M5 Pro & Max are INSANE... And you're NOT going to buy them

M5 Pro and Max are the biggest update to

Apple Silicon in years that you're not

going to buy. And by the way, that comes

off the heels of the M4 Pro and Max,

which were also the biggest update to

Apple Silicon in years. Things just keep

getting more and more crazy. And there

is a ton of stuff to dive into about

these new chips. Apple has retconed

performance cores and are now calling

them super cores. The Pro and Max now

feature a multi-d CPU design. Apple has

doubled all of the base storage. AI

performance is going crazy with the M5

Max offering four times the LLM

performance of M4 Max. And also

something really interesting happened.

Apple doubled the base storage on all

Macs. Every single one. The new M5

MacBook Air now starts with 512 gigs of

storage. The already released MacBook

Pro with the M5 now starts with a

terabyte. The M5 Pro also starts with a

terabyte and the M5 Max comes with two.

But there is a catch. The M5 MacBook Air

and Pro are up a 100 bucks. The M5 Pro

MacBook Pro is up 200 bucks and the M5

Max is up $400.

Uh-oh. So, what the hell's going on

here? Well, I have a pretty compelling

theory. And by theory, I mean this is

what happened. We've been hearing about

DRAM price increases for months and

months now. I mean, the graphs are off

the charts. RAM prices are skyrocketing.

I even made a video about how Apple now

has some of the cheapest RAM prices out

there. Rather than just a blanket price

increase to cover the rising cost of

DRAM, Apple probably figured it would be

a good idea to just give us more storage

because that's less expensive than more

RAM to kind of mask some of the price

increase. And frankly, I'm not mad about

it because you used to have to pay $200

to go from 256 to 512 and now you're

getting it for effectively $100 more

instead. So, this is undeniably a net

positive. But let's back up a second

here and talk about the M5 Pro and Max

chips themselves because there's there's

actually a lot more going on here than

we initially thought. But first, a quick

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Again, a massive thanks to MasterClass

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let's get back to it. This is some crazy

stuff. There is a lot to dive into, but

I want to start with an interesting

project that I'm going to be working on.

Obviously, I will be buying and

reviewing these new MacBook Pros to see

how the M5 Pro and Max stack up, but I

wanted to try a new method of getting

benchmark figures because typically the

way that this works is I have a bunch of

MacBooks and I run a bunch of tests on

them to get you guys performance data.

But there's only so many MacBooks that a

guy can have. These things are pretty

expensive. And especially when we're

talking about multiple Macs chips, I

want to give you guys context, but

there's just no way that I can have all

these MacBooks. So, we're going to try

something new. I'm thrilled to announce

Myani Bench. And Meani, of course,

stands for the Multinational Index of

Apple Notebook and Desktop Intensity.

And this is a real website. If you go to

meibbench.com, you'll see it for

yourself where we are going to

crowdsource benchmark results. So, to

start with, we have five benchmarks,

which should be familiar to you if

you've watched any of my previous

reviews. These are pretty standard for

what I like to do. And what this will do

is it has links right up top to download

Blender as well as the classroom scene.

And then there's instructions on how to

get a benchmark result. So, you can see

we have outlined through screenshots and

text the steps that you need to take to

get some benchmark numbers for whatever

Mac that you have. And then at the

bottom of this website, we have a Google

form where you will put in the model

number, which you can find in system

information. You can see when I open the

app, it shows up right here. It's

formatted as this number that often ends

in LL/ A if you're in the US. So, you'll

put that model number in here so we can

see what specs your system has. And then

you're going to put in the render times

for the above instructions. And what

this should do is allow me to compile

the most comprehensive database of user

sububmitted Mac benchmarks. And my plan

is to add more benchmarks and features

and and hopefully get a database set up

for this website so that going forward

we can have just way way way more data

than any other YouTube review has ever

had. So anyway, let's get into what

Apple announced. So, the first thing

that's a little bit weird about the M5

Pro and Max is that they've kind of

retconed the whole M5 line with this new

thing that they're calling a super core.

And I say retcon because they announced

it like it's new. They're saying that

the core breakdown is six super cores

and 12 all-new performance cores. So, no

more ecores as they're labeling them.

But they're saying that the

industryleading super core was first

introduced as performance cores in M5,

which also adopts the super core name

for all M5based products, including the

14-inch MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Apple

Vision Pro that already came out. That's

interesting. Uh they didn't seem to say

that they were any different than a

performance core then, but apparently

they are now. But now the M5 Pro and Max

are also introducing a new performance

core that is optimized for more power

efficient multi-threaded performance. So

it seems like this new performance core

is somewhere between an old performance

traditional performance core and an

efficiency core. Uh so what this means

is we're getting core increases all

around. The M4 Pro had 12 core and 16

core as well as 14 core and 20 core

variants for the bin versus the full and

that's going up now to 15 cores and 18

cores respectively on the CPU while the

GPU is unchanged for M5 Pro in terms of

core count. Meanwhile, the M5 Max is

getting 18 cores regardless of which

version you get. The only bend

difference is the GPU, 32 versus 40,

which is the same core counts as on the

M4 Max. And that's a pretty welcome

change because my big takeaway last year

with the M4 Pro and Max was that the

Prochip was a massive upgrade over the

M3 generation, whereas the Max was a

little bit smaller. So, the fact that we

get those the the full 18 core CPU as

standard, I think, frankly, that should

be a given given the price increases

that we're looking at here. But I think

that that is is pretty reasonable.

