How Fast is Apple's M5 Chip? First Benchmark Results Provide Answer

The first alleged benchmark result for the M5 chip in the new 14-inch MacBook Pro has surfaced, allowing for some performance comparisons.

In a single unconfirmed result uploaded to the Geekbench 6 database today, the M5 chip in the 14-inch MacBook Pro achieved a score of 17,862 for multi-core CPU performance, making it up to 20% faster than the M4 chip in the previous 14-inch MacBook Pro. The standard M5 chip is faster than the M3 Pro chip, and nearly on par with the M1 Ultra chip.

A selection of multi-core scores for Mac chips:

• M4 Max (16-inch MacBook Pro): 25,645
• M1 Ultra (Mac Studio): 18,405
• M5 (14-inch MacBook Pro): 17,862
• M3 Pro (14-inch MacBook Pro): 15,257
• M4 (14-inch MacBook Pro): 14,726

In the new iPad Pro, the M5 chip achieved a multi-core score of 15,577, based on Geekbench 6 results available so far. This score is lower because the chip starts with a 9-core CPU in the iPad Pro, whereas it always has a 10-core CPU in the 14-inch MacBook Pro. Higher-end iPad Pro models with 1TB or 2TB of storage do come with a 10-core CPU.

The new 14-inch MacBook Pro and iPad Pro models are available to pre-order now, and the devices launch on Wednesday, October 22.

Higher-end 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips are rumored to launch in early 2026, but the regular M5 chip is clearly no slouch.