Apple on Tuesday announced new MacBook Pro models that feature the M5 Pro and M5 Max, high-end chips that replace the M4 Pro and M4 Max. The M5 Pro and M5 Max offer significantly boosted performance over the base M5 chip in the 14-inch MacBook Pro that was released in October, along with a few surprises.

Apple finally has cemented its "good," "better," and "best" tiers for its MacBook models.

Apple’s Mac refresh moves the lineup further upmarket, pairing higher prices with faster performance in a push to give customers a reason to upgrade.

Apple M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBooks launch with AI-focused chip updates; M5 Pro claims 30% multi-core gains, starting at $1,700.

Despite all the big under-the-hood changes, the basic hierarchy here remains the same as in past generations. The Pro tier offers the biggest bump to CPU performance compared to the basic M5, along with twice as many GPU cores. The Max chip is mainly meant for those who want better graphics, 128GB of RAM, or both.

Apple just kicked off pre-orders for the new M5 MacBook Air and M5 Pro/M5 Max MacBook Pro, and Best Buy already has a few offers on these notebooks. You can get a $50 Best Buy gift card when pre-ordering the MacBook Air and a $100 gift card when pre-ordering the MacBook Pro.

M5 MacBook Pro arrives with CPU and GPU gains but unchanged screen and chassis, as discounted M4 and M3 models remain available.

The chips are engineered around Apple's new Fusion Architecture, an advanced design that merges two dies into a single, high-performance system on a chip (SoC).

Apple’s Mac Studio could get its biggest upgrade yet in 2026 with M5 Max and M5 Ultra chips, more RAM, and a redesigned silicon architecture.