MacBook Pro, Mac Studio, Mac mini with M5 Pro, Max will be much more configurable

Apple is expected to unveil its M5 series MacBook Pro and iPad Pro models soon. There have been several indicators that the announcement could happen this month, but the new hardware is expected to come with only iterative changes. While that seems to be the case with the M5 powered devices, the M5 Pro and M5 Max devices are said to have a more interesting change that will allow customers to have a wider range of configurations.

According to Vadim Yuryev from the Max Tech YouTube channel (via X), the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips will have a new design with separate CPU and GPU blocks. This itself isn’t new information as it was first suspected for the M5 Pro, Max, and Ultra chips back in December of last year. This refers to TSMC’s SoIC-MH design which stands for Small Outline Integrated Circuit Molding-Horizontal.

The post from Yuryev reaffirms that this is the direction Apple is headed in for its next generation MacBook Pro, Mac Studio, and Mac mini models. What’s interesting is that this will allow more configurable devices in terms of core counts. Customers will likely be able to configure their M5 Pro and Max devices with a wider range of CPU and GPU core counts, for example, a base M5 CPU core count paired with a maxed-out GPU.

Yuryev adds that this is the reason why the M5 Pro and Max powered devices are being pushed to 2026, as per recent rumors. The M5 powered MacBook Pro and iPad Pro, on the other hand, will not be getting the same treatment and are therefore expected to be announced soon, possibly this month (October). An M5-powered iPad Pro was recently unboxed while the M5-powered MacBook Pro was certified by the US FCC, followed by select versions of the M4 iPad Pro going out of stock.