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m5 vs m7

timize

timize

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 13, 2010
172
75
Columbus, Ohio
Hey guys,

I just bought the 2016 m5 MacBook last week. After testing both the m5 and m7 at the store, I couldn't really feel or see any noticeable speed differences. For those who own the m7 and have used it for a while, how do you think it compares, and do you recommend paying the extra money for the extra speed?

I am still in the return/exchange window, so any information is greatly appreciated!
 
I had both and kept the m5. I didn't notice much of a difference.
 
Just my 0.02$: If you can afford it, take the m7. The difference in performance should be around 10% or so as benchmarks on the Internet suggest.
 
When did Apple start carrying the m7 in their retail stores? At the time I bought mine I had to order it as a BTO.....

As for comparing the m5 and the m7, I haven't had experience with the m5. I read a lot of reviews and a lot of posts here and other places and decided that the m7 would suit my needs better. Mine is the m7 with 512 GB SSD. I have been very, very happy with it and glad that I made that choice!
 
M5 ans M7 perform great both have their strengths. The M5 is slightly slower but handles some more intense tasks better due to its temp regulation. It Runs cooler for longer and won't be throttled as soon as the M7 due to its lower clock Speed and heat it generates. The M7 is faster for short burst tasks like opening apps, rendering webpages, loading app media im photos/iTunes because of its faster clock speed. But will heat up and throttle down to pretty much M5 numbers to keep heat down. But this is only for large tasks like encoding video exporting media in FCPX. I went with went the M7/256 combo over the M5/512 combo as the power was more important than storage for me. Just based on your preference.
 
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M5 is fast enough for short burst, M7 is faster but not help for intensive task because of heat and TDP.
 
This is helpful...as I am currently trying to decide between m5/512GB and m7/256GB.

(although I still haven't made a final decision. LOL)

I have a mid-2012 cMBP that I purchased new in 2012. It is the 2.9GHz i7 (dual core), with 16GB of ram. (I also upgraded to a 512GB SSD...and just recently threw in a 1TB HDD and created a fusion drive, which is pure awesomeness, BTW) :)

I vacillate between keeping the MBP and going with a rMB. I have a late-2013 27" iMac (3.5 GHz core i7 (quad core) with 32GB of ram, 512GB of PCIe storage, and the 4MB GTX 780M graphics) that I use for heavy tasks. (primarily, podcast post-production work). I have two additional monitors hooked up to it (one 2560x1440 and one 2048x1152).

I used to own a 11.6" Macbook Air. I absolutely loved the form factor...but disliked the poor battery life (felt that, given the compromises with CPU, storage, etc...the battery life should have been MUCH better). The Macbook seems to fit the bill and be much better than that baby air I had a while back.

To totally go off topic...I just recently picked up a white, plastic unibody MB with the 2.4GHz Core2Duo. I maxed it out with 16GB of ram, and threw in a 128GB SSD and a 512GB HDD to create a fusion drive. The performance is way better than I expected. A very serviceable system to be sure. (I also re-pasted the CPU) .

Anyways. Anyone want to provide some info to nudge me in the direction of purchasing a 12" rMB??? :)
 
iMav said:
This is helpful...as I am currently trying to decide between m5/512GB and m7/256GB.

(although I still haven't made a final decision. LOL)

I have a mid-2012 cMBP that I purchased new in 2012. It is the 2.9GHz i7 (dual core), with 16GB of ram. (I also upgraded to a 512GB SSD...and just recently threw in a 1TB HDD and created a fusion drive, which is pure awesomeness, BTW) :)

I vacillate between keeping the MBP and going with a rMB. I have a late-2013 27" iMac (3.5 GHz core i7 (quad core) with 32GB of ram, 512GB of PCIe storage, and the 4MB GTX 780M graphics) that I use for heavy tasks. (primarily, podcast post-production work). I have two additional monitors hooked up to it (one 2560x1440 and one 2048x1152).

I used to own a 11.6" Macbook Air. I absolutely loved the form factor...but disliked the poor battery life (felt that, given the compromises with CPU, storage, etc...the battery life should have been MUCH better). The Macbook seems to fit the bill and be much better than that baby air I had a while back.

To totally go off topic...I just recently picked up a white, plastic unibody MB with the 2.4GHz Core2Duo. I maxed it out with 16GB of ram, and threw in a 128GB SSD and a 512GB HDD to create a fusion drive. The performance is way better than I expected. A very serviceable system to be sure. (I also re-pasted the CPU) .

Anyways. Anyone want to provide some info to nudge me in the direction of purchasing a 12" rMB??? :)
Click to expand...

For the longest time I/O speeds have been the bottle neck and not the cpu :) until recently which the super fast ssd have addressed.
 
iMav said:
This is helpful...as I am currently trying to decide between m5/512GB and m7/256GB.

(although I still haven't made a final decision. LOL)

I have a mid-2012 cMBP that I purchased new in 2012. It is the 2.9GHz i7 (dual core), with 16GB of ram. (I also upgraded to a 512GB SSD...and just recently threw in a 1TB HDD and created a fusion drive, which is pure awesomeness, BTW) :)

I vacillate between keeping the MBP and going with a rMB. I have a late-2013 27" iMac (3.5 GHz core i7 (quad core) with 32GB of ram, 512GB of PCIe storage, and the 4MB GTX 780M graphics) that I use for heavy tasks. (primarily, podcast post-production work). I have two additional monitors hooked up to it (one 2560x1440 and one 2048x1152).

I used to own a 11.6" Macbook Air. I absolutely loved the form factor...but disliked the poor battery life (felt that, given the compromises with CPU, storage, etc...the battery life should have been MUCH better). The Macbook seems to fit the bill and be much better than that baby air I had a while back.

