## M5 vs M5 Pro MacBook Pro! [00:00] Okay, so I've been using the M5 MacBook Pro and the M5 Pro MacBook Pro for about a week now and I think most people are still missing the point of these machines. So in this video, I want to help you determine whether the M5 or M5 Pro is right for you. So we're going to discuss the differences I've noticed in video and photo editing, web browsing, transferring large files, battery life, gaming, and more. All right, so the ## Unboxing & options [00:22] unboxing is exactly what you'd expect from a MacBook, nothing new here unless you paid an extra $150 for the nano texture display because in that case, you will receive a polishing cloth to keep the screen clean. But if you don't get the nano texture display, the base ## Price is different from last year [00:35] price for the M5 MacBook Pro is $1699, the M5 Pro MacBook Pro is $2199. So there's a $500 difference between the two. Last year with the M4 and M4 Pro, it was only a $400 gap. So there's even a larger gap in price this year than last year. So we're going to see if that price gap is actually warranted. Now before we get into the testing, let's take a look at the design and the specs because I do have both the space gray ## Design [01:00] and the silver color, which those are the only two colors offered. Now both of these do have three USB-C ports, but the M5 Pro has Thunderbolt 5 ports, whereas the regular M5, the base M5, has Thunderbolt 4. And just for comparison, ## Thunderbolt 5 is much faster [01:14] Thunderbolt 4 is going to give you a data transfer rate of up to 40 gigs a second, whereas Thunderbolt 5 is going to double that to 80 gigs a second and it can dynamically allocate up to 120 gigs a second for video bandwidth when needed. Now I still don't have any Thunderbolt 5 SSDs or docks just yet since Thunderbolt 4 is super fast as it is, but this could still be important if you want the fastest data transfer speeds possible. Now here's something very important that you need to know about the M5 versus the M5 Pro and that has to do with the external display ## External display support (also different from M4) [01:45] support. So if you hook your MacBook up to an external display like maybe a studio display or a studio display XDR, which just came out, keep in mind that with the M5, the base M5, you can only have two external displays up to 6K 60 Hz or 4K 144 Hz. Or you can have one display up to 8K 60, 5K 120, or 4K 240. But with the M5 Pro, you can have a triple display setup because you can have three external displays at the same 6K 60 Hz or 4K 144 Hz. And you can also have a higher resolution dual monitor setup as well with the M5 Pro because you can have one display up to 8K 60, 5K 120, or 4K 240 plus a second display up to 5K 120 or 4K 200. So you can have a dual studio display XDR setup with the M5 Pro if you want to. Now when you open ## Keyboard & Display [02:38] these MacBook Pros up, you'll notice that the keyboard is the same on both of these. The display is also the same, so we have that same 14.2-in mini LED ProMotion display with that 120 Hz refresh rate. We have 1000 nits of peak SDR brightness, 1600 in HDR, and this is actually a noteworthy upgrade if you're coming from a pre-M4 MacBook Pro because the SDR brightness before that was just 600 nits. And plus we also just got nano texture for the first time on the M4 ## Nano Texture is a must [03:05] MacBook Pro. So keep that in mind and I personally think that the nano texture is so worth the extra $150 if you are in a bright environment often. So if you don't use this, you know, hooked up to an external display all the time, if you actually take it with you on the go and you're in an airport lounge, if you work outside, if you work at a cafe, it is definitely worth it because you won't have near as many reflections on the screen and you won't see all that glare on your screen. It's actually a big difference and if I'm having a MacBook Pro as my main device that I travel with, I am definitely going with the nano texture option. The only problem is that it's super hard to clean even with the polishing cloth. Now let's talk ## M5 vs M5 Pro specs [03:43] about the specs here because there's some interesting changes with the M5 series. So the M5 MacBook Pro has a 10-core CPU and a 10-core GPU, whereas the M5 Pro has a 15-core CPU and a 16-core GPU or you can pay an extra $200 to get an 18-core CPU and a 20-core GPU. Now here's where it gets interesting. So the new base model M5 has 16 gigs of RAM and 1 