On one CPU core the M5 Max and the M5 Pro are the same (3,692 against 3,680 in Geekbench 7). The Max's twice-as-big GPU and 50 percent more memory bandwidth are what you pay for: 56 percent more in Geekbench 7 Metal, 77 percent more in Blender and 77 percent faster text generation in llama.cpp. The 14-inch MacBook Pro was $2,199 with the M5 Pro and $3,599 with the M5 Max at launch.

MacBook Pro 14 M5 Pro and MacBook Pro 14 M5 Max

MacBook Pro 14 M5 ProMacBook Pro 14 M5 Max
Price$2,199launch price, 15-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 24GB / 1TB; Apple's price $2,499 since 25 June 2026$3,599launch price, 32-core GPU, 36GB / 2TB; Apple's price $4,099 since 25 June 2026
ChipApple M5 Pro (15-core CPU, 16-core GPU; 18-core CPU, 20-core GPU optional)Apple M5 Max (18-core CPU, 32-core GPU; 40-core GPU and 614GB/s optional)
CPU cores15 (5 super, 10 performance); 18 optional18 (6 super, 12 performance)
GPU cores1632
Memory (base)24 GB36 GB
Geekbench 7 CPUSingle-core, points3,6803,692
Geekbench 7 CPUMulti-core, points29,56534,566
Geekbench 7 GPUMetal, points124,541194,380
Local LLM (llama.cpp / Ollama)tg128 Llama 2 7B Q4_0, tok/s67.6120
Local LLM (llama.cpp / Ollama)pp512 Llama 2 7B Q4_0, tok/s1,3403,220
Blender Benchmarksamples/min3,6436,462
BuyCheck price on AmazonCheck price at Best BuyCheck price on AmazonCheck price at Best Buy

Figures as published by Blender Open Data (Oct 19, 2026), Geekbench Browser (Sep 24, 2026), llama.cpp community benchmarks (GitHub) (Oct 19, 2026). The best figure is marked where a row is all one source.

Compare every benchmark side by side

The figures, one lab per row

Every row is one source's figures for both: Geekbench Browser, Blender Open Data and llama.cpp's community benchmarks.

MacBook Pro 14 M5 Pro vs MacBook Pro 14 M5 Max, same test, same lab

6 rows
Test and settingMacBook Pro 14 M5 ProMacBook Pro 14 M5 MaxAheadLab
llama.cpp, Llama 2 7B Q4_0, prompt processing (tok/s)1,3403,220MacBook Pro 14 M5 Max by 140%llama.cpp community benchmarks (GitHub)
llama.cpp, Llama 2 7B Q4_0, text generation (tok/s)67.6119.9MacBook Pro 14 M5 Max by 77%llama.cpp community benchmarks (GitHub)
Blender Benchmark (samples/min)3,6436,462MacBook Pro 14 M5 Max by 77%Blender Open Data
Geekbench 7 CPU, Multi-core (points)29,56534,566MacBook Pro 14 M5 Max by 17%Geekbench Browser
Geekbench 7 CPU, Single-core (points)3,6803,692levelGeekbench Browser
Geekbench 7 GPU, Metal (points)124,541194,380MacBook Pro 14 M5 Max by 56%Geekbench Browser

A row is here only when the same publication ran the same test on both. Launch prices are the makers' suggested prices; check the shop for today's.

Free to reuse with credit and a link to this page (CC BY 4.0).

What the Max adds

32 GPU cores against 16, 460GB/s of memory bandwidth against 307, up to 128GB of memory against 64GB, and a 2TB SSD in the base model against 1TB. Multi-core CPU is 17 percent faster (34,566 against 29,565 in Geekbench 7), since the Max has 18 cores to the Pro's 15.

What it costs

$1,400 more, part of which is the extra terabyte. The Max also draws more power under load, so battery life is rated 2 hours shorter (20 against 22 hours).

Which one to buy

Buy the M5 Pro for code, photo and most video work: the CPU is close and it is $1,400 cheaper. Buy the M5 Max for 3D, heavy video effects or local AI models that need more than 64GB.

Questions

On one core, no. In multi-core CPU work about 17 percent; on the GPU 56 to 77 percent.

The M5 Pro up to 64GB, the M5 Max up to 128GB.