of AI and ray-tracing tasks straight away, thus giving the chip better performance without power enablement. The memory bandwidth also leaps to 153GBps from 120GBps in the M4, which in turn is faster data transfer across the system.

Although Apple has introduced reduced-core versions with the same M5 name, the complete configuration reveals the most significant jump.

The results of our testing with the iPad Pro and MacBook Pro confirm that the M5’s gains are not just on paper. The M5 model of the MacBook Pro provided up to 19% higher single-core results in Geo6006 and Cinebench R24 over the M4 model, thus revealing that Apple is still the leader in the field of raw CPU performance.

In multicore workloads, the improvements were more moderate — about 10–18% depending on the test — nonetheless, they still formed a constant increase over the M4.

Apple's graphics engine advances significantly this year. In Geekbench 6, the M5 GPU surpassed the M4 with a performance increase of 31% and by almost 45% in Cinebench R24's GPU testing. In gaming, the M5 was 16 fps ahead on average with 56 fps in Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 1080p with maximum settings, while older M4 systems were struggling to keep up with 40 fps.

M5's performance in synthetic GPU tests like Steel Nomad and Solar Bay Extreme showed a difference of 35% to 46% in frames per second, thus the M5 became the most powerful base-level chip for gaming that Apple has released so far.

M5's Neural Accelerators take Apple’s AI computing up a notch. Geekbench AI results give a 12% betterment for the M4 Pro, and his score in the imaging generation tasks like Stable Diffusion 1.5 is almost double that of M4. The quicker A.I. handling results in faster content creation and on-device processing without using the cloud, which is a great advantage.

The M5 MacBook Pro lasts longer on a single charge, despite its faster performance; it has a life of approximately 23 hours during testing, one hour longer than the M4-powered model. This gain in efficiency indicates that Apple has improved its methods to manage the thermal and power balance of its chips even during heavy workloads.

The M5 is a great upgrade for early M-series users, but power-users may wish to delay. There is no M5 Pro or M5 Max variation at this time, and the M4 Pro still has the edge in some multicore and GPU tasks, as evidenced by comparisons. M4 Pro with 20-core GPU and 14-core CPU beats the 10-core M5 build by nearly 30% in most pro-grade tests.

This gap indicates that Apple’s M5 Pro and M5 Max chips — whenever they come — will deliver a full generational leap that professionals have always expected.

The M5 is a paradigm shift for Apple’s entry-level silicon—improved graphics, better AI processing, and more battery life, all wrapped in the same design. The benefits are pretty much felt and seen by the majority of users right away. However, the performance junkies might find it worth their while to hold on for the Pro and Max versions that are likely to be out shortly.