Apple just introduced its new M5 MacBook Pro. At this moment, the focus is on the base model Mac with a 14-inch display. Compared to the previous version, the M5 chip offers a big leap on GPU and AI performance. After all, the new 10-core GPU has a dedicated Neural Accelerator in each core, delivering 4x peak GPU compute compared to M4.
With 30% faster performance than the previous model, the company added the third-generation of its ray-tracing engine, and also created a 16-core Neural Engine that optimizes AI workloads. On Apple Vision Pro, for example, creating a Persona or using spatial experiences is 50% faster than the previous model.
Thanks to these encouraging numbers, users might be asking when Apple is going to release new M5 Macs, including the M5 Pro and M5 Max variants. Fortunately, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman recently published the latest details on Apple’s M5 Mac roadmap, including the launch of six new products.
MacBook Air, Mac mini, Mac Studio with the M5 chip are on the horizon
According to Gurman, Apple wants to release the M5 Pro and M5 Max variants of the MacBook Pro early next year. As usual, the company will greatly scale up the capabilities of the base chip. Besides the new processor, it’s unclear if Apple is planning other changes to these computers ahead of a redesigned version with the M6 chip.
In the spring, Apple is planning to release the M5 MacBook Air, but it also feels to be only a chip upgrade, without other major changes compared to the previous generation. Still, Gurman says Apple has refreshed Mac Studio and Mac mini versions in the works. The Mac Studio could get an M5 Max and M4 or M5 Ultra variants, and the Mac mini would get the M5 and M5 Pro chips.
It’s possible that alongside a new Mac Studio, Apple introduces its new Mac monitors, which we expect to be successors to the Studio Display and Pro Display XDR. Among the changes, Apple is expected to add a more capable chip to these displays, 120Hz refresh rate, improved webcams, and screen resolution. We’ll let you know once we learn more about these products’ releases.
