We noted that the brand new M5 Pro and M5 Max versions of the MacBook Pro have a significantly different chip architecture to their predecessors.
While the M4 Pro and M4 Max models had a mix of efficiency and performance cores to balance battery life against power, the new models ditch the efficiency cores …
The M4 Pro chip was available in two configurations. The 12-core CPU combined eight performance cores with four efficiency ones. The higher-end 14-core CPU retained the same four efficiency cores but had an extra two performance ones.
The M4 Max also offered a 16-core CPU, with 12 performance cores and four efficiency ones.
With the M5 Pro and M5 Max, Apple has dropped the efficiency cores altogether. The company now has a brand new core type, which is effectively a blend of the two – although Apple has confusingly opted to reuse one of the old names, as we explained earlier.
You might expect the replacement of efficiency cores with balanced ones to have an impact on battery life, but this doesn’t appear to be the case. Macworld spotted that the new M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro models list the same maximum battery life as their predecessors:
- M5 Pro 14-inch: 14 hours 16-inch: 17 hours
- M5 Max 14-inch: 13 hours 16-inch: 14 hours
All the figures are for the undemanding task of wireless web browsing.
The likely explanation for this is Apple’s new Fusion architecture. This combines two dies into a single system on a chip, which presumably makes for greater power efficiency.
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