Should You Upgrade To M5 Macbook Pro From An M1? How The Numbers Add Up

1 month ago

Follow ZDNET: Add america arsenic a preferred source on Google.

ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

Apple conscionable announced its latest M5 14-inch MacBook Pro.
There are nary awesome creation changes, pinch Apple emphasizing improved capacity numbers instead.
While nan numbers are impressive, older Macs are still viable for usage cases they were designed for: mundane tasks and emblematic workflows.

Apple conscionable unveiled nan first glimpses of its caller 14-inch MacBook Pro pinch nan M5 chip, promising 3.5 times much AI performance, 24 hours of artillery life, and faster, wide storage: up to 4TB.

AI is astatine nan forefront of nan M5 MacBook Pro's characteristic set, pinch nan latest-gen GPU bringing an enhanced neural motor and higher representation bandwidth to nan table, translating to wide amended capacity moving on-device LLMs. To compare, Apple says nan M5's 10-core GPU delivers six times faster AI capacity than nan M1.

The institution besides knows that galore imaginable consumers are still utilizing older, Intel-based Macs (I still person my 2017 MacBook Pro arsenic a backup laptop) and producing a slew of awesome comparison metrics successful hopes of inspiring an upgrade. But is it worthy springing for a caller MacBook now? Let's return a look astatine nan numbers.

How nan M5 MacBook Pro compares to older models

So far, we've only sewage nan guidelines exemplary 14-inch MacBook Pro pinch nan caller M5 chip, starting astatine $1,599, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD, pinch nary announcements yet for nan MacBook Air aliases higher-tier MacBooks until apt opening of 2026.

In position of comparisons, Apple included an array of numbers to show disconnected immoderate beautiful important leaps forward: 1.6 times faster graphics capacity successful master apps, on pinch 1.6x higher framework rates successful games erstwhile compared to nan M4.

Up to 3.2 times higher framework rates while gaming compared to M1 (1.7 times faster than nan M4)

Up to 6.8 times faster 3D rendering successful Blender compared to M1 (1.6 times faster than nan M4)

Up to 7.7 times faster AI video-enhancing capacity successful Topaz Video compared to M1 (1.2 times faster than M4)

Another characteristic call-out for nan M5 is its faster SSD capacity erstwhile compared to erstwhile generations, and nan expertise to adhd much -- up to 4TB -- onto nan MacBook Pro. Apple says nan M5 features 2 times faster SSDs than nan M4, which correlates to faster capacity pinch LLMs.

When it comes to Intel-based chips, Apple is showing disconnected "staggering capacity gains" that propose a increasing chasm of powerfulness betwixt nan older chips and nan adjacent procreation of MacBook products. While nan earthy numbers don't lie, older chips are still perfectly competent for constricted usage cases and mundane tasks.

It says nan M5 spot has 86 times faster AI capacity than nan Intel chips, which is significant, but these older machines predate large-scale AI deployment; nary 1 was moving LLMs locally backmost successful 2018, and these machines wouldn't beryllium perfect candidates to tally them today.

Also: The caller iPad Pro's biggest upgrade isn't nan M5 spot - I'd bargain it for this characteristic instead

After each these numbers, there's 1 important metric:

The M5 spot has up to 2 times faster CPU capacity compared to M1

So, nan M5 is doubly arsenic accelerated erstwhile it comes to wide computing arsenic nan M1, which is notable, but each things considered, is not an earth-shattering amount, particularly erstwhile we're talking astir 5 generations. I statement this metric specifically because this reflects nan existent usage lawsuit consumers should attraction astir erstwhile comparing nan M1 MacBook (or its erstwhile Intel versions).

Most folks who still person these laptops usage them for mundane tasks and work-related applications, not gaming, moving LLMs locally, aliases 5K video editing. When it comes to those tasks, this metric stands retired successful comparison to nan M1, but if you person an M2, M3, aliases M4, it's moreover less.

Should I upgrade?

If you person an older MacBook and it useful good successful nan usage cases it was designed for, I wouldn't urge springing for a caller MacBook Pro M5 conscionable yet, arsenic nan biggest gains successful capacity revolve astir AI, graphics modeling, and nan bleeding separator of imaginative workflows.

The M1 MacBook Pro is conscionable arsenic well-suited for these tasks arsenic it was erstwhile it was released, particularly moving nan aforesaid macOS arsenic nan newest MacBooks. MacOS Tahoe, pinch nan Phone app, improvements to Spotlight and Quick Keys, and a personalized desktop, runs conscionable arsenic good connected Macs from nan past fewer years.

Also: 5 things I emotion astir MacOS 26 Tahoe aft 1 week pinch it connected my Mac

If, however, you are still moving an Intel Mac, you're apt dealing pinch decreased artillery capacity and slower wide performance. Going consecutive to a brand-new MacBook Pro M5 isn't your only option, though. Many of nan refurbished M1, M2, aliases M3 models are often connected waste and will apt dip further arsenic much M5 models are announced.

That being said, nan M5's hardware upgrades mightiness beryllium charismatic capable to seal nan deal. Starting pinch past year's M4, entry-level configurations of nan caller MacBooks travel pinch 16GB of unified RAM (up from 8GB) and an further Thunderbolt larboard (for a full of three). With an HDMI larboard and headphone jack, MacBook Pros are now importantly much port-equipped than immoderate Windows machines, for illustration nan Dell XPS 13.

The MacBook Pro M5 is presently connected preorder, pinch wide readiness starting connected October 22, 2025.