Home / CPU Comparison / Apple M5 Pro 15 Cores or Apple M6 12 Cores: What's better?

Apple M5 Pro 15 Cores

vs

Apple M6 12 Cores

CPU Comparison Result

Below are the results of a comparison of Apple M5 Pro 15 Cores and Apple M6 12 Cores processors based on key performance characteristics, as well as power consumption and much more.

Advantages

Apple M5 Pro 15 Cores

More Total Cores: 15 (15 vs 12)
Higher Memory Type: LPDDR5X unified memory (LPDDR5X unified memory vs Unified memory)

Apple M6 12 Cores

Higher Technology: 2 nm (Third-generation 3 nm vs 2 nm)
Newer Launch Date: August 2026 (March 2026 vs August 2026)

Basic

Apple

Label Name

Apple

March 2026

Launch Date

August 2026

Laptop

Platform

Laptop

Apple custom ARM architecture

CPU Architecture

Apple M5 Pro

CPU Name

Apple M6

Apple M5 Pro 15-Core

Model Name

The Intel processor number is just one of several factors - along with processor brand, system configurations, and system-level benchmarks - to be considered when choosing the right processor for your computing needs.

Apple M6 12 Cores

TSMC N3P

Foundry

TSMC N2

M5 Pro

Generation

CPU Specifications

Apple Fusion Architecture

Interconnect Technology

4.38 GHz

Performance-core Multi-Core Max Frequency

4.61 GHz

Super-core Max Frequency

4.80 GHz

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

Where applicable, Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology is only available on Performance-cores.

Performance-cores

Efficient-cores

Super-cores

Efficient-core Max Turbo Frequency

Maximum E-core turbo frequency derived from Intel® Turbo Boost Technology.

3.20 GHz

Third-generation 3 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.

2 nm

Memory Specifications

LPDDR5X unified memory

Memory Type

Intel® processors come in four different types: Single Channel, Dual Channel, Triple Channel, and Flex Mode. Maximum supported memory speed may be lower when populating multiple DIMMs per channel on products that support multiple memory channels.

Unified memory

LPDDR5 Speed

10667 MT/s

48 GB

Max Memory Size

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

32 GB

307 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).

170 GB/s

9600 MT/s

Maximum Memory Speed

GPU Specifications

Thunderbolt / DisplayPort 2.1 over USB-C; HDMI

External Display Standard

DisplayPort 1.4 over Thunderbolt 4; HDMI

Apple M5 Pro 16-core GPU

GPU Name

Apple M6 12-core GPU

Supported

Hardware-accelerated ray tracing

Supported

Up to three external displays: three displays up to 6K at 60Hz or 4K at 144Hz; or one display up to 8K at 60Hz, 5K at 120Hz or 4K at 240Hz plus a second display up to 5K at 120Hz or 4K at 200Hz

Max External Display Resolution

Up to 8K at 60Hz or 5K at 120Hz or 4K at 240Hz

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

Video Decode

H.264, HEVC, ProRes, ProRes RAW, AV1

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

Video Encode

H.264, HEVC, ProRes, ProRes RAW

Graphics Core Count

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

Max Resolution

Up to 8K at 60Hz or 5K at 120Hz or 4K at 240Hz