Which M5 to get?
Now that the M5 Pro/Max pre-orders have been released, I've been having trouble deciding which setup to get.
Here's a little background on what I do. Photography is my bread and butter so I spend a lot of time on Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. I'm currently using a 2017 i7 MacBook Pro with 16 GB ram. I've been noticing a bit of a slow down with batch editing hundreds of a photos at a time in Lightroom and doing some AI rendering in Photoshop. I also tend to run a lot of browser tabs while editing. I recently upgraded to a 48 megapixel camera so my files are a lot bigger as well. I haven't used the camera as much because it slows down my work flow by a lot when editing.
Right now, I'm debating between getting an M5 Pro or a M5 Max. With either chips, I'd like to upgrade to 48 GB ram (3x what I'm currently using). The thing is it is about a $1,300 difference between those two setups. Would I be good with a M5 Pro 15 core CPU/16 core GPU setup or should I do a M5 Max 18 core CPU/40 core GPU?
Posted Mar 8, 2026, 6:06 PM UTC