Apple's M5 Max shakes up MacBook Pro with two-die Fusion architecture
Ars Technica tests the 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M5 Max and explains Apple’s new Fusion Architecture—CPU and GPU live on separate dies—plus a redesigned core lineup: six 'super' high-performance cores and 12 'performance' cores that aren’t just rebranded efficiency cores. The CPU die is shared (18 cores) with the M5 Pro/Max, while the GPU die differs (Pro up to 20 cores, Max up to 40, with up to 614 GB/s memory bandwidth). Benchmarks show roughly 10% higher single-core performance vs M4 Max, about 10–12% better multi-core performance, and 20–35% GPU gains; sustained CPU clocks hover around 3.9–4.0 GHz on the big cores, with the performance cores running around 4.2–4.3 GHz. Power use stays in line with past generations. Overall the M5 Pro/Max deliver a meaningful upgrade, though not as dramatic as some previous leaps.
