Apple MacBook Pro 16″ (M5 Pro or M5 Max) vs Apple MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)
Better figure, where one is clearly better
| AppleMacBook Pro 16″ (M5 Pro or M5 Max) | AppleMacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013) | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Released | March 2026 | October 2013 |
| Display | ||
| Screen size | 16.2″ | 15.4″ |
| Resolution | 3456 × 2234 (better) | 2880 × 1800 |
| Panel | Mini-LED | IPS LCD |
| Refresh rate | 120 Hz | – |
| Brightness | 1,000 nits | – |
| HDR peak brightness | 1,600 nits | – |
| Touchscreen | No | No |
| Display type | Liquid Retina XDR display | Retina LED-backlit IPS display, millions of colours; native 2880 × 1800, with scaled modes of 1920 × 1200, 1680 × 1050, 1280 × 800 and 1024 × 640. Refresh rate and brightness unpublished by Apple. |
| Pixel density | 254 ppi | 220 ppi |
| Colour range | Wide colour (P3); 1 billion colours | – |
| Screen finish | Standard, or nano-texture as an option | – |
| Display features | 1,000,000:1 contrast; 1,000 nits sustained full-screen XDR brightness; ProMotion up to 120 Hz, with fixed 47.95, 48, 50, 59.94 and 60 Hz rates; True Tone | – |
| Performance | ||
| Processor | Apple M5 Pro or Apple M5 Max | Intel Core i7-4750HQ, Intel Core i7-4850HQ or Intel Core i7-4960HQ |
| CPU cores | 18 | 4 |
| CPU threads | – | 8 |
| Graphics | 20-core GPU, 32-core GPU or 40-core GPU | Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200 or NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M (2 GB GDDR5) |
| Memory | 24 GB, 36 GB, 48 GB, 64 GB or 128 GB (better) | 8 GB or 16 GB |
| Storage | 1 TB to 8 TB (better) | 256 GB to 1 TB |
| CPU | 18-core CPU with 6 super cores and 12 performance cores | Quad-core Intel Core i7-4750HQ at 2 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.2 GHz, i7-4850HQ at 2.3 GHz with up to 3.5 GHz, or i7-4960HQ at 2.6 GHz with up to 3.8 GHz; all with 6 MB shared L3 cache. Exact identities documented by EveryMac and cross-checked against Intel. |
| GPU | 20-core (M5 Pro), 32-core or 40-core (M5 Max) GPU with Neural Accelerators and hardware-accelerated ray tracing; Media Engine with H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAW acceleration and AV1 decode, with two video encode and two ProRes engines on M5 Max | Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200 on all configurations; the higher base adds NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M with 2 GB GDDR5 and automatic graphics switching. Upgrading the lower base processor does not add the NVIDIA GPU. |
| AI engine | 16-core Neural Engine | – |
| Memory type | Unified memory | 1600 MHz DDR3L onboard memory; 8 GB with the Iris Pro-only base, configurable to 16 GB; 16 GB with the NVIDIA-equipped base |
| Memory bandwidth | 307 GB/s (M5 Pro), 460 GB/s (M5 Max with 32-core GPU) or 614 GB/s (M5 Max with 40-core GPU) | – |
| Storage type | SSD, configurable up to 4 TB (M5 Pro) or 8 TB (M5 Max); Apple quotes up to 14.5 GB/s read and write (tested with M5 Max and 8 TB) | PCIe-based flash storage; Iris Pro-only base has 256 GB, configurable to 512 GB or 1 TB, with any of its three processor choices. NVIDIA-equipped base has 512 GB, configurable to 1 TB, with the 2.3 GHz or 2.6 GHz processor. |
| Battery and size | ||
| Battery life (maker's claim) | Up to 24 hours | Up to 8 hours |
| Battery capacity | 99.6 Wh (better) | 95 Wh |
| Weight | 2.14 kg | 2.02 kg (better) |
| Thickness | 16.8 mm (better) | 18 mm |
| Width × depth | 355.7 × 248.1 mm | 358.9 × 247.1 mm |
| Battery life detail | M5 Pro up to 24 hours video streaming and 17 hours wireless web; M5 Max up to 22 hours video streaming and 16 hours wireless web; 100-watt-hour (actual rating 99.6 Wh) lithium-polymer battery | Built-in 95 Wh lithium-polymer battery; up to 8 hours wireless web, 8 hours iTunes movie playback or 30 days standby under Apple's test conditions. Reference weight varies by configuration and manufacturing process. |
| Charger | Sold separately in the UK; needs at least 140 W over USB PD | 85 W MagSafe 2 Power Adapter with cable management |
| Fast charging | With a 140 W or higher USB PD power source | – |
| Materials | 100% recycled aluminium enclosure; 45% recycled content overall | Aluminium enclosure |
| Colours | Space Black, Silver | Silver |
| Connections | ||
| Ports | 3 × Thunderbolt 5, HDMI, SD card slot, MagSafe 3, headphone jack | 2 × USB-A, 2 × Thunderbolt 2, MagSafe 2, headphone jack, SD card slot, HDMI |
| Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi 7 | 802.11ac (draft specification); compatible with 802.11a/b/g/n |
| Bluetooth | 6 | 4.0 |
| Webcam | 12MP Center Stage | 720p FaceTime HD |
| Operating system | macOS | macOS |
| Port detail | 3 × Thunderbolt 5 (USB-C) with charging, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt 5 and USB 4 (up to 120 Gb/s); HDMI (up to 8K) with multichannel audio output; SDXC card slot; MagSafe 3; 3.5 mm headphone jack with high-impedance headphone support | Two USB 3 ports up to 5 Gb/s, two Thunderbolt 2 ports up to 20 Gb/s with native Mini DisplayPort output, HDMI, SDXC, MagSafe 2 and headphone jack; support for digital/analogue audio line output and Apple iPhone headset remote and microphone. Ethernet and FireWire require separate Thunderbolt adapters. |
| External displays | M5 Pro up to three at 6K 60 Hz or 4K 144 Hz, or one at 8K 60 Hz, 5K 120 Hz or 4K 240 Hz plus one at 5K 120 Hz or 4K 200 Hz; M5 Max up to four at 6K 60 Hz or 4K 144 Hz, or two at 8K 60 Hz, 5K 120 Hz or 4K 240 Hz; all alongside the built-in display | Built-in screen plus up to two external displays at 2560 × 1600, with millions of colours; HDMI supports 1080p at up to 60 Hz, 3840 × 2160 at 30 Hz or 4096 × 2160 at 24 Hz. DVI, VGA and dual-link DVI adapters sold separately. |
| Keyboard | Backlit Magic Keyboard, 78 (ANSI) or 79 (ISO) keys including 12 full-height function keys | Full-size backlit keyboard with 78 US or 79 ISO keys, 12 function keys, four arrow keys and ambient light sensor |
| Trackpad | Force Touch trackpad | Multi-Touch trackpad with inertial scrolling, pinch, rotate, swipe, three-finger swipe, four-finger swipe, tap, double-tap and drag |
| Speakers | High-fidelity six-speaker sound system with force-cancelling woofers; wide stereo; Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos | Stereo speakers |
| Microphones | Studio-quality three-mic array with directional beamforming; Voice Isolation and Wide Spectrum modes | Dual microphones |
| Biometrics | Touch ID | – |
| In the box | 16-inch MacBook Pro, USB-C to MagSafe 3 Cable (2 m), polishing cloth (nano-texture display only); power adapter sold separately | MacBook Pro with Retina display, MagSafe 2 Power Adapter, AC wall plug and power cord; OS X Mavericks, iLife apps and qualifying free iWork apps |
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