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Five Years of Apple Silicon: M1 to M5 Performance Comparison

Another base model 14" M1 Pro here. It's my daily driver, battery is still ok, prob because I'm mostly on power.
Was tempted by the M4 series, but now waiting on the M5 Pro.
 
zedsdead said:
The performance of Apple Silicon is very impressive, but it is not the reason I will be upgrading to new systems as a main driver, as the performance of the M1 Max is still very strong. I am looking for the following:

- Double the storage/ram for the same price (I know good luck...lol...)...and fast storage
- OLED in Macbook Pro
- Cellular in the MacBook lineup
- FaceID (what is taking so long!!!!)
- > 32" Studio Display or iMac with 120hz and at least mini-led
- Touchscreen (although not a need but it will be cool)
- Thinner 14" MBP (I actually wouldn't mind no HDMI for another Thunderbolt port but I know others would)
- If the new monitors require Thunderbolt 5 which they likely will, I will probably upgrade for that
- Wifi 7 and Bluetooth 6
- Would also love a new take on an ultraportable with an OLED screen ala the old 12" Macbook

* RAM and storage limits (some of which were my fault since I bought enough, but not enough of course) will get me to upgrade way before the performance of the M1/M2 lineup feels not performant enough.

That said, Apple Silicon has been AMAZING and the overall best thing for the Mac in a very long time.
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If we get just a few of those features, I’d probably buy it Day 1…

• Face ID
(I guess it takes sigificant effort to shrink it to fit in the screen)

• OLED 13” (MBA)
 
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asdfjkl; said:
It would be an interesting follow-up article to compare the AS improvements (CPU / GPU, AI, 3D rendering, code compilation, etc.) to Intel, AMD offerings. Would be interesting to see if AS is keeping pace, pulling ahead, falling behind compared to the x86 world.
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Though I think Apple's goals with their silicon is more than just performance. Power, heat and integration of other features Apple values being among the other goals.
 
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It was a drop after 1-1,5 year of my 2022 MacStudio M1 Max, but after that it’s been pretty even.
So my wallet are very happy to keep it for probably 2-4 yrs, we'll see.

My M3 MacBook Air 2024 (early) is as good as new. Have't noticed any drop of performance yet.

I miss Ive's design a bit though. Not so it hurts, but I wonder how devices had looked if Ive and the design-team was still around?
 
Is faster the same as better? My M1 Air is perfectly adequate for pontificating on MacRumors. And email, and news feeds. and Open AI, and everything else.

I'd say an M1 Air you can get for $499 or less is better than a shiny new one that will set me back $1,000.
 
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Kinda disappointed with the battery life on my M3 Max 14” MBP after two years. I think the last time I checked it was at about 88% health, but something seems to be draining it during use.

I often would have a lot of different apps open multitasking when working on it when I first got it. But I still got 10-12 hours of battery life. My job has changed and I multitask a bit less now, and yet I only get 3-5 hours. That doesn’t match the battery health reduction! I look at apps using significant energy and there is nothing unusual there, usually Safari or an Adobe app if I’ve been using one (I tend to keep them closed when not in use on battery). I haven’t updated to macOS 26 yet either. I wonder if there is some other background process that is causing the issue? Maybe something like BetterTouchTool? Idk.
 
macduke said:
Kinda disappointed with the battery life on my M3 Max 14” MBP after two years. I think the last time I checked it was at about 88% health, but something seems to be draining it during use.

I often would have a lot of different apps open multitasking when working on it when I first got it. But I still got 10-12 hours of battery life. My job has changed and I multitask a bit less now, and yet I only get 3-5 hours. That doesn’t match the battery health reduction! I look at apps using significant energy and there is nothing unusual there, usually Safari or an Adobe app if I’ve been using one (I tend to keep them closed when not in use on battery). I haven’t updated to macOS 26 yet either. I wonder if there is some other background process that is causing the issue? Maybe something like BetterTouchTool? Idk.
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Reinstall your OS from scratch
 
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Like many of you, using my m1 pro from 2021 daily. Going strong, still. No issues in the terms of compute power.

Considering how long ppl i know kept their 2012 intel macbook pro, i think the m1 MBP will last as a family machine until the battery dies. Great machine!
 
Recently got my 2025 ASUS 32" 6K display that is connected to my 2019 MBP 16" Core i7.

I'm waiting for the 2026 Mac mini M5 to drive it without HSF spinning up when watching 1080p YouTube.
 
What I missed in the comparison was how much the power consumption changes from the M1 to the M5. The changes in microarchitecture probably had a positive effect, but the increase in silicon size has the opposite effect.
 
East India Company said:
The M1 MBA was the best of all AS MBA because it had the best battery life of all of them. Apple in its M2 redesign, made sure to reduce the MBA to below the longevity of the MBP for reasons of product categorisation. The M2 was also less efficiency than the M1...
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The M2 series doubled the memory bandwidth, which was a fair trade-off for slightly less efficiency imho.
 
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I got my M1 Max Mac Studio in 2022. It was "stupidly fast" then, and it still is to this day. I have stayed with the macOS Monterey that it was delivered with, which KEEPS it fast. Also, no need to load it down with the inevitable increased bloatware in later releases of macOS. For now, Monterey works well for me, despite its ongoing tendency to nag me to upgrade.

What REALLY impressed me about the M1 Max Mac Studio though was that it runs Intel apps at about the same speed as they run on native Intel hardware! I read this back when I got the machine, but it was absolutely, subjectively true. My Mac Studio replaced a heavily upgraded 3.2 GHz octal core Intel Xeon Mac Pro, and a slight newer 3.4 GHz Intel i7 iMac. The SAME native Intel apps, copied from the Mac Pro and iMac to the Mac Studio, subjectively run at the same speed there as on Intel. Amazing! The M1 Max is an absolute beast of a chip.

