Home / CPU Comparison / Apple M2 Pro or Apple M5 10 Cores: What's better?

Apple M2 Pro

vs

Apple M5 10 Cores

CPU Comparison Result

Below are the results of a comparison of Apple M2 Pro and Apple M5 10 Cores processors based on key performance characteristics, as well as power consumption and much more.

Advantages

Apple M2 Pro

More Total Cores: 12 (12 vs 10)

Apple M5 10 Cores

Higher Performance-core Max Turbo Frequency: 4.61 GHz (3.504 GHz vs 4.61 GHz)
Higher Technology: Third-generation 3 nm (5 nm vs Third-generation 3 nm)
Newer Launch Date: October 2025 (January 2023 vs October 2025)

Basic

Apple

Label Name

Apple

January 2023

Launch Date

October 2025

Laptop

Platform

Laptop

Apple Avalanche + Apple Blizzard

CPU Architecture

Apple custom ARM architecture

Apple M2 Pro

CPU Name

Apple M5

Apple M2 Pro

Model Name

Apple M5 10-Core

TSMC

Foundry

TSMC N3P

Apple M2 series

Generation

CPU Specifications

Total Cores

Cores is a hardware term that describes the number of independent central processing units in a single computing component (die or chip).

Total Threads

Performance-cores

Efficient-cores

Max Turbo Frequency

4.61 GHz

2.424 GHz

Efficient-core Max Turbo Frequency

3.05 GHz

NEON

Instruction Set Extensions

3.504 GHz

Performance-core Max Turbo Frequency

4.61 GHz

ARMv8-A, NEON

Extended Instruction Set

P-cores: 192 KB instruction + 128 KB data per core; E-cores: 128 KB instruction + 64 KB data per core

L1 Cache

P-core cluster: 36 MB; E-core cluster: 4 MB

L2 Cache

24 MB system level cache

L3 Cache

5 nm

Technology

Lithography refers to the semiconductor technology used to manufacture an integrated circuit, and is reported in nanometer (nm), indicative of the size of features built on the semiconductor.

Third-generation 3 nm

ARMv8-A

Instruction Set

An instruction set architecture (ISA) defines the instructions a processor can execute. Common architectures include x86-64, ARM and RISC-V. The ISA determines software compatibility, while optional instruction extensions add specialized capabilities.

40 billion

Transistor Count

Memory Specifications

256-bit

Memory Bus Width

Unified LPDDR5-6400

Memory Type

LPDDR5X unified memory

LPDDR5-6400

LPDDR5 Speed

32 GB

Max Memory Size

Max memory size refers to the maximum memory capacity supported by the processor.

32 GB

200 GB/s

Max Memory Bandwidth

Max Memory bandwidth is the maximum rate at which data can be read from or stored into a semiconductor memory by the processor (in GB/s).

153 GB/s

6400 MT/s

Maximum Memory Speed

9600 MT/s

GPU Specifications

Thunderbolt 4, HDMI 2.1

External Display Standard

Thunderbolt / DisplayPort over USB-C; HDMI

Apple M2 Pro GPU

GPU Name

Apple M5 10-core GPU

Hardware-accelerated ray tracing

Supported

Up to two 6K 60Hz displays over Thunderbolt, or one 8K 60Hz display over HDMI

Max External Display Resolution

Up to two external displays: two 6K at 60Hz or 4K at 144Hz; or one 8K at 60Hz, 5K at 120Hz or 4K at 240Hz

Multiple streams of 4K and 8K ProRes video

Video Concurrency

H.264, HEVC, ProRes, ProRes RAW

Video Decode

H.264, HEVC, ProRes, ProRes RAW, AV1; hardware-accelerated; frame rate not disclosed

H.264, HEVC, ProRes, ProRes RAW

Video Encode

H.264, HEVC, ProRes, ProRes RAW; hardware-accelerated; frame rate not disclosed

Apple media engine with ProRes acceleration

Video Processing Unit

1398 MHz

GPU Max Dynamic Frequency

444 MHz

Graphics Base Frequency

Graphics Base frequency refers to the rated/guaranteed graphics render clock frequency in MHz.

Graphics Core Count

Max Resolution

Up to 8K at 60Hz or 4K at 240Hz

Up to 2 external displays

Number of Displays Supported

Metal, OpenCL

GPU APIs

Metal

Up to 6.8 TFLOPS FP32

Graphics Performance

Hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes, and ProRes RAW

Media Engine

Hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAW; AV1 decode

Video Decode Engines

Video Encode Engines

ProRes Encode/Decode Engines

Yes

OpenCL Support

OpenCL (Open Computing Language) is a multi-platform API (Application Programming Interface) for heterogeneous parallel programming.

AI Specifications

16-core Apple Neural Engine

AI Engine

Apple Neural Engine with Neural Accelerators in GPU cores

Neural Engine Core Count

Apple Neural Engine

NPU Name

16-core Neural Engine

15.8 TOPS

NPU Performance

Connectivity

Yes

Bluetooth Support

Supported

Bluetooth 5.3

Bluetooth Version

Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax)

Wi-Fi Standard

Interfaces and Ports

Yes, Thunderbolt 4 up to 40 Gb/s

Thunderbolt Support

Thunderbolt 4

USB4

USB Version

USB 4 up to 40Gb/s

Yes, USB4 up to 40 Gb/s

USB4 Support

Supported

Miscellaneous

Yes, Apple silicon secure boot chain of trust

Hardware-Verified Secure Boot

Apple image signal processor

Image Signal Processor

Kernel Integrity Protection, Fast Permission Restrictions, System Coprocessor Integrity Protection, Pointer Authentication Codes, Secure Page Table Monitor

Runtime Anti-Exploitation