Five Years of Apple Silicon: M1 to M5 Performance Comparison

[MacRumors]

Today marks the fifth anniversary of the Apple silicon chip that replaced Intel chips in Apple's Mac lineup. The first Apple silicon chip, the M1, was unveiled on November 10, 2020. The M1 debuted in the MacBook Air, Mac mini, and 13-inch MacBook Pro.

The M1 chip was impressive when it launched, featuring the "world's fastest CPU core" and industry-leading performance per watt, and it's only improved since then. We've had five total generations of Apple silicon chips, with the M5 unveiled in the 14-inch MacBook Pro just last month.

Here's how the M5 measures up to the M1, per Apple's M5 specs:

• 6x faster CPU/GPU performance
• 6x faster AI performance
• 7.7x faster AI video processing
• 6.8x faster 3D rendering
• 2.6x faster gaming performance
• 2.1x faster code compiling

Geekbench comparison scores:

• M1 single-core - 2,320
• M5 single-core - 4,263
• M1 multi-core - 8,175
• M5 multi-core - 17,862
• M1 Metal - 33,041
• M5 Metal - 75,637

Both CPU and GPU performance have increased significantly over the past five years, and Apple has boosted AI and gaming performance too with add-ons like hardware-accelerated ray tracing and an ever-improving Neural Engine.

M1 Chip	M5 Chip
Made with TSMC's 5nm process (N5)	Made TSMC's third-generation 3nm process (N3P)
Based on A14 Bionic Pro chip from iPhone 12	Based on A19 Pro chip from iPhone 17 Pro
8-core CPU, 8-core GPU	10-core CPU, 10-core GPU
3.2 GHz CPU clock speed	4.61 GHz CPU clock speed
No integrated Neural Accelerators	Integrated Neural Accelerator in every GPU core
No ray tracing engine	Third-generation ray tracing engine
No dynamic caching	Second-generation dynamic caching
Support for up to 16GB unified memory	Support for up to 32GB unified memory
68.25 GB/s unified memory bandwidth	153 GB/s unified memory bandwidth

Apple sold Apple silicon Macs alongside Intel Macs for three years, but phased out the final Intel Mac in June 2023 when the 2019 Mac Pro was discontinued. Now all of Apple's devices have Apple chips, and we're even hitting the end of the road for Intel Mac software support. Intel Macs won't get software updates after macOS Tahoe.

Over the next five years, Apple silicon chip technology will continue to evolve. Apple supplier TSMC is already working on 2nm chips that could make an appearance as soon as 2026, offering a 10 to 15 percent speed improvement and a 25 to 30 percent power reduction. 1.4nm chips could follow as soon as 2028 for even more power and efficiency.

Article Link: Five Years of Apple Silicon: M1 to M5 Performance Comparison

 

[Thisismattwade]

The (base) M1 MBA is amazing. The M5's numbers are impressive, but aside from "using" the CPU and GPU I don't do any of the other things listed. That's why I'm typing this from my (base) M1 MBA with no plans to upgrade. (I can wait till the MBA gets an OLED display. 🤤 )

 

[Kylo83]

M1 Max is still over kill

 

[sniffies]

I'm still waiting for M-whatever Pro to outperform M1 Max.

Will it be M5 Pro or M6 Pro?

 

[tonywalker23]

The keynote was so exciting. Had a fairly new MacBook Pro (intel) that I traded in that brought the M1 MBA down to $149. With that  card 12 month thing, that made it $12.42 a month for 12 months. Was amazing. I remember the morning UPS dropped it off.
And like many of my other sentimental apple products, I wish I'd kept it.

 

[gank41]

My M1 MBP is still running great. I'm really struggling to find a reason to upgrade.

 

[DaveMcM76]

My M1 Mac Mini (16GB, 1TB) is still going strong running macOS Tahoe and showing no obvious signs of slowing down or struggling that would push me towards considering an upgrade. It replaced a Core i5 mid 2011 Mac Mini so felt like a rocket ship by comparison when I got it.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

I'm still waiting for M# Pro to outperform M1 Max.