terabyte of storage. So this is the new base M5 with that 1 terabyte of storage. Now you could also go up to 32 gigs of RAM and also 4 terabytes of storage, which is up from the maximum of 2 terabytes on the M4 MacBook Pro. That was previously the 4 terabytes was previously limited to the Pro chips only. So that's a nice enhancement there for the base M5. And for the M5 Pro, we have 24 gigs of RAM and 1 terabyte of storage as the base model. You can go up to 48 gigs of RAM and the same 4 terabytes of storage maximum. So when you account for the extra RAM in the M5 Pro, you're now paying $300 more for the upgraded chip and those extra CPU and GPU cores, which last year, there was only a $200 gap when you lined up the RAM and the storage. However, I have to say that the increased RAM is not the ## The RAM is NOT the same [04:57] same as if you were to upgrade the M5 to 24 gigs of RAM because the M5 Pro has a higher memory bandwidth than the M5. So the M5 gets you 153 gigs a second, whereas the M5 Pro gets you 307 gigs a second. So that's nearly double. So the M5 Pro is definitely going to handle those more intensive tasks and data flows better. So, you know, 4K, 8K video editing, photo editing, gaming, things like that, it's going to run more efficiently and be faster on the M5 Pro. Speaking of RAM and storage, when you eventually get close to filling up that 1 terabyte SSD, you're going to need today's sponsor, CleanMyMac, to help you eliminate junk files and hidden files to regain that storage back. It even lets ## You might need this (CleanMyMac) [05:39] you visualize your storage using Space Lens, which is super handy for visual people like me. But anyways, CleanMyMac spots and removes those unnecessary files that clog up space on your Mac including duplicate files, system cache, and other junk that you likely didn't even know was eating away at your storage. I always just run this smart care scan to get an overview of what's taking up space and it just takes one click to remove those files. And on that left panel, we also have clean up, protection, performance, applications, and my clutter, which are all very handy. But we also have cloud clean up for cleaning up your cloud storage with iCloud, Google Drive, and OneDrive. And this works the same as CleanMyMac does on your SSD, but it just happens with your cloud storage and all of the scanning that CleanMyMac does happens locally on device. Your data stays secure. And one of my favorite parts about CleanMyMac is the menu bar interface. So if you just click on the little menu bar icon, you get quick access to your available storage, your CPU and RAM pressure and temperatures, your Wi-Fi speeds, and much more. So yeah, CleanMyMac makes my life easier and saves me a ton of time and storage space on my M5 MacBook Pros. So if you want to try CleanMyMac free for 7 days, click my link in the description below and if you do, use my code Brandon20 to ## There’s also a 16” [06:54] get 20% off. Now keep in mind, [snorts] I do have the 14-in models here, but you can also upgrade the M5 Pro MacBook Pro to 16 in for an extra $500. And that extra 500 bucks is going to get you three additional CPU cores, four additional GPU cores, and a 140 W power block. However, you can get those same three CPU cores and four GPU cores on the 14-in model for an extra $200 if you want that power without upgrading to the 16-in model, which is heavier and obviously, you know, a much bigger screen and it's not as portable. Now as ## Battery life (on paper) [07:29] far as battery life goes, the M5 is going to get you 16 hours of web browsing, 24 hours of video streaming, and the M5 Pro is going to get you 14 hours of web browsing and 22 hours of video streaming. So base M5 should be better for battery life and throughout all my testing, I do have both of these running on battery for the same amount of time. So stick around after the benchmarks to see how these compared in real life. Okay, so let's get into those benchmarks and then do some real world testing like video editing, file transfers, things like that. So we're ## Benchmark tests on M5 vs M5 Pro [07:57] going to start with a very simple Blackmagic Disk Speed Test here. So keep in mind, the space black is the M5 Pro, the silver is the regular M5. And take a look at the score. So the M5 scored a 6480 on the right, whereas the M5 Pro scored an 11,358 on the right. And on the read, we scored a 6757 on the M5 versus a 12,507 on the read. So nearly double for both the read and the write speeds