Apple M5 (8-core GPU) vs Apple M4 8 Cores: 10 Cores vs. 8 and Faster Graphics

Apple M5 (8-core GPU) and Apple M4 8 Cores each use eight GPU cores, but differ noticeably in CPU configuration. The M5 has a 10-core processor with four Super cores and six Efficiency cores, while the M4 8 Cores uses four Performance cores and four Efficiency cores. The M5 also offers higher memory bandwidth-153 GB/s versus 120 GB/s.

Key Differences

The M5 has two more efficiency cores. The number of high-performance cores remains unchanged, so the M5’s advantage is more pronounced under multithreaded workloads.

Memory bandwidth increased from 120 to 153 GB/s-approximately 28%. Higher bandwidth also benefits the integrated graphics.

CPU Performance

Geekbench 6 shows the M5 ahead by approximately 11% in Single-Core and 23% in Multi-Core. The additional two cores are particularly noticeable in compilation and rendering.

PassMark shows a larger gap-around 28% in the single-threaded test and 30% in the overall CPU Mark.

In Cinebench R23, the M5’s Multi-Core advantage reaches 63%. This result stands out noticeably from the other benchmarks.

In Cinebench 2024, the M5 is approximately 14% faster in Single-Core and 29% faster in Multi-Core.

On specific devices, the difference looks like this:

In this run, the MacBook Air with M5 outperforms the iMac with M4 by approximately 11% in Single-Core and 20% in Multi-Core.

Individual Geekbench runs may vary slightly, so device results do not necessarily have to match the chips’ average results exactly.

The MacBook Air with M5 has no fan and may reduce performance after warming up. The iMac with M4 uses active cooling, so it maintains clock speeds more consistently during sustained rendering, video export, and compilation.

GPU Performance

Both chips have an 8-core GPU, but the M5 is noticeably faster.

In the M5, Apple uses a Neural Accelerator in each GPU core, while unified memory bandwidth has increased to 153 GB/s, compared with 120 GB/s on the M4.

In Cinebench 2024 GPU, the M5’s advantage reaches 52%, noticeably higher than the difference between the processors in most CPU tests.

Real-world 3DMark results for the eight-core GPUs:

In Steel Nomad, the M5 is approximately 31% faster, and in Steel Nomad Light, it is 39% faster.

The M4 in this table is installed in a MacBook Air with a 10-core CPU, rather than in the M4 8 Cores from the iMac being compared. Therefore, this table compares the 8-core GPUs specifically, not the two complete CPU configurations.

Conclusion

Apple M5 (8-core GPU) is faster than M4 8 Cores in both CPU and graphics performance. In Geekbench 6, the advantage is approximately 11% in Single-Core and 23% in Multi-Core.

One of the M5’s advantages is its 4 Super + 6 Efficiency configuration versus the M4’s 4 Performance + 4 Efficiency configuration. The gap is larger in graphics tests: the M5 outperforms the M4 by approximately 31-39% in 3DMark and 52% in Cinebench 2024 GPU.