Home > CPU Comparison > M5 Pro (15-Core) or M4 Pro (12-Core): what's better?

Apple M5 Pro (15-Core) vs M4 Pro (12-Core)

94 out of 100
Apple M5 Pro (15-Core)
VS
85 out of 100
Apple M4 Pro (12-Core)
Apple M5 Pro (15-Core)
Apple M4 Pro (12-Core)

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 4.61 GHz Apple M5 Pro (15-Core) with 15-cores against the 4.51 GHz M4 Pro (12-Core) with 12-cores. On this page, you'll find out which processor has better performance in benchmarks, games and other useful information.

  1. Review
  2. Differences
  3. Performance
  4. Specs
  5. Comments

Review

General overview and comparison of the processors
Single-Core Performance
Performance in single-threaded apps and benchmarks
Multi-Core Performance
Measure performance when all cores are involved
Power Efficiency
The efficiency score of power consumption
Integrated Graphics
iGPU capabilities for gaming and 3D-intensive tasks
NanoReview Final Score
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
πŸ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Key Differences

What are the key differences between (12-Core) and (15-Core)
Advantages of Apple M5 Pro (15-Core)
  • Newer - released 1 year and 5 months later
  • Has 3 more physical cores
  • Around 34.2 GB/s (13%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • 10% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 4254 vs 3864 points

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
M5 Pro (15-Core)
vs
M4 Pro (12-Core)

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Cinebench 2026 (Single) 720 -
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) 7161 5470
Cinebench Scores (40th and 80th place)
Submit your benchmark results

GeekBench v6

The new version of this benchmark emulates common operations often used in real-world apps
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
File compression 2370 MB/sec 2120 MB/sec
Clang compilation 222.4 Klines/sec 165.8 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 672.6 pages/sec 484.7 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 667.2 Mpixels/sec 486.8 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 436.8 pages/sec 368.5 pages/sec
Background blur 98.7 images/sec 84.2 images/sec
Photo processing 238.6 images/sec 189.3 images/sec
Ray tracing 39.7 Mpixels/sec 25.9 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2]

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Integer math 109.6 GOps/sec 70.9 GOps/sec
Floating point math 154.6 GOps/sec 71.5 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 460M Primes/sec 460M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 70.6M Strings/sec 46.4M Strings/sec
Data encryption 33.8 GBytes/sec 19.5 GBytes/sec
Data compression 581.1 MBytes/sec 409.9 MBytes/sec
Physics 5367 Frames/sec 4875 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 27.6B Matrices/sec 21.8B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 94 & 661 samples

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 29.8 PPW 37.4 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 417.8 PPW 539.4 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 785.1 PPW 860.8 PPW
These are rough calculations, as most CPUs surpass PL1 TDP wattage even in multicore workloads.

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Apple M5 Pro (15-Core)
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-05-09 (loltoast)Geekbench 6 CPU4309 / 26914
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-30 (JSK)Geekbench 6 CPU4287 / 26529
Add View all (2)
Apple M4 Pro (12-Core)
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-07 (skibidigomgom)Cinebench 2024172 / 1421
πŸ“˜ 2025-11-21 (TommyYOyoyo)Geekbench 6 CPU4066 / 21270
πŸ“˜ 2025-04-16 (Infrra)Cinebench 2024169 / 1297
πŸ“˜ 2025-02-23 (Amandeep)Geekbench 6 CPU3911 / 20685
Add View all (4)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Apple M5 Pro (15-Core) and M4 Pro (12-Core)

General

Vendor Apple Apple
Released March 3, 2026 October 29, 2024
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set ARMv9 ARMv9
Codename Apple M5 Apple M4
Model number T6050 T6040
Integrated GPU Apple M5 Pro GPU (16-core) Apple M4 Pro GPU (16-core)
Successor - - Apple M5 Pro (15-Core)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 15 8
P-Threads 15 8
Base Frequency (P) 4.61 GHz 4.51 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores - 4
E-Threads - 4
Base Frequency (E) - 2.59 GHz
Total
Total Cores 15 12
Total Threads 15 12
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 46x 45x
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 32MB (shared) 32MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Transistors 28 billions -
Fabrication Process 3 nm 3 nm
TDP (PL1) 62 W 38 W
Socket Apple M-Socket Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100Β°C 100Β°C
Die Size 166.85 mmΒ² -
Laptop processors ranking (4th and 13th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Apple M5 Pro GPU (16-core) Apple M4 Pro GPU (16-core)
GPU Base Clock - 500 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1620 MHz 1578 MHz
Shading Units 2048 2048
TMUs 128 128
ROPs 64 64
Execution Units 256 256
TGP - 26 W
iGPU FLOPS
M5 Pro (15-Core) +2%
6.6 TFLOPS
M4 Pro (12-Core)
6.5 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M4 Pro GPU (16-core) compared to M5 Pro GPU (16-core)

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5X-9600 - LPDDR5X-8533
Max. Memory Size 64 GB 64 GB
Memory Channels 16 16
Max. Memory Bandwidth 307.2 GB/s 273 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

Further details
Notes on M4 Pro (12-Core):
    - SoC is designed using ARMv9.2-A architecture.

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
64 (53.3%)
56 (46.7%)
Total votes: 120

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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M4 Pro (12-Core) or M5 Pro (15-Core)?
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