This is a nice continuation of Apple history. They have built a few such "beasts" over their history. The late 2005 Power Mac G5 Quad was certainly a beast in its day, and it is STILL fully useful to this day, twenty years later. I use my G5 Quad daily, and do most of my work on it these days.

Every now and then, the stars align and Apple kicks out an absolute killer product. The late 2005 Power Mac G5 Quad was one such product. The M1 Max Mac Studio is another. I honestly think that my 2011 i7 iMac was yet another. Every now and then...
 
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With all the glowing thoughts on the Mac chip... the question becomes... when are you replacing yours?

I'm upgrading from a 2019 MBP 16" Core i7 to a 2026 Mac mini M5 and based on everyone's positive reviews it will likely get replaced with a 2037 M15.
 
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Like so many others, I have no current plans to upgrade my M1 Max Mac Studio. My M1 Max is a screamer. Typically, when processors get to be 2x faster than their predecessors, I upgrade, but as I watch the Apple Silicon progression, there has been no clear across-the-board 2x occurring. Perhaps the M5 will get me there?

On the other hand, as I do ever more work on my G5 Quad, the notion of upgrading my Mac Studio seems less and less worthwhile, almost irrelevant.
 
I can't believe it's been that long now. My M1 MacBook Air is still going strong, but with the new full-time I.T. job I'll be working, by February I should be ready to order my next Apple Silicon Mac, and I am looking to get an M4 Pro Mac Mini with at least 48 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD (provided Apple doesn't plan to revise the Mac Minis later in the winter or early spring; if they don't plan to do so until autumn then I'll still buy one).
The way the Intel to Apple Silicon transition started also mirrors the PowerPC to Intel transition, the way the first few Macs to make the switch were pretty much somewhat modified versions of their PowerPC predecessors:
CD7FF771-782C-4725-A436-8C13F1074753_1_105_c.jpeg

The original Intel Core Duo iMac and MacBook Pro were pretty much just an iMac G5 and PowerBook G4 with Intel motherboards, with the latter also adding a MagSafe power connector and an iSight webcam. Then the first Intel Mac Minis also looked similar to the G4 version but with a different set of ports in the back. The polycarbonate MacBook was the first Intel Mac to sport an all-new design, akin to the M1 iMac being redesigned from its Intel predecessors.
As of now, the only Apple Silicon Mac that still shares a design with its Intel predecessor is the Mac Pro, in the same 2009 "grater" tower design, and is fundamentally an Ultra-chip Mac Studio with PCI slots.
 
mrmod said:
sooo barely any faster...jk 😄. Upgraded the wifi to AC, replaced the battery 2x, replaced the thermal compound and installed macOS Sequoia via OpenCore. She still works great. Holding out for a MBP M6 Max.
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Er, you should rethink the "Max" part. If you don't mind using a 2012 machine there is no reason to spend on more power than base, unless you really need the RAM all of a sudden.
 
mac57mac57 said:
I got my M1 Max Mac Studio in 2022. It was "stupidly fast" then, and it still is to this day. I have stayed with the macOS Monterey that it was delivered with, which KEEPS it fast. Also, no need to load it down with the inevitable increased bloatware in later releases of macOS. For now, Monterey works well for me, despite its ongoing tendency to nag me to upgrade.

What REALLY impressed me about the M1 Max Mac Studio though was that it runs Intel apps at about the same speed as they run on native Intel hardware! I read this back when I got the machine, but it was absolutely, subjectively true. My Mac Studio replaced a heavily upgraded 3.2 GHz octal core Intel Xeon Mac Pro, and a slight newer 3.4 GHz Intel i7 iMac. The SAME native Intel apps, copied from the Mac Pro and iMac to the Mac Studio, subjectively run at the same speed there as on Intel. Amazing! The M1 Max is an absolute beast of a chip.

This is a nice continuation of Apple history. They have built a few such "beasts" over their history. The late 2005 Power Mac G5 Quad was certainly a beast in its day, and it is STILL fully useful to this day, twenty years later. I use my G5 Quad daily, and do most of my work on it these days.

Every now and then, the stars align and Apple kicks out an absolute killer product. The late 2005 Power Mac G5 Quad was one such product. The M1 Max Mac Studio is another. I honestly think that my 2011 i7 iMac was yet another. Every now and then...
Click to expand...
I loved my 2011 i7 iMac too... I owned a couple unfortunately because there was a flaw in the GPU that caused it to fail after a few years. I lucked out the first time because it was still covered by AppleCare, but the same thing happened to the replacement a few years later, and a repair cost as much as a new iMac. A couple interim iMacs later I finally regained Mac bliss with this M2 Max Studio. I was a bit wary of going from 128gb of RAM down to 32gb, but amazingly it hasn't been an issue.
 
Wow! What a difference. I’m still using my M1 Macbook, I use it casually and for school, so I don’t feel the need to upgrade. When I do it’ll be a big leap though.
 
My M1 Max Studio is still stupidly fast. I can run LM Studio just fine although the models can't get to a lot of things I want info on. The only time I shut it off is to clean under it
 
Apple Fan 2008 said:
Still use an M1 Pro MBP every day, only issue I have is an aged battery.
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Replace the battery. I did that a couple of days ago using the iFixIt repair guide.

Or have it replaced. Cheaper than a new laptop, especially when the current one still works well. I am now back at 100% battery health (even 101% as coconut battery says).

I paid like 55€ for the battery. So, I guess that‘s not too much. Hope to have my M1 pro another 3,5 years. It’s still going strong. 💪

edit: clarification
 
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