168: Apple’s Three New M5 Products Officially Announced!

Oct 17, 2025

Apple has unveiled its powerful M5 chip, now driving the latest MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Vision Pro. Key highlights include performance gains of up to 45% in graphics and intriguing new features like the C1X modem for enhanced connectivity. The refresh brings subtle design changes while maintaining many original specs. Discussion also delves into the Vision Pro's new accessories, trade-in challenges, and the implications for future headset development. Overall, a must-listen for anyone curious about Apple's latest innovations.

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ANECDOTE

Surprise Press Release Frenzy

Dan and Hartley described how they refreshed newsrooms and missed Apple press releases, showing the scramble when multiple announcements dropped at once.
They joked about being behind and managing multiple press releases that arrived simultaneously, which made coverage hectic.

INSIGHT

Three-Product M5 Rollout Is Unusual

Apple announced M5 across three distinct product lines at once, an unusual consolidated reveal for them.
Hartley noted this is the first time Apple has released a new chip in three different product lines simultaneously.

INSIGHT

M5 Focuses On GPU And AI Boosts

The M5 brings substantial GPU gains and notable AI capabilities, with Apple claiming up to 45% faster graphics versus M4.
CPU improvements are smaller (~15%) while GPU and AI improvements are the standout annual gains.

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On this episode of The MacRumors Show, we talk through Apple's all-new M5 chip and the three updated devices it announced containing it this week.

Apple this week announced the M5 chip, featuring improved performance and efficiency with a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU. Apple says the M5 chip offers up to 15% faster CPU performance and up to 45% faster graphics, compared to the M4 chip.

It also contains a next-generation GPU architecture optimized for AI tasks, Neural Accelerators for each core, a third-generation ray-tracing engine, enhanced shader cores, and second-generation dynamic caching. There is also a faster 16-core Neural Engine. It has memory bandwidth of 153GB/s and supports up to 32GB of unified memory.

The M5 chip comes to the entry-level MacBook Pro, delivering improved performance. It can also now be configured with up to 4TB of storage.

The iPad Pro also gains the M5 chip, along with Apple's N1 chip, a new custom-designed wireless networking chip that provides Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread. Cellular versions of the new ‌‌iPad Pro‌‌ feature Apple's C1X modem, which allows up to 50% faster cellular data performance than its predecessor, with much greater efficiency.

The new ‌‌iPad Pro‌‌ adds the ability to drive external displays at up to 120Hz and now supports Adaptive Sync. The 256GB and 512GB models now start with 12GB of unified memory.

The M5 chip is also a key part of a notable update to the Vision Pro. The headset now renders 10% more pixels, can ramp up to a 120Hz refresh rate, and offers three hours of battery life.

A new Dual Knit Band feature two straps knitted into a single piece, providing a more comfortable fit. The lower strap has tungsten inserts that provide a counterweight. Apple is also now selling the Logitech Muse spatial stylus for the Vision Pro, and it will begin selling the PlayStation VR2 Sense controller starting next month.

Apple's new devices are now available to pre-order, with launch on Wednesday, October 22.

This episode is sponsored by Shopify — Sign up for your $1-per-month trial and start selling today at shopify.com/mac.