To totally go off topic...I just recently picked up a white, plastic unibody MB with the 2.4GHz Core2Duo. I maxed it out with 16GB of ram, and threw in a 128GB SSD and a 512GB HDD to create a fusion drive. The performance is way better than I expected. A very serviceable system to be sure. (I also re-pasted the CPU) .

Anyways. Anyone want to provide some info to nudge me in the direction of purchasing a 12" rMB??? :)
Click to expand...
Either the m5 or m7 would be a great Mac to own. The battery life is decent. The display uses more power but the CPU uses less. It is smaller than the 11.6" Air but the 16:10 higher resolution screen makes it more usable IMO.
 
Personally, I went for m5 and 512gb of storage. m5 and m7 are not that far apart, but more storage and faster storage are more important to me. It depends on what you need/want from the rMB, but this is by far the best laptop Apple has ever offered. IMHO of course.

Super screen, pretty portable, and an amazing battery life :)
 
I've just bought a 2016 rMB M5, coming from a 2010 13" MBA. It really flies and the screen is amazing. I'd highly recommend it.
 
c0ppo said:
Personally, I went for m5 and 512gb of storage. m5 and m7 are not that far apart, but more storage and faster storage are more important to me. It depends on what you need/want from the rMB, but this is by far the best laptop Apple has ever offered. IMHO of course.

Super screen, pretty portable, and an amazing battery life :)
Click to expand...

You can get the m7 with 512GB too. Just sayin'. ;)
 
I love my MacBook 12 inch, but I think financially it only makes sense when you're at the base level. If you're a power user and feel like the extra 10% or 20% difference between the base and fully upgraded one will make a noticeable difference in your life, then this may not be the best or cheapest choice.

Think about it: The MacBook 12 Retina is $1749 when you go for M7 and 512GB SSD.

On the other hand, the MacBook Pro 13 without the touch bar is $1699 when you add 512GB SSD to it.

So now you're saving $50 AND getting an extra inch, a slightly nicer keyboard, and much more power, not to mention an extra USB-C port.

With the Pro you also have the option to go for 16GB of RAM. Granted, now the Pro becomes more expensive but only by $150, but the extra RAM could be worth it if you're a power user.

So unless you absolutely need the small size of the 12 inches and can't live with something that adds one extra inch and one extra pound, I'd go for the pro.
 
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Gregintosh said:
So unless you absolutely need the small size of the 12 inches and can't live with something that adds one extra inch and one extra pound, I'd go for the pro.
Click to expand...

It's a completely different category, really: the rMB feels much less heavy, has a much smaller footprint, has no fan noise (I absolutely hate any kind of fan noise!), at least in theory has much better battery performance, has fewer mechanical parts that can potentially fail etc.

I recently contemplated switching to the MBP with TB for the additional punch and TB3, but honestly I absolutely can't see myself going back from the rMB. Once you're used to its insanely small form factor and weight, you've most probably already crossed the point of no return. ;)
 
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caelius said:
It's a completely different category, really: the rMB feels much less heavy, has a much smaller footprint, has no fan noise (I absolutely hate any kind of fan noise!), at least in theory has much better battery performance, has fewer mechanical parts that can potentially fail etc.

I recently contemplated switching to the MBP with TB for the additional punch and TB3, but honestly I absolutely can't see myself going back from the rMB. Once you're used to its insanely small form factor and weight, you've most probably already crossed the point of no return. ;)
Click to expand...
Agreed
 
Gregintosh said:
I love my MacBook 12 inch, but I think financially it only makes sense when you're at the base level. If you're a power user and feel like the extra 10% or 20% difference between the base and fully upgraded one will make a noticeable difference in your life, then this may not be the best or cheapest choice.

Think about it: The MacBook 12 Retina is $1749 when you go for M7 and 512GB SSD.

On the other hand, the MacBook Pro 13 without the touch bar is $1699 when you add 512GB SSD to it.

So now you're saving $50 AND getting an extra inch, a slightly nicer keyboard, and much more power, not to mention an extra USB-C port.

With the Pro you also have the option to go for 16GB of RAM. Granted, now the Pro becomes more expensive but only by $150, but the extra RAM could be worth it if you're a power user.

So unless you absolutely need the small size of the 12 inches and can't live with something that adds one extra inch and one extra pound, I'd go for the pro.
Click to expand...

Best post on MacRumors I have ever seen.
 
Hi All,

I am planning to buy macbook but couldnt decide about buy m5 or m7?
I will use for daily things, mostly watch tv serials on internet, use social media, share my photograf of travel, listen music on spotify and simple office programs.

If I get m5 macbook will be slow after watch movies without stop 4-5 hours, or must be m7?
Thanks.
 
I was faced with the same choice - and went for the m5 with 512GB - that extra storage space is a much bigger plus IMO. The real term speed increase of the m7, when used for what I do (Web browsing, Office, downloading etc...) just wouldn't be noticed.
 
tpr007 said:
I was faced with the same choice - and went for the m5 with 512GB - that extra storage space is a much bigger plus IMO. The real term speed increase of the m7, when used for what I do (Web browsing, Office, downloading etc...) just wouldn't be noticed.
Click to expand...


Thanks for answer. Your (m5) macbook get hot after use all day anytime? If watch a few movies without stop while some tabs open its getting slow or hot?
 
I have an m3 and it does all those things fine, I even played Starcraft on it while outputting to a 4K TV. It didn't get hot and it didn't slow down in any way I could notice.

Think about it: the m7 is maybe 10% faster than the m5. That means something that took 10 seconds to load on the m5 would take 9 seconds on the m7. Without holding a stop watch, would you be able to tell the difference?
 
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