Apple Macbook Pro M5 14-inch Review: A Huge Graphics Upgrade For Creators And Gamers

There was nary monolithic arena announcing nan M5 MacBook Pro, not moreover a short promotional video for societal media. Instead, Apple dumped each of its caller M5 devices connected america pinch a fewer property releases, a clear motion that there's not overmuch to observe this year. But while nan caller 14-inch MacBook Pro appears to beryllium much of nan aforesaid connected nan surface, it besides features an awesome graphics upgrade that makes it a decent prime for gaming. And it retains everything I already emotion astir nan MacBook Pros: It's still a well-designed instrumentality that's sturdy, accelerated and offers tons of artillery life.

What's caller successful nan M5 MacBook Pro

The prima of nan show is Apple's caller M5 chip, which sports a 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU and 16 Neural Engine cores. While nan institution claims it's 20 percent faster than nan M4 for multi-threaded applications, nan biggest upgrade is nan GPU, which is up to 60 percent faster erstwhile it comes to games and master apps. The M4 was nary slouch erstwhile it came to gaming and media rendering, but nan M5 is simply a much tempting upgrade for anyone utilizing an M1 MacBook Pro aliases older.

Otherwise, it's for illustration I said: much of nan same. There's nan 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR show which offers up to 1,000 nits of full-screen brightness and 1,600 nits of HDR, arsenic good arsenic ProMotion’s soft 120Hz refresh rate. (Unfortunately, we’ll apt person to hold until adjacent twelvemonth for an OLED option.) The aluminum lawsuit is still stone solid, and nan fantabulous keyboard and trackpad haven't changed a bit. Last year's 12MP Center Stage webcam besides makes a return, on pinch nan superb six-speaker sound system.

The larboard business is besides solid. On apical of nan MagSafe 3 charging connection, location are 3 Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, a full-sized SDXC paper reader, HDMI and a headphone jack. (It would beryllium bully to spot a gigabit Ethernet larboard though. That's nan 1 accessory I still regularly link to almost each laptop.)

In use: The champion gets moreover better

Before I get to nan benchmarks and different capacity metrics, it's worthy pointing retired conscionable really pleasant nan 14-inch MacBook is to use. Its aluminum framework is soft to nan touch, its surface is agleam capable to usage successful nonstop sunlight and it ever feels blazing fast. While its 3.4-pound framework is noticeably heavier than nan 2.7-pound MacBook Air, it's still easy to recreation with. And you tin surely show that nan further weight translates into earthy power, particularly arsenic you commencement to accent nan MacBook Pro and perceive its fans mildly rotation up. While nan MacBook Air is built to beryllium arsenic bladed arsenic possible, nan MacBook Pro is built to get activity done (and look bully while doing so).

Based connected my testing pinch celebrated benchmarks and a fewer games, nan M5 MacBook Pro is noticeably faster than nan M4 exemplary successful tasks that trust connected nan GPU and NPU. Otherwise, though, it's difficult to show a quality erstwhile it comes to basal tasks for illustration booting into macOS, browsing nan web and dealing pinch email. My reappraisal portion was equipped pinch 32GB of RAM, truthful it had a spot much breathing room than nan guidelines exemplary pinch 16GB of memory. (Pro tip: If you're readying to support nan MacBook Pro for 4 years aliases more, it makes consciousness to get astatine slightest 32GB of RAM. You can't upgrade nan representation down nan statement for illustration older laptops, since it's baked straight into nan M5 chip.)

In Geekbench 6, nan M5 MacBook Pro was astir 500 points faster than nan M4 exemplary successful single-threaded tasks, and astir 3,500 points faster for analyzable multi-threaded activity for illustration video rendering. Thanks to nan M5's caller graphics hardware, it besides tested acold amended successful nan Geekbench 6 GPU test, reaching astir 11,00 points faster than nan M4. I noticed a akin consequence successful Cinebench 2024: The M5 MacBook Pro's CPU scores were somewhat amended than before, but nan GPU people was astir doubly arsenic accelerated arsenic nan M4.

For real-world gaming performance, I turned to Lies of P, which besides amazed maine pinch immoderate awesome leaps. With nan M4 MacBook Pro, I could only get a dependable 60 fps pinch nan highest graphics settings successful 1080p. With this M5 model, I was capable to play astatine nan highest solution (3024 by 1890) betwixt 70 and 75 fps. It was moreover smoother arsenic I scaled down nan resolution: The MacBook Pro deed 85 to 95 fps successful 1,440p and up to 140 fps successful 1080p. Those results are successful statement pinch what I'd expect from a gaming notebook that costs good complete $2,000, which is successful statement pinch nan $2,200 unit costs of our reappraisal unit.

I still wouldn't urge a MacBook Pro for anyone who wants to play tons of games, but it's heartening to spot Apple making advancement connected that front. There are much caller AAA games hitting nan app store, and nan M-series chips are accelerated capable to tally astir of them well. But nan M5 is nan first clip I'd see Apple's hardware balanced to a PC moving a video paper for illustration NVIDIA's RTX 5070.

The M5 MacBook Pro retains nan awesome artillery life from nan erstwhile model, reaching 34 hours and 30 minutes while looping an HD video. I could besides usage it for much than 2 afloat days of activity pinch thing overmuch stressing nan GPU. And erstwhile again, nan MacBook Pro ne'er feels very hot, moreover nether an intensive workload. The fans are audible, but they don’t get arsenic annoying arsenic nan helicopter-like fans from nan aged Intel MacBook Pros.

Should you bargain nan M5 MacBook Pro?

If you're looking for a powerful laptop that tin grip astir heavy-duty workloads, nan MacBook Pro will surely suit your needs. But nan difficult prime now is deciding betwixt this 14-inch M5 model, nan existing M4 Pro and Max systems, aliases waiting a fewer months for nan upcoming M5 Pro and M5 Max chips. If you're rendering video and 3D contented each day, you're apt amended disconnected moving pinch Pro and Max chips, but you'll person to hold respective months to spot nan caller M5 options. If you perfectly request a workhorse MacBook Pro today, you'll person to settee for nan M4 Pro and M4 Max (which are still acold faster than nan guidelines M5 chip). But for astir creatives, nan M5 MacBook Pro offers an awesome equilibrium of powerfulness and portability.