Although, it is interesting that we're

going back now to having the uh the Pro

and the Max chip with the same CPU cuz

if you get the full M5 Pro or the or

either version of the M5 Max, you're

going to get 18 cores. whereas the M4,

you got a little bit more with the Max

chip. So, Apple continues to be kind of

tweaking with the ladder and the

differences between these chips. But,

interestingly, this new CPU architecture

they're saying is going to offer 15%

higher multi-threaded performance

compared to M4 Max. And I find that

pretty interesting because we have two

more cores compared to the M4 Max, but

only 15% higher multi-threaded

performance. Keep in mind the M5 chip

had about 20% better performance than

the M4 with the same amount of cores. So

I think that what we're seeing here is

some some reconfiguring these super

cores which replace the old performance

core as best I can parse it and the new

performance cores of which there are 12

similar to the M4 Max. They seem to be

running at a more efficient speed it

seems like. And the reason I say that is

because in the MacBook Pro press

release, not the M5 Pro and Max press

release, they're saying that the new

MacBook Pros offer up to 24 hours of

battery life, which is three more than

they have claimed in the past. So, it

seems like there's a little bit of like

a give and take, right? We we have these

faster super cores but slightly slower

performance cores where there's going to

be more of those that are more efficient

as well so that we get a little bit more

battery life as well as a little bit

more performance instead of like a lot

more performance. It it's a very hard

thing to parse. But the biggest new

difference is I mean beyond all the

performance stuff M5 Pro and Max are

using a multi- die chip design. This is

a first for Apple silicon and something

that we didn't think we were going to

see until later this year with the M6,

the new A20 Pro, and this new 2nmter

generation. They're calling this the

Fusion architecture, a state-of-the-art

design that connects two dieseS into a

single SOC. They say the new dies

include a powerful new CPU, scalable

GPU, media engine, unified memory

controller, neural engine, and

Thunderbolt 5 capabilities. that they

don't say which is on which die. Not

really sure where all of that other

stuff goes, but I think the key thing

here to note is that the CPU and the GPU

are no longer tied together. And this

has a lot of really interesting

implications, mainly for the Ultra

chips, which have historically been a

Max chip and another Max chip glued

together at the middle. So, this should

allow Apple to basically independently

develop those separate dyes. I'm not

familiar with exactly how this process

will work in practice, but I suspect

that this is why we're not getting a

bend CPU on the M5 Max because the CPU

and the GPU are separate dieseS. Now,

when the Ultra chips come out,

theoretically, what we could see here is

either two much larger dieseS, which

could consist of increased core counts

all around, or what I think could be

more interesting, a quad die SOC.

basically take two of those 18 core CPUs

and two of those 40 core GPU dieseS, put

them all together into this giant gumbo,

and there's your M5 Ultra potentially.

So, dude, that could be like

legitimately a gamecher right there. If

Apple is able to just kind of keep

adding on to this, I think it'll bring

the cost of an ultra chip down. You

won't have to have two perfectly binn

and very expensive M5 Max chips. You

could kind of combine a bunch of dyes

together. This is a really, really

fascinating technology that I can't wait

to see develop further in the M6

generation and probably the iPhone later

this year. This is kind of a way for

them to test out that multi-chip

packaging before we go to a new process

as well. Okay, so let's dive into the

performance. We're going to kind of pull

from both press releases here cuz

Apple's very confusing the way that they

tell us what their chips are going to

perform like, but they're quoting some

pretty crazy stuff. First of all,

they're saying that the M5 Pro delivers

up to 3.7 times faster AI image

generation and up to 3.9 times faster

LLM prompt processing compared to the M4

Pro. That's freaking crazy. And you know

what? I'm going to say it. Apple is so

gigabrain right now because all the

other tech companies are spending

hundreds of billions of dollars in

research and data centers and buying

each other's GPUs and DRAM. But what are

all the actual customers doing for this

AI boom? They're buying Mac minis.

They're buying Apple products because

they have crazy optimized SOC's. So

Apple sits over here. They don't have to

spend those hundreds of billions of

dollars. They just make the computers

that all the AI people want to buy and

they're sitting pretty. It's the most

fanboyish thing that I've said in a long

time. But god damn, you got to respect

the business acumen of that. That's

genius. All right, moving on though.

We've got up to 1.4 times faster in 3D

rendering compared to M4 Pro. That's a

40% increase. And 1.6 six times faster

with rayraced games like Cyberpunk 2077.

