What we know so far: Apple's next-generation M5 processor is expected to arrive in new devices before the end of the year, but early tests suggest only incremental gains over the M4. That matters because Apple is facing mounting pressure from Qualcomm and other chipmakers, raising questions about whether small year-over-year improvements will be enough to keep its iPads and Macs ahead.
According to MacRumors, the FCC recently revealed basic details about several upcoming Apple devices, including a new Vision Pro headset, an updated MacBook Pro, and six new iPad Pro models. Around the same time, Russian YouTuber Wylascom acquired one of the iPads and tested its M5 processor with a few synthetic benchmarks.
The FCC filings included only model numbers and basic descriptions of unreleased devices, which likely correspond to the Vision Pro (A3416), MacBook Pro (A3434), 11 inch WiFi iPad Pro (A3357), two 11-inch cellular iPad Pro models (A3358 and A3359), a 13-inch WiFi iPad Pro (A3360), and two 13-inch cellular models (A3361 and A3362). These listings support earlier reports that Apple plans to release an M5 Mac Mini later this year and a new MacBook Pro early next year.
Release dates for the new M5 iPads remain unclear, but Wylascom's unboxing video suggests Apple could announce them soon. His brief comparison shows only a minor upgrade over the M4 iPad Pro, with no changes to the camera or chassis. Benchmarks and comparisons from Wylascom and Notebookcheck indicate that the M5 upgrade may be most appealing to users coming from older M1 or M2 tablets.
In the Geekbench 6.5 single core benchmark, the M5 iPad Pro outperforms last year's model by 11% and the M4 Pro powered MacBook Pro by 7%. It also scored 1% higher than a pre-production laptop running Qualcomm's newly announced Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme. However, in the multi core test, the M4 Pro and Snapdragon were 46% and 52% faster than the M5, while the new Apple chip still outperformed the standard M4 by 14%.
The M5 chip shows more dramatic gains in graphics. In the Geekbench 6.5 GPU Metal test, it delivered a 26% improvement over the M4. Strangely, the Antutu benchmark gave the M4 iPad Pro a slight edge in CPU performance.
These benchmarks provide only an early preview of devices expected to launch later this year. The performance gains from the M5 Pro, which could debut in the new MacBook Pro next year, remain to be seen.
Early Apple M5 benchmarks reveal modest CPU jump, bigger GPU gains