on the M5 Pro. That's very impressive and that will absolutely make a difference in day-to-day usage. All right, so now we're going to run a Geekbench 6 test on both of these and keep in mind, we are running on battery on both machines. So we do have the M5 Pro running in automatic for the energy mode, so it will switch to high power when it needs it and we're at 97% on both. So we're going to see at the end of these tests which one has the highest battery percentage and if it's actually as big of a difference as you would think. Okay, so we are currently running the multi-thread CPU benchmark in Cinebench ## The fans on M5 Pro are LOUD! [08:54] right now and the fans are picking up a lot on the M5 Pro MacBook Pro. Now keep in mind, the M5 Pro has two cooling fans inside, whereas the base M5 only has one cooling fan inside. So we know there's going to be more noise that comes from the M5 Pro, but man, it is very loud. The fan noise on the M5 Pro is extremely loud. Now I am currently running in high power mode, so that is going to, you know, maximize the performance and spin up those fans a lot more frequently, but it's a big difference in the overall fan noise that you get from M5 versus M5 Pro. Okay, you're probably going to be able ## Benchmark results [09:41] to hear the fans on the M5 Pro kicking in the background, but before we get to the Cinebench scores, let's show you the Geekbench scores that we got here on both machines. So I did run a Geekbench 6 CPU test and take a look at the score. So 4270 on the M5 versus 4277. Then we had a 17716 on multi-core versus 24930 on multi-core for M5 Pro. So, that single score is actually pretty close on both of them. You're really going to see the benefits with the multi-core there. Now, you'll see a big difference in the GPU test because we scored a 48562 on the M5 and a 76978 on M5 Pro. So, again, a massive difference in GPU performance. We also ran a Geekbench AI CPU test scored a 6893 quantized score versus 6997. So, again, CPU is pretty close on all these scores, but with GPU, take a look at the difference here. The quantized score was 24443 on M5, 31896 on M5 Pro for AI-related tasks. Now, we're going to run a better real-world test for AI here in a little bit, but those are just the benchmarks there. Now, we did also run a Cinebench test and take a look at these scores. So, for the GPU on the M5, we scored On the M5 Pro, a 39896. Massive difference there. And then for the multi-threaded CPU benchmark, we scored a 4430 on M5, 7088 on M5 Pro. So, again, a pretty big difference there on ## M5 is faster than M5 Pro here! [11:11] Cinebench. Okay, so we just ran a Speedometer 3.1 test and take a look at this. The M5 actually beat the M5 Pro at 58.8 versus 57.0. So, that's pretty impressive, but not too surprising because we saw that the single-core score throughout has been very similar between these two. So, with web browsing, you're probably not going to see really any difference at all ## Wi-Fi speed test (N1 chip) [11:33] between these two. However, you might see a difference with Wi-Fi speeds and Wi-Fi connectivity because the M5 Pro has Apple's in-one wireless chip, which the M5 does not have. So, you're going to have Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 on the M5 Pro and you're going to have Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 on M5. So, Wi-Fi speeds, especially if you have a Wi-Fi 7 router, will be better on the M5 Pro. And also, Bluetooth 6 is a big deal as well because you have those improvements as well when you're using, you know, Bluetooth devices. And by the way, I've ## Memory swap [12:03] been monitoring the swap that's being used on both these machines and both of them are sitting pretty even with swap. No matter what I'm doing, all the benchmarks, they're both sitting even around the swap. So, I think it peaked at around 3.3 or 3.4 GB of swap used. Right now, we're kind of idle and we're still at about a gig used on both. And ## Battery life update [12:24] just an update on the battery life before we go into the real-world tests. We're sitting at 60% on the M5 Pro, 75% on the M5. And keep in mind, we started this test at 97%. Okay, so now we're ## Real-world tests! [12:36] going to have some fun because we're going to do some real-world testing. And we're going to start with file transfer speeds because again, the transfer speeds should be a good bit faster, you know, on the M5 Pro. So, we're going to ## 200GB file transfer test [12:47] transfer a 206 GB folder from