Will it be M5 Pro or M6 Pro?

Well, the M5 outperforms the M1 Pro in all but memory bandwidth - so it could be next gen.

 

[tongxinshe]

During the same time period, all other competitors, Intel, AMD, Nvidia, Qualcomm and MediaTek, have achieved a MUCH MUCH larger performance jump than Apple.

 

[Nozuka]

Still using the first gen M1 Air. (Base Model)

Still does everything i need it to do and is fast as ever. But the battery is getting bad.

Will likely upgrade to the Pro, if it gets the rumored Tandem OLED screen.
M1 to M6 should be a great upgrade.

 

[Apple Fan 2008]

Still use an M1 Pro MBP every day, only issue I have is an aged battery.

 

[DMG35]

My M1 Mac Studio still runs perfectly. For that matter I have an iMac Pro that still runs as fast as the day I purchased it.

 

[Homy]

I'm still waiting for M-whatever Pro to outperform M1 Max.

Will it be M5 Pro or M6 Pro?

M4 Pro 20c is about as fast as M1 Max 32c in games so M5 Pro will outperform M1 Max for the first time.

 

[TestedLion]

My M1 specs are in my sig. It's an amazing machine - including battery.

 

[Reason077]

If anything, the M5 actually feels a bit slower now than the M1 did when it launched?

Despite best efforts, the Apple Silicon guys have struggled to keep pace with increasing macOS bloat and inefficiency.

 

[ambientdaw]

Music Producers still swear by the M1 vs any other chip since. Boggles the mind that his is the case. It is the way digital audio workstations utilize the cores, I believe. Why Apple?

 

[Homy]

During the same time period, all other competitors, Intel, AMD, Nvidia, Qualcomm and MediaTek, have achieved a MUCH MUCH larger performance jump than Apple.

Source for your claims?

 

[TheOldChevy]

I expected issues, glitches, compatibility concerns when Apple moved from Intel to own CPU, as well as then difficulties to further evolve and keep with others that have a larger customer base. I was wrong.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

My M1 MBP is still running great. I'm really struggling to find a reason to upgrade.

I went from an M1 Air to my M4 MBP. In day-to-day usage, I can't tell any difference in speed.

I doubt the M5 would be much different .

 

[neilw]

I'm still waiting for M-whatever Pro to outperform M1 Max.

Will it be M5 Pro or M6 Pro?

M5 Pro, probably. Already crushes the M1 Max in CPU... should just about match it or maybe slightly beat it in GPU.

 

[RumorConsumer]

I dont know that we'll ever see a top of the line chip that runs as cool as the M1 Max. Phenomenal performance and power consumption ratio.

 

[Corefile]

Does anybody need faster than an Intel Mac?

 

[Agent007]

Apple Silicon has been mostly great but they've been slacking on MacOS and there's no option for alternative OS like there was in the Intel days. Even Linux support is lacking major features like TB and display output. Granted, Windows has also gotten worse during this time frame so it wouldn't be an option anyway.

For its time, OS X was a better OS than MacOS is now. I HATE the iOSification of MacOS icons, menus, etc. I HATE having to do a song-and-a-dance just to install a non-Apple-blessed app - can't even be turned off in settings. And the bloatware that can't be deleted? Are you KIDDING ME?

I haven't installed MacOS 26 and don't plan to.

 

[RumorConsumer]

Does anybody need faster than an Intel Mac?

resounding yes are you kidding me

 

[navaira]

The keynote was so exciting. Had a fairly new MacBook Pro (intel) that I traded in that brought the M1 MBA down to $149. With that  card 12 month thing, that made it $12.42 a month for 12 months. Was amazing. I remember the morning UPS dropped it off.
And like many of my other sentimental apple products, I wish I'd kept it.

It was the best keynote of the last I don’t know how many years. I was so excited. And for once the reality was better than my expectations. Rosetta 2, no fan, amazing battery – all Just Worked (TM). The M1 Air is probably my favourite Apple device ever. I’m on a M4 MBP now, which is great, but doesn’t have that magical quality – I’m spoiled rotten now