Last year, Apple made headlines for launching the MacBook Pro with the M5 chip. The launch came as a surprise to all. Now, the Cupertino-based tech giant has launched two new MacBook Pros, but this time, they were much-anticipated. For over a month, rumours of Apple planning to launch new MacBooks in the first half of the year have been doing the rounds. And recently, when Tim Cook confirmed a special event for March 4, speculations reached new heights. Then just last week, Cook had revealed that March 2 – 4 would be a big week for Apple. Yesterday, the iPhone 17e and iPad Air M4 were launched. And today, we have two new MacBook Pros joining Apple’s lineup.
In a press release, John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, said, ‘MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max redefines what’s possible on a pro laptop, now up to 4x faster than the previous generation. With Neural Accelerators in the GPU, the new MacBook Pro enables professionals to run advanced LLMs on device and unlock capabilities that no other laptop can do – all while maintaining exceptional battery life. Combined with even faster unified memory and storage, it empowers users to take their work even further, unleashing new possibilities and pushing the boundaries of what they can do.’
Now, without further ado, let’s take a look at what Apple’s latest MacBooks have to offer and what the upgrades are over the last generation of MacBook Pros with the M4 Pro and M4 Max chips.
Also read: Apple iPad Air M4 vs iPad Air M3: What’s new?
In India, the 14-inch MacBook Pro model powered by M5 Pro chip starts from Rs 2,49,900. The 16-inch variant costs Rs 2,99,900.
On the other hand, the 14-inch MacBook Pro model powered by M5 Max costs Rs 3,99,900 while the 16-inch model costs Rs 4,29,900.
Both laptops will be available for pre-ordering from 4 March, 7:45 PM IST.
The new MacBook Pro, powered by the M5 Pro chipset, has been launched in 14-inch and 16-inch form factors. Apple has promised some ‘game-changing performance and AI capabilities’ in the laptop. And this is all thanks to the newly unveiled M5 Pro and M5 Max chipsets.
Both chipsets feature an 18-core CPU. This includes six super cores, which Apple claims are the world’s fastest CPU cores, and 12 new performance cores designed for efficient multithreaded tasks. Compared to the previous generation, Apple says pro workflows can see up to 30% faster performance. When stacked against M1 Pro and M1 Max, multithreaded performance can go up to 2.5 times higher.
However, the biggest feature that will certainly gain attention is Apple’s new Fusion Architecture, on which the new chips are built. For the first time in this class of chips, Apple is combining two third-generation 3nm dies into a single system on a chip. This design integrates the CPU, GPU, Media Engine, unified memory controller, Neural Engine, and Thunderbolt 5 support into one tightly connected package with high bandwidth and low latency.
‘This innovative design combines two dies into a single system on a chip (SoC), which includes a powerful CPU, scalable GPU, Media Engine, unified memory controller, Neural Engine, and Thunderbolt 5 capabilities,’ Apple said in its press release.
The upgrades don’t end here. The new MacBook Pros are also superior in terms of graphics power. The M5 Pro supports up to a 20-core GPU, while the M5 Max scales up to a massive 40-core GPU. Apple claims over four times the peak GPU compute for AI compared to the previous generation. In apps that use ray tracing, graphics performance is said to be up to 35% higher than M4 Pro and up to 30% higher than M4 Max. For professionals working on 3D rendering, animation, or advanced visual effects, this roughly means faster previews and shorter render times.
Unified memory has also been expanded. M5 Pro supports up to 64 GB of unified memory with bandwidth up to 307 GB per second. M5 Max goes further, offering up to 128 GB of unified memory and bandwidth up to 614 GB per second. This is particularly important for AI researchers and developers working with large language models and massive datasets.
In 2026, no upgrade would be complete without AI. And Apple hasn’t forgotten that. Both chips include a faster 16-core Neural Engine with higher bandwidth access to memory. Each GPU core also features a Neural Accelerator, which means that the new laptops can deliver more than four times the peak GPU compute for AI compared to the previous generation. Thus, we can expect improved on-device AI performance, faster token generation for large models, and smoother AI-driven creative tools across macOS.
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