Apple M5 (9 Cores) vs Apple M4 Max (14 cores)
Apple M5 (9 Cores)
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The Apple M5 with 9 cores is a slimmed-down version of the M5 SoC for tablets, notebooks and PCs. It will probably be presented in October 2025 and offers 9 of the 10 ARM-compatible cores. The cores should be similar to those in the Apple A19 Pro and are divided into two clusters. 3 large performance cores and 6 smaller efficiency cores.
According to initial leaks, the single-core performance is excellent and is at the top of all tested devices in Geekbench 6.5. Due to the 9 cores, the multi-core performance is one of the best but still remarkable for a tablet CPU.
The integrated M5 GPU also makes great strides in performance and can keep up with the old 16-core version of the M1 Pro in initial benchmarks (Geekbench Metal).
Apple M4 Max (14 cores)
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The 14-core Apple M4 Max is a powerful ARM architecture processor (SoC) for laptops and mini-PCs that debuted in Sep 2024. It features 10 performance CPU cores running at well over 4 GHz along with 4 efficient cores running at under 3 GHz. The 32-core M4 Max GPU and at least 36 GB of fast 410 GB/s LPDDR5x on-package memory depending on the configuration are included as well, as is USB 4 and Thunderbolt 5 support.
The built-in 16 core neural engine (up to 38 TOPS) is found across the whole M4 chip family. Furthermore, all M4 processors are thought to be based on the ARM v9.4-A architecture to a certain degree.
Performance
The M4 Max is set to be just a bit faster than the 14-core M4 Pro, meaning it outguns the 16-core M3 Max by a small margin. This is nothing to scoff at, yet it's the new integrated graphics adapters that are the real stars of the show.
Graphics
The 32-core M4 Max GPU has hardware support for ray tracing as well as mesh shading and other modern technologies. It supports external displays with resolutions as high as "8K" and it can HW-decode a few popular video codecs such as h.264, h.265 and AV1.
Its gaming performance is set to be about as good the GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop. Please keep in mind that very few games have been compiled specifically for Apple silicon Macs meaning most titles have to be run via emulation layers. Some of them are displayed with visual artefacts as a result, or don't start at all.
Power consumption
The slower M4 Pro (14 cores) consumes around 80 W when under full load but is happy with just 2 W to 7 W when idling. We presume the 14-core M4 Max needs just slightly more juice than its slower brother to keep going.
The 2nd generation 3 nm TSMC process the M4 Max is built with delivers good power efficiency, as of late 2024.
| Model | Apple M5 (9 Cores) | Apple M4 Max (14 cores) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Series | Apple M4 | Apple M4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Series: M4 |
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| Clock | <=4425 MHz | 2592 - 4512 MHz | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| L2 Cache | 6 MB | 4 MB | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cores / Threads | 9 / 9 3 x 6 x | 14 / 14 10 x 4.5 GHz Apple M4 P-Core 4 x 2.6 GHz Apple M4 E-Core | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Technology | 3 nm | 3 nm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| iGPU | Apple M5 GPU | Apple M4 Max 32-Core GPU | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Architecture | ARM | ARM | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Announced | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| TDP | 80 Watt | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| TDP Turbo PL2 | 80 Watt | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Features | Unified Memory LPDDR5X-8533 (410 GB/s), 16-Core Neural Engine, Dual Media Engine (Encoding / Decoding: H.264, HEVC, ProRes, ProRes RAW, AV1 Decoding only) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| NPU / AI | 38 TOPS INT8 |
Benchmarks
Average Benchmarks Apple M5 (9 Cores) → 100% n=2
Average Benchmarks Apple M4 Max (14 cores) → 124% n=2
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance
1 This benchmark is not used for the average calculation
