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M4 Pro vs M5 for same price?

Southernboyj

Southernboyj

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 8, 2012
1,700
85
Mobile, AL
My local Best Buy has an open box M4 Pro MBP 14" in open box excellent for $1,600. I've already looked at it and it looks brand-new, has 1 charge cycle, and was purchased and returned last week so I think the buyer just had buyers remorse.

For the same price would you choose the M5/16GB/512GB or M4 Pro/24GB/512GB?
 
I would choose the M4 Pro no doubt. But I don’t think that’s the right choice for everyone. For the consumer who really doesn’t have any demanding workloads, the M5 could be better. It’s faster for single threaded operations where memory isn’t a concern and might provide one more year of software support down the road. To those for whom it matters it also has better ai performance when not memory bound. M4 Pro has more general horsepower.

But it depends on the use case
 
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I would opt for the M4 Pro. Thunderbolt 5. Better screen and more memory. SDXC slot. In the majority of use you will not need the increased speed of the M5. The M5 does not have Thunderbolt 5. I think that will become more important in the future. Those that need that extra speed know who they are and will not be debating between the M4 and M5. The additional memory on the M4, better screen, and Thunderbolt 5 will serve you better. Just my opinion.
 
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raythompsontn said:
I would opt for the M4 Pro. Thunderbolt 5. Better screen and more memory. SDXC slot. In the majority of use you will not need the increased speed of the M5. The M5 does not have Thunderbolt 5. I think that will become more important in the future. Those that need that extra speed know who they are and will not be debating between the M4 and M5. The additional memory on the M4, better screen, and Thunderbolt 5 will serve you better. Just my opinion.
Click to expand...

They both have the exact screen, body, and both have the SDXC slot.
 
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haralds said:
I am very, very happy with my M4 Pro - 24GB/2TB.
The screen, sound, performance, battery life, and form factor are all great.
Click to expand...

I sent with the M4 Pro 14". I'm coming from a MBP 16" M1 Max. Bought the 16" new back in 2021 and just grew tired of the size and weight. A few hours in and so far the weight and size of this one feels really nice.
 
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Hi,

Overall, M4pro and M5 are almost on par.

As already mentioned, M5 as better single core performance, M4pro better multicore performance.
Regarding graphics (gaming and 3D-intensive tasks) chips are almost identical.

Apple M5 (10-Core) vs M4 Pro (12-Core): performance comparison

We compared Apple M5 (10-Core) (4.61 GHz) against M4 Pro (12-Core) (4.51 GHz) in games and benchmarks. Find out which CPU has better performance.
nanoreview.net nanoreview.net

However, if you need more power, wait for the M5pro chips which will be released early 2026 (rumors).
 
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All else being equal, I’d go with the M4 Pro. If the MacBook does some heavy lifting at times you’ll probably appreciate the dual-fans over the single fan of the M5. And the TB5 ports vs TB4 might actually be more “future proof” for your use case than the newer M5 chip.

If you do any light AI work, the 24GB RAM and 273GB/sec memory bandwidth might serve you better over the 16GB/153 of the M5. The dual-fans would help in this scenario, too.

And, although it doesn’t apply to your case, if anyone finds the same price-matched deal in Europe, the M4 Pro would actually be the cheaper buy because you wouldn’t have to pay £60 for the power brick.

I have the M4 Pro MBP (24GB/1TB), which is the 14/20, and I wouldn’t swap it for the base MBP.
 
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JSRinUK said:
All else being equal, I’d go with the M4 Pro. If the MacBook does some heavy lifting at times you’ll probably appreciate the dual-fans over the single fan of the M5. And the TB5 ports vs TB4 might actually be more “future proof” for your use case than the newer M5 chip.

If you do any light AI work, the 24GB RAM and 273GB/sec memory bandwidth might serve you better over the 16GB/153 of the M5. The dual-fans would help in this scenario, too.

And, although it doesn’t apply to your case, if anyone finds the same price-matched deal in Europe, the M4 Pro would actually be the cheaper buy because you wouldn’t have to pay £60 for the power brick.

I have the M4 Pro MBP (24GB/1TB), which is the 14/20, and I wouldn’t swap it for the base MBP.
Click to expand...

I agree.

Anyway, Whatever decision is made, I would definitely go with at least 24 GB of RAM.
I have a MBP M5 with 24 GB RAM, using Luminar Neo for foto editing (with AI). Processing takes only seconds; and the fan is not even audible.
 
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It really comes down to your usage needs.

The open box one is likely beyond being able to have Apple Care added to it, in case that matters to you
 
M4 Pro significantly outperforms M5 in almost everything including gaming. There's a couple rare single thread workloads where it's not true, but those are very corner cases. M4P clobbers the M5 in core count and memory bandwidth.

Perfect condition M4P? I'd get that.
 
