Upgrading from a 13 inch M3 MacBook Air to 16 inch M5 Max MacBook Pro - what performance increase should I expect?

[Gourlish]

I've had a 13 inch M3 (10 GPU core) MacBook Air with 16GB RAM and a 1TB SSD for a couple of years, and while it's a good machine for most things, there are some tasks, mainly GPU or RAM intensive ones, where it clearly shows its limits, and I was also finding having just 1TB of built in storage a pain since I have to constantly use it with an external SSD with my lossless audio files and DSLR RAW photos, which currently take up around 1.5TB combined. Last week I ordered a 16 inch M5 Max (40 GPU core) MacBook Pro with 64GB of RAM and a 4TB SSD with some money I had in savings, and it's due to come in a few days time (I'm planning to sell my MacBook Air to someone). I chose to buy it with specs that should still be good for my needs in around 5 years time, and I'm wondering what performance boost I can expect to gain over my current MacBook Air?

I suspect based on what I know about the two machines that it's roughly along the lines of the following:

Single core CPU performance: 1.4x
Multi core CPU performance: 2.5x
GPU performance: About 5x in terms of raw performance (4x the number of cores plus a core architecture that is 2 generations newer), but probably around 10x when it comes to sustained GPU tasks due to the Pro's fans which reduce throttling
Disk speed: 4-5x
Memory bandwidth speed: 6x

I think device snappiness is primarily based on single core performance, but I suspect SSD speed and memory bandwidth also play a role, making real world snappiness (which is fine on my M3 Air when not doing intensive tasks) likely feel about 2-3x in practice, particularly when it comes to launching software.

 

[benholt]

running the M3 Max here for motion graphics work - the thing that catches most people off guard coming from a fanless Air isn't the raw CPU/GPU jump, it's that the Pro can sustain peak performance indefinitely. the Air throttles hard on anything that runs long; the Pro just holds the line. for extended RAW culling sessions or big batch operations you'll notice that more than any benchmark. and if you were actually hitting memory pressure on 16GB, going to 64GB isn't just an upgrade - it effectively removes a ceiling you were constantly bumping against. the 40-core GPU on the Max will also make a real difference for any ML or GPU compute work.

 

[unkl bob]

I've had a 13 inch M3 (10 GPU core) MacBook Air with 16GB RAM and a 1TB SSD for a couple of years, and while it's a good machine for most things, there are some tasks, mainly GPU or RAM intensive ones, where it clearly shows its limits, and I was also finding having just 1TB of built in storage a pain since I have to constantly use it with an external SSD with my lossless audio files and DSLR RAW photos, which currently take up around 1.5TB combined. Last week I ordered a 16 inch M5 Max (40 GPU core) MacBook Pro with 64GB of RAM and a 4TB SSD with some money I had in savings, and it's due to come in a few days time (I'm planning to sell my MacBook Air to someone). I chose to buy it with specs that should still be good for my needs in around 5 years time, and I'm wondering what performance boost I can expect to gain over my current MacBook Air?

I suspect based on what I know about the two machines that it's roughly along the lines of the following:

Single core CPU performance: 1.4x
Multi core CPU performance: 2.5x
GPU performance: About 5x in terms of raw performance (4x the number of cores plus a core architecture that is 2 generations newer), but probably around 10x when it comes to sustained GPU tasks due to the Pro's fans which reduce throttling
Disk speed: 4-5x
Memory bandwidth speed: 6x

I think device snappiness is primarily based on single core performance, but I suspect SSD speed and memory bandwidth also play a role, making real world snappiness (which is fine on my M3 Air when not doing intensive tasks) likely feel about 2-3x in practice, particularly when it comes to launching software.

it will be a lot easier to read...

 

[Gourlish]

running the M3 Max here for motion graphics work - the thing that catches most people off guard coming from a fanless Air isn't the raw CPU/GPU jump, it's that the Pro can sustain peak performance indefinitely. the Air throttles hard on anything that runs long; the Pro just holds the line. for extended RAW culling sessions or big batch operations you'll notice that more than any benchmark. and if you were actually hitting memory pressure on 16GB, going to 64GB isn't just an upgrade - it effectively removes a ceiling you were constantly bumping against. the 40-core GPU on the Max will also make a real difference for any ML or GPU compute work.

The CPU on the MacBook Air isn't prone to throttling by itself, but in my experience it is sustained GPU heavy tasks that cause it to throttle. I think the M5 Max's GPU by itself delivers approximately 4.5-5x the raw performance of the 10-GPU core base M3, but the much faster (6x) memory bandwidth along with active cooling mean that for sustained tasks (eg: video processing, a GPU-intensive game or an AI model task) performance is probably likely to be around 10x faster.

In the case of Minecraft (without Metal or Vulkan mods that give a further performance boost) I get, with a 32 chunk render distance, around 60-120fps on my base M3 MacBook Air, while using a shader such as Complementary Unbound tends to give initial rendering speeds of around 30-40fps before dropping to an unplayable 10-20fps after a few minutes as the machine throttles. From what I've seen on YouTube the 40-GPU core M5 Max is capable of giving a sustained average of around 60fps with Complementary Unbound combined with the Distant Horizons mod (which vastly increases rendering distance) set to 256 chunks, and probably performs in the 120-160fps range with Distant Horizons switched off. I didn't choose an M5 Max primarily for Minecraft (a Windows gaming laptop would be a better option), but wanted to buy a Mac that I would still be satisfied with in several years time.


I've read some things suggesting that the M5 Max chip does throttle a little on the 14 inch model due to the fact that it's pushing the limits of both the body and TSMC's 3nm process (which the M3 and M4 also used), but I think the 16 inch model is less prone to these issues, despite the fact that it has the 40-GPU core option while the 14 inch version is limited to 32 GPU cores.