40 and 60% in the GPU with the same GPU

core counts. That's pretty crazy. And

it's even crazier in the Max chip. 3.8x

faster image generation, four times

faster LLM prompt, and 3x faster video

effects rendering performance than the

M4 Max, as well as 3.5x faster video

enhancing performance in Topaz. And the

good stuff just keeps on coming, folks,

because the SSDs, as we know, are

doubled, but they're also twice as fast.

We're looking at readwrite speeds of up

to 14.5

gigabytes per second. So, that's going

to put these MacBook Pros up there with

among the fastest SSDs that are

available full stop anywhere. I mean,

this is like legitimate workstation

stuff that you're just getting in a

MacBook Pro. But keep in mind there are

a couple of notations on that and they

redirect us down here to the description

where it says the results are compared

to the previous generation 16-inch

MacBook Pro with the M4 Max. And the

testing was conducted with 128 GB of

unified memory and an 8 TB SSD. And

again, because Apple says that it's

delivering up to 2x faster readr, it

it's not 100% clear which models are

going to get that faster SSD. I don't

know that it's going to be across the

board. It could just be for the max

chips or it could just be for the 4 and

8 terbte configurations as of the time

of filming this cuz I literally just,

you know, it came out and I started

filming. I don't know what that's going

to be. But either way, this is good

stuff. And realistically, because I know

that you're not going to buy this

MacBook Pro. That's kind of the elephant

in the room. The bigger news in my

opinion is that when we do get a Mac

Studio refresh, the Max chip is going to

be really, really good. So, keep in mind

if we're configuring a Mac Studio with

the M4 Max, that starts at $199. We can

expect that price to increase anywhere

from $2 to $400, but you're going to get

additional GPU cores. That's going to go

from 14 to 18 across the board here with

the same GPU core counts. The memory, I

believe, is is going to be the same

across the board. So, no changes there.

And then the storage, this is a little

interesting. The Mac Studio starts with

512 GB, whereas the M4 Max MacBook Pros

started with a terabyte. So, we could

speculate that the M5 Max Studio is

probably going to start with one

terabyte instead of two, which you get

in the MacBooks. But either way, for

like 2,200 bucks, maybe 2400 bucks if

they decide to give this thing two

terabytes, that's going to be a really,

really good deal. And you don't have to

worry about, you know, a new model

coming out in a couple of months and

replacing it cuz the Mac Studio, I don't

think, is getting redesigned. So, the

Max chip definitely should stay on your

mind for when we see this new Mac

Studio. Definitely keeping an eye out

for that. Maybe WWDC and a new Pro

Display XDR. Yeah, that's right. I

haven't even had time to get into the

new Studio Display and Studio Display

XDR, which come out alongside these

things. They feature new miniledd 5K 120

hertz, but unfortunately, it's only 27

in. And Apple says that the Studio

Display XDR is replacing the Pro Display

XDR. So, why are we going down in screen

size? Anyway, there's Dude, there is so

much going on here. I I guarantee that I

missed a bunch of stuff in this video,

but I I got stuff to do. I got to get

these benchmarks already. Uh so yeah,

definitely let me know what you guys are

most excited for. I I was not expecting

that we were going to get this much

stuff. Like I can't even sink my teeth

into everything that I was reading in

these press releases in this video. So

you're going to have to subscribe.

That's frankly the only option that

there is. You're going to have to come

back in a week. We're going to be

looking at March 11th is when these

things drop. Uh, and we're still not

done, by the way. I think we're still

going to get the new budget low-end

MacBook announced tomorrow. So, like,

dude, there's a lot of stuff going on.

It's going to be really exciting. Um,

I'm really, really interested to hear

your guys feedback on my new

crowdsourcing benchmark website. If

you're forgetting the name, it's

mebbench.com.

We love, no over here. So, get

subscribed. Head over to mebbench.com,

submit your benchmarks. Um, between now

and when these things come out, there is

a chance that I will find and add some

benchmarks. So, let me know if there's

anything else that you'd like me to

test. Take a look at the website. It

needs to be something that I can and put

into a relatively straightforward

instruction set so that people can

follow along at home. Um, obviously some

of the apps that I'm benchmarking are

paid. So, if you got them, let me know

what your scores are. I'd love to get

just a full comparison so we can see how

the M5 Pro and Max compare to literally

every single Apple silicon chip out

there. I'm super excited to see how this

goes and I hope you are, too. So, make

sure to subscribe, stay follow me for

updates. I'll I'll, you know, put on

Twitter, Lukemani. Um, if I add any

benchmarks, I'll do a community post.

I'll post over there. I'm super pumped.

I think this is going to be a really

cool thing for for the channel and for

you guys to to see how these new chips

perform. So, with all that said, this

has been kind of a rambly video, but

thank you guys so much for watching. Get

excited. I'm excited. I'll see you in

the next video, which is probably going

to be tomorrow. Take care.