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JPack said:
M4 Pro significantly outperforms M5 in almost everything including gaming. There's a couple rare single thread workloads where it's not true, but those are very corner cases. M4P clobbers the M5 in core count and memory bandwidth.
Perfect condition M4P? I'd get that.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't agree with the first - maybe also with the second - statement...
This one I agree “M4P clobbers the M5 in core count and memory bandwidth.”
 
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JPack said:
M4 Pro significantly outperforms M5 in almost everything including gaming. There's a couple rare single thread workloads where it's not true, but those are very corner cases. M4P clobbers the M5 in core count and memory bandwidth.

Perfect condition M4P? I'd get that.
Click to expand...
The M4 Pro is just marginally better in performance..the M5 however has a big advantage..battery life
 
fpenta said:
The M4 Pro is just marginally better in performance..the M5 however has a big advantage..battery life
Click to expand...

Not sure where this idea that performance is "marginally" better is coming from.

Whether you're talking gaming, media editing, or AI, the M4 Pro is significantly better.

The only thing "marginal" is the battery life. 24 hours (M5) vs. 22 hours (M4 Pro).

1762289260971.png
1762289270958.png1762289297097.png
1762289304661.png
 
JPack said:
Not sure where this idea that performance is "marginally" better is coming from.

Whether you're talking gaming, media editing, or AI, the M4 Pro is significantly better.

The only thing "marginal" is the battery life. 24 hours (M5) vs. 22 hours (M4 Pro).

View attachment 2576156
View attachment 2576157View attachment 2576158
View attachment 2576159
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M4 Pro is definitely faster - But I am assuming you are here comparing a full M4 Pro with the M5. I would guess the OP here was debating M4 Pro Binned vs. M5, so the difference would be less than in your screenshots
 
casperes1996 said:
M4 Pro is definitely faster - But I am assuming you are here comparing a full M4 Pro with the M5. I would guess the OP here was debating M4 Pro Binned vs. M5, so the difference would be less than in your screenshots
Click to expand...

The screenshots show a binned M4 Pro in the Mac mini. It is the only "Pro" chip available in the mini. It is the same chip as $1,999 MBP M4 Pro.
 
JPack said:
Not sure where this idea that performance is "marginally" better is coming from.

Whether you're talking gaming, media editing, or AI, the M4 Pro is significantly better.

The only thing "marginal" is the battery life. 24 hours (M5) vs. 22 hours (M4 Pro).

View attachment 2576156
View attachment 2576157View attachment 2576158
View attachment 2576159
Click to expand...



In real-world tests, the M4 Pro is faster, but not by much. However, if you look at the end of this video, you’ll see that its battery life is significantly worse so you’re getting only a marginal performance gain for a noticeably less efficient machine.
 
fpenta said:


In real-world tests, the M4 Pro is faster, but not by much. However, if you look at the end of this video, you’ll see that its battery life is significantly worse so you’re getting only a marginal performance gain for a noticeably less efficient machine.
Click to expand...

There's not a single real-world test performed in that video. He runs Geekbench but nothing else. The video is largely screenshots of Apple marketing claims. I didn't see a battery life test.
 
JPack said:
There's not a single real-world test performed in that video. He runs Geekbench but nothing else. The video is largely screenshots of Apple marketing claims. I didn't see a battery life test.
Click to expand...
Sorry I posted the wrong video..
This is the one I wanted to share


 
JPack said:
The screenshots show a binned M4 Pro in the Mac mini. It is the only "Pro" chip available in the mini. It is the same chip as $1,999 MBP M4 Pro.
Click to expand...
Alright. Very cool :)
Not sure what you mean that it’s the only pro chip for the mini though. I just checked and you can absolutely order a mini with the 14+20 core full m4 pro.
 
JPack said:
Not sure where this idea that performance is "marginally" better is coming from.

Whether you're talking gaming, media editing, or AI, the M4 Pro is significantly better.

The only thing "marginal" is the battery life. 24 hours (M5) vs. 22 hours (M4 Pro).

View attachment 2576156
View attachment 2576157View attachment 2576158
View attachment 2576159
Click to expand...

For serious comparison you should compare M4pro and M5 with same configurations - and not 48 GB vs. 32 GB RAM, for example.

As already mentioned in this thread, M5 is almost on par with M4pro and whether M4pro or M5 depends on your usage behavior. M4pro has more bandwidth than M5 but M5 has faster RAM speed than M4pro.
For a lot of multitasking and heavy load, M4 pro is yours - for mixed use I would say M5.
 
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I literally can not understand or foresee purchasing mb “pro” with such an insulting lack of ram

I understand for me I’m going to be upgrading to more memory than a base amount

But 16!?! That’s just insulting…. Oh did you want 4 tires with your new car, well…
 
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