Apple focuses on AI and GPU power with its new M5 Silicon

Apple promises up to 30% more graphics performance with its M5 chips

Apple has officially unveiled its new M5 Silicon, promising users a huge boost in AI performance alongside enhancements in GPU and multi-threaded CPU performance. With 153 GB/s of memory bandwidth, Apple’s new M5 chips offer nearly 30% faster memory performance compared to the M4. Compared to M1, Apple has more than double the memory bandwidth.

CPU-wise, Apple’s M5 chip features a 10-core CPU with four Performance cores and six efficiency cores. Apple has promised a 15% multi-threaded performance boost over M4, and states that its performance cores are “the world’s fastest”. However, Apple’s lack of stated single-threaded performance gains suggests that gains over M4 are minor. This new chip is based on TSMC’s 3-nanometer (N3/3nm) silicon.

With its 10-core GPU, Apple’s new M5 chip features up to 45% more graphics performance than M4. Each GPU core now features a dedicated AI accelerator, giving each core 4x peak GPU compute compared to M4. Apple has also stated that this new GPU features Apple’s “3rd generation ray tracing” hardware.

With an enhanced 16-core Neural Engine and a dedicated neural accelerator on each GPU core, Apple’s M5 processors are clearly focused on AI. This speeds up Apple’s AI tools and Apple Intelligence features.

With M5, Apple is taking advantage of new AI hardware to boost the performance of the latest workloads. With enhanced GPU performance, Apple is also strengthening its hand in gaming workloads. A 45% generational leap in performance is enormous, especially for Apple’s baseline M5 series chip. That said, it will take more than that for macOS to be seen as a gaming platform.

Apple’s new M5 chip will be available in their new 14-inch MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Apple Vision Pro headsets.

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