I believe there are currently a few things such as Adobe Lightroom exports where the M5 Max currently performs worse than the M4 Max or even the M3 Max. Is this down to certain software utilising features that their developer hasn't yet optimised for the new core architecture in the M5 models (perhaps things that relied on the 12 old performance cores in the M4 Max which are now having to rely on the 6 slightly faster "super cores" without also taking advantage of the 12 slightly slower performance cores in the M5 Max)?

 

[bursthead]

I went from a 16in M3 Pro with 18gb to the new 16in M5 Max with 64gb. The biggest difference that i'm having at the moment is that the battery life is terrible on the Max machines. I feel all they did for this release is remove the caps that kept the M3 best in class with battery life and moderate performance. I never heard the fan on my m3 pro more than a few times, but the m5 feels more like a gaming PC or desktop replacement.

Unfortunately I already missed my return window, so I cant return this for another device.

 

[Petite messe solennelle]

I went from a 16in M3 Pro with 18gb to the new 16in M5 Max with 64gb. The biggest difference that i'm having at the moment is that the battery life is terrible on the Max machines. I feel all they did for this release is remove the caps that kept the M3 best in class with battery life and moderate performance. I never heard the fan on my m3 pro more than a few times, but the m5 feels more like a gaming PC or desktop replacement.

When running the M5 on battery power, did you have the same performance setting in System Preferences as you did with the M3?

 

[PBG4 Dude]

The CPU on the MacBook Air isn't prone to throttling by itself, but in my experience it is sustained GPU heavy tasks that cause it to throttle. I think the M5 Max's GPU by itself delivers approximately 4.5-5x the raw performance of the 10-GPU core base M3, but the much faster (6x) memory bandwidth along with active cooling mean that for sustained tasks (eg: video processing, a GPU-intensive game or an AI model task) performance is probably likely to be around 10x faster.

In the case of Minecraft (without Metal or Vulkan mods that give a further performance boost) I get, with a 32 chunk render distance, around 60-120fps on my base M3 MacBook Air, while using a shader such as Complementary Unbound tends to give initial rendering speeds of around 30-40fps before dropping to an unplayable 10-20fps after a few minutes as the machine throttles. From what I've seen on YouTube the 40-GPU core M5 Max is capable of giving a sustained average of around 60fps with Complementary Unbound combined with the Distant Horizons mod (which vastly increases rendering distance) set to 256 chunks, and probably performs in the 120-160fps range with Distant Horizons switched off. I didn't choose an M5 Max primarily for Minecraft (a Windows gaming laptop would be a better option), but wanted to buy a Mac that I would still be satisfied with in several years time.


I've read some things suggesting that the M5 Max chip does throttle a little on the 14 inch model due to the fact that it's pushing the limits of both the body and TSMC's 3nm process (which the M3 and M4 also used), but I think the 16 inch model is less prone to these issues, despite the fact that it has the 40-GPU core option while the 14 inch version is limited to 32 GPU cores.


I believe there are currently a few things such as Adobe Lightroom exports where the M5 Max currently performs worse than the M4 Max or even the M3 Max. Is this down to certain software utilising features that their developer hasn't yet optimised for the new core architecture in the M5 models (perhaps things that relied on the 12 old performance cores in the M4 Max which are now having to rely on the 6 slightly faster "super cores" without also taking advantage of the 12 slightly slower performance cores in the M5 Max)?

I have an M5 Max 14” with 18/40 core counts. It will definitely throttle in the 14” case if you don’t use a program to max the fans out. Did some Cinebench 2026 tests for example and with default fan curve scored 78K multi and with maxed fans scored 92K.

 

[Gourlish]

My 16 inch M5 Max MacBook Pro came on Thursday and its performance is amazing. It does however seem to have some WiFi performance issues on my home network (slower TX speeds than my M3 Air), which I'm hoping is only linked to my rather dated router.

 

[bursthead]

When running the M5 on battery power, did you have the same performance setting in System Preferences as you did with the M3?

I have to run low power on the m5 max if im away from a charger. I can't run any LLM or Image generation on battery power or it will drain like crazy. It also may have been since i just hit 14 days with the laptop. It could have been indexing this entire time.

 

[bursthead]

My 16 inch M5 Max MacBook Pro came on Thursday and its performance is amazing. It does however seem to have some WiFi performance issues on my home network (slower TX speeds than my M3 Air), which I'm hoping is only linked to my rather dated router.

Might be the new wifi chipset. They want to push you into a newer router.

 

[dmccombs]

The Ports on the M5 Max are TB5, so you can utilize fast external disks if you don't want to spend the $$$ on a large internal SSD.

 

[dblissmn]

The cooling system on the M-series 16 inch computers is very robust, so echoing the comments about the system just keeping on going without throttling. The 14-inch pro cooling system isn't quite up to the task; it really should have a vapor chamber if they can't fit a second fan and a larger heatsink.

 

[PBG4 Dude]

The cooling system on the M-series 16 inch computers is very robust, so echoing the comments about the system just keeping on going without throttling. The 14-inch pro cooling system isn't quite up to the task; it really should have a vapor chamber if they can't fit a second fan and a larger heatsink.

The Pro/Max MBPs come with 2 fan cooling systems. Only the non-Pro CPU MBP comes with a single fan.

Based on my testing, Apple will spin the fans to ~5K RPM. Using a program like iStat Menu or Macs Fan Control can push the fans to ~7.5K RPM and definitely reduces throttling on my 14” M5 Max CPU.