our SSD, our Thunderbolt 4 SSD right here, to our downloads folder on our Mac. So, let's go ahead and drag this on over. Okay, so 6 minutes and 40 seconds on the M5 Pro to transfer that 200 GB file versus 13 minutes and 8 seconds on the M5. So, M5 Pro is almost twice as fast as the M5 for transferring at large files, which that's something you're probably going to do on a pretty frequent basis. So, that is a big advantage for the M5 Pro. ## Video Editing: Final Cut Pro export test [13:22] Okay, so now we're going to do a Final Cut Pro video export test using a 4K 30 GB video file. So, we're going to load this into the timeline on both of these and we're going to export right away without even allowing for render. So, let's go ahead and put these in here. We'll just throw in a transition real quick just to spice it up a little bit, but this large of a file doesn't really need too much going on. So, we're just going to throw in a cross dissolve right here on both of these in this little section. We're going to go to command E to export both of these. Okay, so I'm in the middle of the video export test right now and take a look at this. The M5 is actually in the lead. So, 26% versus 25% on the M5 Pro. So, we'll see if things change, but so far, M5 starting off very strong. We have our little stopwatch down there in the corner. All right, so there we go. We just finished up on the M5 Pro at about 6 minutes and 20 seconds. Let's see what we get on the base M5. This is a lot closer than I was anticipating. And let's see what we score. Okay, so there we go. About 6:37, it looks like on the M5. So, very crazy how close those two were. Now, if you had a more intensive, you know, project with a lot of things stacked on top of each other, it might be different, but if you're just doing a basic, you know, video editing with a couple of transitions, then it's probably going to be pretty similar between M5 and M5 Pro. Okay, so now ## AI test: text to image generation [14:39] we're going to do an interesting test that I've not done yet here on the channel and that's because I think that Apple is really focusing on AI-related tasks and performance. So, we're testing something out here. So, we are in the Draw Things application and we're going to do a text-to-image generation here using the Z Image Turbo model. Okay, so here is the prompt that we typed in. So, 3D fluffy llama, close-up cute and adorable, and all of that. So, that is what we have here. We're going to tap on return at the same time on both and see which one can generate that image faster. And there we go. M5 finished up or M5 Pro, rather, finished up at 1 minute and 1 second and we're still waiting on the base M5 to finish up with this image generation. So, we're going on a minute 13, minute 14. It's finishing up here. Almost done and this should be it right there. Okay, so a minute and 17. So, a 16-second difference between the two for a task like text-to-image generation. So, clearly, M5 Pro is better and I'm sure again, if I put super sophisticated prompts in there, you would see a big difference, but for something you'd actually do on a daily basis, you could see that the difference in time for AI-related tasks is not going to be a ## Intense stress test! (massive swap) [15:48] massive difference. Okay, so it's about time to push these things to their limit. So, I'm going to open up a lot of tabs, about 50 tabs on both of these. We're going to open up pretty much all of the intensive tasks that we can and see how much swap we can get on both and if any of these lag and how much. Okay, so we're currently in Lightroom right now, but in the background, we have a lot going on. So, we have over 100 tabs opened up in our Safari, including multiple videos, and you can see that we just have a lot going on in here and I'm able to change between tabs pretty well on M5 and M5 Pro, surprisingly. So, also in the background, we have a video being exported right now in Final Cut Pro, a 4K video file, the same one from earlier. And both of these are holding up well. Like the M5 is not even, you know, giving me any signs of a struggle here. So, take a look at this. We do have 10 GB of swap on the M5 versus only 2.9 on the M5 Pro. So, a significantly larger amount of swap being used here for the memory, for the RAM, but still, I mean, we're in yellow on memory pressure for M5 Pro as well. So, this is very impressive, honestly, for the base M5. I mean, the fact that it has less RAM as well, 16 gigs versus 24 gigs on the M5 