Apple has unveiled the M5, its next Apple silicon chip focused squarely on on-device AI. Headline upgrades include a next-gen 10-core GPU with a Neural Accelerator in every core (over 4× peak GPU compute vs. M4), a faster 16-core Neural Engine, and a nearly 30% jump in unified memory bandwidth to 153GB/s.
The first devices to get M5 are the new 14-inch MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Apple Vision Pro, all going up for pre-order today.
On the CPU side, Apple says M5 uses up to four performance cores and six efficiency cores and delivers up to 15% faster multithreaded performance over M4. The GPU adds Apple’s third-gen ray tracing plus second-gen dynamic caching for smoother gameplay and faster pro-app rendering, with up to 45% graphics gains in supported workloads compared to M4.
The AI story is bigger than the Neural Engine: those per-core GPU Neural Accelerators are designed to speed up diffusion models and LLMs in apps that tap Apple’s frameworks (Core ML, Metal Performance Shaders, Metal 4/Tensor APIs). Apple also calls out Apple Intelligence getting a lift from the faster AI blocks and memory bandwidth.
If you’ve been tracking the lead-up, today’s launch lines up with recent signals: our reports on stock delays hinting at M5 and Apple’s “coming soon” M5 MacBook Pro tease foreshadowed this moment, while our round-up on the M5 MacBook Pro outlined many of the expected gains.
For Vision Pro watchers, our FCC filing deep dive flagged the incoming chip refresh ahead of today. And for iPad, see when M5 iPad Pro would land and our event no-show analysis for the context that set the stage.
What it means for users: expect snappier Apple Intelligence features, faster local image generation and LLMs in supported apps, and better graphics/ray tracing in games and 3D tools. Apple says the new MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Vision Pro are available to pre-order today, with performance figures based on September 2025 testing. We’ll have hands-on impressions as soon as review units arrive.
