With a new MacBook Air just around the corner, Apple is still in the process of rolling out its range of M4 chips. But that hasn’t stopped speculation mounting about the upcoming M5 chip — which is due to arrive later this year — along with all of the benefits it might bring.
Wondering what that might entail? You’re in the right place, as we’ve put together everything we know about Apple’s M5 chip, from the Macs it’ll come to and the performance you can expect to what’s rumored for the high-end chips in the M5 roster. Read on to get the lowdown.
Price and release date
There are a lot of Apple products that the M5 chip might find its way into, including both Macs and iPads. Given the M5 will be Apple’s entry-level chip when it launches, it makes sense that it’s likely to appear in most of Apple’s entry-level Macs, alongside a few iPads as well.
The first product expected to get the M5 is the MacBook Pro, which will probably launch in fall 2025. Apple tends to update its pro-focused MacBook in October or November, so expect the same again this year.
We can expect the iPad Pro to also get the M5 around this time, or perhaps a little later. Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman believes the M5 iPad Pro will make an appearance in late 2025 or early 2026, so there’s a chance it will come just after the MacBook Pro. The iPad Air is another candidate for the M5, although there has also been talk that Apple might instead opt for the last-generation M3 chip.
Next on the list is the MacBook Air. Apple is expected to outfit this with the M5 in spring 2026, about 12 months after its upcoming M4 version launches this year. And we might also see an M5 iMac in 2025 — this computer has been following a roughly two-year release cycle recently, with versions launching in April 2021 and October 2023. If that continues, a new version is likely in 2025, although we can’t be certain when in the year that might happen.
Then there’s the Mac mini. This was tweaked in both 2023 and 2024, suggesting that a 2025 version might be in the cards. But at the same time, Apple skipped the M3 chip in the Mac mini, instead giving it the M2 and then the M4. That means it’s not certain whether Apple will opt to launch an M5 version or not — we’ll have to wait for more information over the coming weeks and months.
As for the price of the M5 chip, that depends on the device it comes with. We’re hoping that Apple will keep the prices of its M5 products the same as their last-generation predecessors — Apple often does this, although it’s by no means guaranteed.
Performance and features
Since we’re still a long way out from the M5’s release, specifics about its expected performance and features are hard to come by. Still, there are a few details that have been doing the rounds.
For one thing, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has predicted that the M5 will be made using manufacturing firm TSMC’s third-generation N3P process. That should translate to performance and efficiency improvements over the M4. Still, it’s a 3nm process rather than the more advanced 2nm alternative that some sources had been predicting, with the reason being that the 2nm option is apparently still too expensive for Apple’s taste.
TSMC’s process for the M5 will reportedly involve the company’s System on Integrated Chip (SoIC) technology, which enables chip components to be stacked on top of each other in a three-dimensional layout. That’s expected to improve temperatures and reduce electrical leakage. There’s also talk that the chip will include “thermoplastic carbon fiber composite molding technology,” although it’s not immediately clear what exactly that will mean for consumers.
M5 Pro, M5 Max and M5 Ultra
The base-level M5 is not the only chip we’ll see in the next generation of Apple silicon — Apple will also be working on mid-range and high-end chips for its more advanced Macs.
According to Ming-Chi Kuo, the M5 Pro and M5 Max should be released in 2025, with the M5 Ultra following in 2026. Based on previous patterns, we’ll probably see the M5 Pro in the MacBook Pro and Mac mini, the M5 Max in the MacBook Pro and Mac Studio, and the M5 Ultra in the Mac Studio and Mac Pro.
An interesting implication of the M5 Ultra is that it could mean the Mac Studio and Mac Pro get annual upgrades, as the M4 Ultra is expected this year. That’s something that neither Mac has ever had.
While it’s too early to know what sort of core counts, performance and features these chips will come with, Kuo believes that all of these mid-range and high-end M5 chips will use “server-grade” 2.5D packaging to improve yields and thermal performance.
As well as that, Kuo says these chips will come with “separate CPU and GPU designs,” which could bring a performance boost compared to the current design. Finally, these chips will be “better suited” to artificial intelligence (AI) inferencing, according to Kuo.