Pro, but yeah, a lot of that swap is being used, but even if I'm in Safari and changing between all these different tabs, it's not struggling, which is pretty impressive to me. And by the way, take a look at the CPU load. So, we have a lot more red. The red bars are much higher on the M5, whereas on the M5 Pro, that CPU load is pretty much just flatlined down there at the bottom. Only about, you know, between 1 to 4% system being used right there versus 6 to 10 or sometimes 12% on the M5. So, still no beach ball on the base M5 MacBook Pro. That is crazy impressive with how much we have going on right now that I've not seen a beach ball one time. Okay, so now ## Developers: Xcode test [17:37] we're going to run an Xcode benchmark here and this is going to compile a pretty extensive project and we're going to see if maybe something like coding in Xcode will be faster on M5 versus M5 Pro. So, we're going to run both of these at the same time here and see how long each one of them takes. We will need to allow access and it will go through the process. Okay, so here are the results. So, the M5 took 199 seconds and the M5 Pro took 131 seconds. And that's about a 34% increase in speed of compiling this Xcode project on M5 Pro versus M5. So, if you are a developer, you will see some real benefits to the ## Battery Life results [18:16] M5 Pro here. And now that we finished up all of our testing, let's check in on the battery life here. So, we've been doing this for a few hours now and the M5 is at 34%. M5 Pro is at 9%. So, that is a big difference in battery life. So, if you're looking for the best battery life, period, then you would definitely want to go for the base M5. But of course, you're not going to have as much power. And also, keep in mind that we were in high power mode to get the maximum performance here on the M5 Pro. So, of course, that will, you know, drain battery faster, but that is also what was necessary to run these tests to see what it's capable of. Okay, so after ## Should you buy M5 or M5 Pro? [18:50] using these machines for the past several days and after running through all the tests that you saw in this video, should you buy the M5 or M5 Pro MacBook Pro? And I would say that once again, just like last year with the base M4, the base M5 MacBook Pro is very viable for pro users. Like this is not just a machine for web browsing and daily use. Like it's a legit pro machine even for heavy workloads. If you're gaming, if you're coding, you know, AI tasks, you like you're going to be just fine with the base M5, especially this year because it starts at 1 TB of storage. That's a huge plus for the base model. And we do also have 16 gigs of RAM, which might not be enough if you are like a really heavy pro user, but for most people, I would say that that is enough. I think if you need any more than 16 gigs of RAM, you're probably already looking at the M5 Pro anyways. So, it's also nice that we have the same ports on both, but just keep in mind that we do have Thunderbolt 5 on the M5 Pro and that does make a difference. Like the transfer speeds, you know, were much faster on the M5 Pro MacBook Pro when I transferred over that 200 gig file. So, if you're copying files back and forth from an SSD or just from computer to computer, you are going to see faster transfer speeds, which is something you use on a daily basis, at least I do. So, that's a big advantage for the M5 Pro. However, as we saw, the M5 is going to get you better battery life for daily tasks like web browsing, watching videos, even running all these benchmarks, the M5 killed the M5 Pro in terms of battery life. It lasted a lot longer. However, I think that if you're looking at a MacBook Pro in general and not like a MacBook Air or MacBook Neo, then performance is likely your very top priority. So, you know, if you need more ## Get the M5 Pro if you're in this situation [20:27] than the base 16 gigs of RAM that the the base MacBook Pro offers, I would say just spend the extra money and get the M5 Pro MacBook Pro because the extra benefits that you're going to get on top of the RAM increase, which is 24 gigs again, that'll be worth the cost for whatever demanding tasks you're planning on throwing at it. Because let's not forget, pretty much everything was a good bit faster on the M5 Pro MacBook Pro aside from video export. So, this is one caveat I want to make here. If you are a video editor, I don't think that you need the M5 Pro MacBook Pro. I think the base M5 is going to be fine for you. Like, I