Today marks the fifth anniversary of Apple’s transition from Intel to its own silicon chips in the Mac lineup. The journey began with the M1 chip, launched on November 10, 2020, in the MacBook Air, Mac mini, and 13-inch MacBook Pro. The M1 was lauded for its exceptional CPU core speed and energy efficiency. Over the years, Apple has introduced five generations of these chips, culminating in the recent debut of the M5 in the 14-inch MacBook Pro.
The M5 chip showcases substantial improvements over the M1, with six times the CPU/GPU performance, six times the AI capabilities, and significant advancements in AI video processing, 3D rendering, gaming, and code compiling. Geekbench scores highlight these upgrades, with the M5 achieving 4,263 in single-core and 17,862 in multi-core tests, compared to the M1’s 2,320 and 8,175, respectively. The M5 also excels in Metal performance, scoring 75,637 against the M1’s 33,041.
Built using TSMC’s advanced 3nm process, the M5 features a 10-core CPU and GPU, a higher clock speed, integrated Neural Accelerators, and a third-generation ray tracing engine. It supports up to 32GB of unified memory with a bandwidth of 153 GB/s, compared to the M1’s 16GB and 68.25 GB/s.
Apple phased out Intel Macs by June 2023, with the discontinuation of the 2019 Mac Pro, and Intel Mac software support is ending with macOS Tahoe. Looking ahead, Apple is set to advance its silicon technology further, with 2nm chips in development for potential release in 2026, promising enhanced speed and power efficiency. By 2028, 1.4nm chips could push these boundaries even further.
