Apple M5 is an ARM-based system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple, part of the Apple silicon series, including a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), and a neural processing unit (NPU). The Apple M5 SoC was announced in October 15, 2025 and released on the following October 22nd for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Apple Vision Pro, succeeding the Apple M4.[1]
Specifications
The M5 is manufactured by TSMC to Apple's design specifications. The die contains 28 billion transistors like the predecessor that are fabricated through an enhanced 3 nm process (N3E). Dynamic RAM (DRAM) is built onto the package and is shared through Apple's unified memory architecture (UMA) to eliminate the need to copy data from the CPU to GPU, which are both part of the package.
The 10-core CPU contains four high-performance cores and six high-efficiency cores, similiar to the ARM big.LITTLE architecture used by the Apple M4 and other mobile devices for power efficiency. The GPU contains 10 cores for graphics. However, in some entry-level configurations, one of the CPU cores and two of the GPU cores are deactivated, indicating the practice of binning. The new display engine adds support for Tandem OLEDs and 120 Hz ProMotion. It can also support an external display of up to 6K resolution from an iPad Pro.
Performance
Apple claims the M5 delivers over 4x the peak GPU compute performance for AI compared to Apple M4,[2] and over 6x compared to M1. Graphics performance is up to 45% higher than the predecessor in ray-traced applications, with overall graphics performance up to 30% faster than M4 and up to 2.5x faster than Apple M1. CPU multithreaded performance is up to 15 percent faster than Apple M4.
Limitations
The Apple M5 devices (like the iPad Pro) retain the same physical design as their M4 counterparts, meaning no new ports or form factor changes.
References
- ↑ Apple unleashes M5, the next big leap in AI performance for Apple silicon (en-US).
- ↑ M5 vs M4: What's new with Apple's latest silicon? (16 October 2025).
External links
- Apple M5 at Wikipedia
Articles
- M5 vs M4: What’s new with Apple’s latest silicon? by Dylan McDonald at 9to5Mac (2025-10-15)