By: Nick Gambino
Apple released the new iPhone 17 and Apple Watch Series 11 back in September. Now the tech giant is putting a button on the fall season with the release of the new MacBook Pro, Vision Pro and iPad Pro. Just in time for holiday shopping.
Each of these new hardware products is fitted with the brand-new M5 Chip. To absolutely nobody’s surprise the new processor chip is the most powerful to date. And it better be what with all of the AI processing going on in these machines.
“M5 ushers in the next big leap in AI performance for Apple silicon,” the Senior VP of Hardware Technologies for Apple, Johny Srouji, said in a statement. “With the introduction of Neural Accelerators in the GPU, M5 delivers a huge boost to AI workloads.”
Supposedly the M5 chip delivers 4 times the peak GPU power of its predecessor. This coupled with a faster Neural Engine means AI processing speeds are about to get a rocket boost. Now, Apple hasn’t given us any statistics on the speed of AI processing, but they have described the increased acceleration as dramatic.
In addition to the more powerful processor chip, Apple has done some work to upgrade other aspects of the MacBook Pro. Memory bandwidth is higher than on the M4, bumping up to 153GB/s from 120GB/s. The SSD is the most impressive, performing 2 times faster. Then there’s storage which now tops out at 4TB for the most expensive version. The M4 only had a max of 2TB.
Now for the $1,599 question (starting price) – Is it worth it to upgrade to the new MacBook Pro?
Well, it depends on if you still believe in Apple’s ability to create a computer that’s more than just pretty. I personally got out of the Mac game a couple of years ago as they charged me an arm, a leg and a first born for what I feel is a poorly functioning machine. These days I stick with the iPhone, but as for everything else – it’s PCs all the way.
If you still believe in the Mac as a product and can’t live without it, then the new M5 might just be for you. It’s certainly faster and more powerful than the M4, though it’ll feel even more of an upgrade if you’re coming from an even earlier version of the MacBook Pro.
