iPad Pro If you have 1TB M4 iPad Pro, is M5 a skip?

[soulreaver99]

I have an M1 iPad Pro and the M5 is still a skip

 

[Whisper9999]

Perhaps the real question should be - what quality of life improvements could an upgrade even offer? I’d be surprised if anyone is genuinely feeling limited by the performance of an M4 iPad. And if someone is, I’d be curious to know what they’re doing with it, because I can’t even get my M2 to break a sweat!

I’m upgrading from 13 inch M4 with 256mb to 13 inch M5 with 2TB. I have several reasons for this. One is my wife is using my M1 which feels like brick when she sees my M4 - that’s hers now. I also want to have heaps of vids/media files, basically I don’t want to back up holiday pics/vids etc, want them all at my finger tips, also fave tv shows/movies/sports/music - 2TB will be awesome for that. I’m recently retired and use my ipad every day for hours, life is short and I’m not short of $ so why not pamper myself with the best? I asked GROK AI should I upgrade in my position and it was a resounding yes, I deserve it : )

 

[pdoherty]

If you have 1TB M4 iPad Pro, is the M5 a skip? Or is there enough there with other upgrades to proceed?

There's no way I would upgrade if you already had a 1TB/16GB M4 iPad. I have two 16GB/1TB models (M1 and M2) and I'm not upgrading either (mostly to avoid PWM issues with the OLED displays).

 

[CalMin]

I’m upgrading from 13 inch M4 with 256mb to 13 inch M5 with 2TB. I have several reasons for this. One is my wife is using my M1 which feels like brick when she sees my M4 - that’s hers now. I also want to have heaps of vids/media files, basically I don’t want to back up holiday pics/vids etc, want them all at my finger tips, also fave tv shows/movies/sports/music - 2TB will be awesome for that. I’m recently retired and use my ipad every day for hours, life is short and I’m not short of $ so why not pamper myself with the best? I asked GROK AI should I upgrade in my position and it was a resounding yes, I deserve it : )

Nice! That said you’re not upgrading because the M4 is too slow, but rather because your storage needs have grown. I have a 2TB M2 iPad Pro and it’s really nice to have all that space available.

And good luck with Grok as a decision partner. —-> Your wife will make out good in the divorce after Ani gives you marriage advice, you’ll start believing we live in a simulation, you will replace your car with a Tesla, and ditch your ISP for Starlink. Oh, and you’ll ban all Apple devices from your home. Let me know how that works out. 😉

 

[Digitalguy]

Nice! That said you’re not upgrading because the M4 is too slow, but rather because your storage needs have grown. I have a 2TB M2 iPad Pro and it’s really nice to have all that space available.

That's exactly the point I made above, the vast majority of people don't upgrade for performance since the M iPads, but for other reasons such as screen, weight, RAM, storage etc.

 

[CalMin]

That's exactly the point I made above, the vast majority of people don't upgrade for performance since the M iPads, but for other reasons such as screen, weight, RAM, storage etc.

Too right!

I also have a 64GB iPad Pro from 2018. I dropped it and cracked the screen, so while it still works (screen protector and painters tape... 😬) it's just a bedtime reader now.

That said, apart from the lack of Apple intelligence, the thing still runs iPadOS 26 brilliantly. It feels like 64GB barely holds the OS and a few apps these days, so I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, but if not for that, it would still be a very capable iPad for most folks!

Storage has been my number one reason for upgrading over the last decade. I rarely get constrained by RAM, but I always feel like I don't have enough SSD space. I have a 1TB iPhone, a 2TB Macbook Air, and 2TB iPad. Let's just say I pay a lot of 'Apple tax'.

 

[FrozenDarkness]

I went to checkout the M5 in the applestore and I'm not sure if it's all mental, but window mode seems much smoother on M5 than M4... Anybody else have this experience?

 

[richpjr]

Well, I told myself I wasn't going to go from the M4 to the M5 13"...but I saw that Best Buy had them for $50 off and their trade in was $780 for the base M4...and I caved. Restoring it now!

My real reason was 120hz output for an external monitor.

 

[JCCL]

I went to checkout the M5 in the applestore and I'm not sure if it's all mental, but window mode seems much smoother on M5 than M4... Anybody else have this experience?

It will always seem smoother on a demo device than on a real user device with tons of apps and stuff. In practice they work the same.

 

[DeepSix]

The device should come with a 100ft cable, no excuses. Not everyone charges near an outlet.

 

[Beanoir]

skip, not worth it, no point consuming for consuming sake.

 

[Beanoir]

I think too many people have oversimplified what are big differences between the M4 & M5. Agreed, it a dollar decision for many - maybe most, and certainly it a “what do I need” decision. Logical. I offer the following for your consideration when making your decision.

The base model of the M5 iPad Pro (256GB storage) features a 10-core CPU (4 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores). In contrast, the base model of the M4 iPad Pro (256GB storage) has a 9-core CPU (3 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores). Therefore, yes, the base M5 iPad Pro processor has more cores—specifically, one additional performance core—than the base M4 iPad Pro.

• CPU Performance: The M5 delivers up to 20% faster multi-core CPU performance in Geekbench 6 tests compared to the M4. Single-core scores also improve (e.g., from ~3,748 on M4 to ~4,133 on M5). Clock speeds are similar (~4.4 GHz for performance cores on both), but architectural improvements and the extra performance core in the M5 provide the edge. Apple describes the M5’s CPU cores as the “world’s fastest.”

My 2017 IPP has a single-core score of just 966 vs 4133 on M5, and multi-core score of 2395 vs much higher on M5

• M5 GPU Performance: Up to 40% faster than M4 in Geekbench Compute tests, thanks to a redesigned 10-core GPU with Neural Accelerators in each core and third-generation ray tracing. This results in up to 1.5x faster 3D rendering with ray tracing (1 TB memory models only…) and smoother graphics for gaming or creative apps.

2017 IPP GPU speed: 8994

2024 M4 GPU speed: 56,000

2025 M5 GPU speed: 76,137 (+36% faster than M4)

These are apples to apples comparisons (no pun intended)

• AI/ML Performance: The biggest leap is in AI tasks, with up to 3.5x faster performance via the enhanced 16-core Neural Engine and GPU accelerators. This benefits on-device features like image generation in apps (e.g., Draw Things) or video masking in DaVinci Resolve.

• Other Factors: The base M5 model includes 12GB unified RAM (up 50% from 8GB on M4 base) and ~150 GB/s memory bandwidth (25-30% more than M4’s 120 GB/s), enabling better multitasking and sustained workloads. Storage read/write speeds are also ~2x faster.

These gains come from the M5’s third-generation 3nm process refinements, without major power draw increases.

Further, the M5 IPP has WiFi 7 (802.11be), bluetooth 6, and the Apple C1X cellular modem(supporting 5G sub-6 GHz with 4x4 MIMO (multiple input/multiple output) and Gigabit LTE with 4x4 MIMO in Wi-Fi + Cellular models). These specs apply to both the 11-inch and 13-inch models. So, the M4 is clearly NOT the same as the new M5 model.

and meanwhile, in the real world where people use their iPads, most of the above is meaningless.