Apple

MacBook Pro 16-inch (M5 Max, 2026)

Name: MacBook Pro 16-inch (M5 Max, 2026)
Brand: Apple

M5Released March 11, 2026Launch price $3,899 (launch price, 32-core GPU, 36GB / 2TB; Apple's price $4,399 since 25 June 2026)

Best Buy · M5 Max 18-core CPU, 32-core GPU, 36GB, 2TB, Space Black Check price at Best Buy Amazon · M5 Max 18-core CPU, 32-core GPU, 36GB, 2TB, Space Black Check price on Amazon

Geekbench 6 CPU Single-core4,336points#1 of 4 Geekbench 6 CPU Multi-core30,057points#1 of 4 Geekbench 6 GPU Metal224,987points#1 of 4 Blender Benchmark 6,462samples/min#2 of 5

Apple's fastest laptop and the one to buy for local AI on the move: with the 40-core GPU and 128GB it generates text from a 7B model at about 120 tokens a second and holds models no laptop graphics card can. Its bigger cooler keeps the M5 Max at full speed, and it runs Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p Ultra past 100 fps in Notebookcheck's test - but the base 32-core, 36GB model is a far smaller AI machine than the reviewed one.

Caution MacBook Pro 230days since update

Getting late in the cycle: an update may not be far off. Last updated March 3, 2026, MacBook Pro 14- and 16-inch (M5 Pro and M5 Max); the last 4 updates came every 285 days on average. Next: MacBook Pro models with OLED displays and a 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M6 chip, expected to be announced around 27-28 October and released Friday, 6 November 2026. (MacRumors, citing Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, 2026-10-18)

Against the line-up

Geekbench 6 CPU Single-core · points

#1 of 4 · Notebookcheck

1MacBook Pro 16 M5 Max4,336
2MacBook Pro 14 M54,326
3MacBook Pro 14 M5 Max4,322
4MacBook Pro 16 M5 Pro4,295

Geekbench 6 CPU Multi-core · points

#1 of 4 · Notebookcheck

1MacBook Pro 16 M5 Max30,057
2MacBook Pro 14 M5 Max29,415
3MacBook Pro 16 M5 Pro28,436
4MacBook Pro 14 M518,054

Geekbench 6 GPU Metal · points

#1 of 4 · Notebookcheck

1MacBook Pro 16 M5 Max224,987
2MacBook Pro 14 M5 Max222,275
3MacBook Pro 16 M5 Pro137,187
4MacBook Pro 14 M577,007

Blender Benchmark samples/min

#2 of 5 · Blender Open Data

1MacBook Pro 14 M5 Max6,462
2MacBook Pro 16 M5 Max6,462
3MacBook Pro 16 M5 Pro4,233
4MacBook Pro 14 M5 Pro3,643
5MacBook Pro 14 M51,979

Geekbench AI Core ML Neural Engine, Quantized · points

#2 of 2 · Macworld

1MacBook Pro 14 M559,256
2MacBook Pro 16 M5 Max58,616

The whole MacBook Pro line-up side by side, with prices

Every benchmark

Quoted from the publications that ran them; we don't test hardware ourselves. Figures from different publications were run on different systems and scenes, so compare within a row's source.

Cyberpunk 2077

Setting	Result	Source
1080p Ultra one source	103fps	Notebookcheck, Aug 27, 2026 MacBook Pro 16 M5 Max, 18-core CPU, 40-core GPU, 48GB 1920 x 1080, Ultra preset, FSR off

Local LLM (llama.cpp / Ollama)

Setting	Result	Source
Llama 2 7B Q4_0, Generation one source	120tok/s	llama.cpp community benchmarks (GitHub), Oct 19, 2026 Apple M5 Max, 40-core GPU, 614GB/s (the 40-core option; the table has no 32-core figure) llama-bench tg128 (generating 128 tokens), all layers on the GPU.
Llama 2 7B Q4_0, Prompt processing one source	3,220tok/s	llama.cpp community benchmarks (GitHub), Oct 19, 2026 Apple M5 Max, 40-core GPU, 614GB/s (the 40-core option; the table has no 32-core figure) llama-bench pp512 (reading a 512-token prompt), all layers on the GPU.

Geekbench AI

Setting	Result	Source
Core ML Neural Engine, Quantized one source	58,616points	Macworld, Mar 9, 2026 MacBook Pro 16 M5 Max, 40-core GPU, 128GB, 4TB Quantized score, from Macworld's Geekbench AI Neural Engine chart

Blender Benchmark

Setting	Result	Source
Standard run one source	6,462samples/min	Blender Open Data, Oct 19, 2026 Apple M5 Max (GPU - 32 cores), Metal, Blender 5.2.0 Median score over the three scenes, 11 submitted runs. Blender Open Data lists by chip, not by Mac.

Geekbench 6 CPU

Setting	Result	Source
Multi-core one source	30,057points	Notebookcheck, Aug 27, 2026 MacBook Pro 16 M5 Max, 18-core CPU, 40-core GPU, 48GB Geekbench 6.7
Single-core one source	4,336points	Notebookcheck, Aug 27, 2026 MacBook Pro 16 M5 Max, 18-core CPU, 40-core GPU, 48GB Geekbench 6.7

Geekbench 6 GPU

Setting	Result	Source
Metal one source	224,987points	Notebookcheck, Aug 27, 2026 MacBook Pro 16 M5 Max, 18-core CPU, 40-core GPU, 48GB Geekbench 6.7 GPU, Metal

3DMark Steel Nomad

Setting	Result	Source
Standard run one source	4,386points	Notebookcheck, Aug 27, 2026 MacBook Pro 16 M5 Max, 18-core CPU, 40-core GPU, 48GB

Cinebench 2024

Setting	Result	Source
Multi-core one source	2,490points	Notebookcheck, Aug 27, 2026 MacBook Pro 16 M5 Max, 18-core CPU, 40-core GPU, 48GB

Specs

Chip	Apple M5 Max (18-core CPU, 32-core GPU; 40-core GPU and 614GB/s optional)
CPU cores	18 (6 super, 12 performance)
GPU cores	32
Memory (base)	36 GB
Memory (max)	128 GB
Memory bandwidth	460 GB/s
Storage (base)	2000 GB
Display	16.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR (mini-LED), 3456 x 2234, 120Hz, 1600 nits HDR peak
Battery (video)	22 h
Weight	2.15 kg
Ports	3x Thunderbolt 5 (USB-C), HDMI, SDXC card slot, MagSafe 3, headphone jack

From Apple: MacBook Pro tech specs (2026-10-19), Apple Newsroom: MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max (2026-03-03), 9to5Mac: Apple raises Mac and iPad prices (25 June 2026) (2026-06-25).

Compare it

Sources

Blender Open Data (results database)
Macworld (review)
Notebookcheck (review)
llama.cpp community benchmarks (GitHub) (results database)

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