edit videos all the time and I would choose M5 over M5 Pro for that. But, that's also because I do prioritize battery life and I do prioritize, you know, getting the best bang for buck out of the machine. And I think that's going to come with the base M5. But, again, you are going to have those extra CPU and GPU cores on the M5 Pro and that is going to make a difference for those intense tasks, especially if you're doing more than one thing at a time. Like, I usually don't do a ton of things at once. I'm usually just doing one major like intensive task at a time. But, if you're doing multiples, M5 Pro for sure for that. Also, I should mention that if you run everything off of an external SSD like I do, Thunderbolt 5 is going to be very beneficial for faster transfer speeds. But, you know, the reality is Thunderbolt 4 is likely fast enough for anything you throw at it. Like, obviously the M5 Pro is much faster for transferring, but in day-to-day usage, I don't think that, you know, Thunderbolt 4 is slow by any means. But, also we cannot forget that with the M5 Pro, you can have a triple display setup. So, if you have three monitors that you're looking to hook up, you know, your M5 MacBook Pro to, then you can only do that with the M5 Pro MacBook Pro. So, keep that in mind. Whereas, the base model, you can run two external displays and even two studio displays if you would like to, but you cannot do three like you can with the M5 Pro. So, that's something else to keep in mind. Also, I should mention the N1 chip inside of the M5 Pro that gets you Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6. That's also a small detail, but it could be just enough to push somebody over the edge to choose this over the base M5. So, with all that being said, I think that if you can deal with the base configuration for the M5 ## Most should probably get this [22:32] MacBook Pro, which I think this year it's easier than ever to deal with because of 16 gigs of RAM and 1 terabyte, you know, I think that you should go with the base M5 because the chipset is more than capable enough for most pro workflows. So, if you can comfortably afford the extra $500, I do think it's worth it to go with the M5 Pro MacBook Pro. However, I don't think that you're even going to need all the power that it provides. And if you think that you're going to need like the most power ever, I mean, you know, M5 Max is there. It's a lot more, but if you're somebody in that camp, you know, you're probably going to be looking at the M5 Max chip. But, I think for most people, M5 Pro is going to be even overkill. Like, I think M5 is the best for most ## What I’m doing… [23:10] people. So, now what am I doing between these two machines for my specific workflow? Now, keep in mind, I do a lot of video editing, a lot of photo editing. I am in Xcode sometimes. really just doing a lot of creative tasks on my MacBook and I do need, you know, really fast exports for photos and for videos and of course for compiling projects. So, what am I going to be doing personally? Well, I'm personally going to be sticking with the base M5 MacBook Pro instead of the M5 Pro MacBook Pro. Like, yes, there was a big advantage in Xcode, but I'm not really an avid developer. If I'm an avid developer, I'm much more likely to pick the M5 Pro over the M5 because 34% difference is substantial. Like, that's a big difference. So, if you are a developer, I would say that, you know, M5 Pro might be actually worth the extra money. But, for me, since I'm mostly in photo editing and video editing, there was really not a huge difference between the two. And even when I had all those tabs open earlier, you know, this thing handled it just fine. Yes, there was a lot of swapping used at multiple periods, but it never gave me the beach ball, not one time. So, that's impressive and that was enough for me to choose the M5 over the M5 Pro and save ## Closing thoughts [24:15] my 500 bucks. So, I hope this video was helpful in showing you between the M5 and M5 Pro MacBook Pro. Now, let me know in a comment down below, did you pick up one of these two machines? Did you have the existing M5 MacBook Pro before they upgraded the storage to 1 terabyte? Let me know all your thoughts down there. You know, are you feeling remorse for not, you know, waiting until the M5 Pro came out? Just let me know all your thoughts about these machines down in the comments below and what you learned from this video. But, anyways, guys, thanks for watching and I'll see you soon.