Apple’s proprietary M4 processors are already used in many Mac computers, so rumors have begun to appear about the next generation of chips that the company is currently developing. According to authoritative analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, mass production of Apple M5 processors will begin in the first half of 2025.
Image source: GSM Arena
The report said that M5 chips will be produced using TSMC’s optimized 3nm N3P process technology. Thanks to this, the power consumption of the chips will be reduced by 5-10% compared to M4, which are produced using the N3E process. At the same time, the performance of M5 chips will increase by 5%.
It is expected that mass production of the basic version of the Apple M5 chip will begin in the first half of next year. The M5 Pro and M5 Max chips will begin production in the second half of 2025, and the M5 Ultra in 2026. According to Kuo, Apple will use TSMC’s new System-on-Integrated-Chips-molding-Horizontal (SoIC-mH) “server-level” packaging technology for the M5 Pro, M5 Max and M5 Ultra chips. This approach will reduce the design size by 30-50% compared to a conventional SoC, which should improve cooling and improve overall performance.
It is also expected that the M5 chips will have the CPU and GPU operating separately from each other, rather than in the same package as in the M4. This approach should significantly increase the performance of new Apple processors and improve their cooling. In addition, the M5 series chips should provide significant performance gains when performing tasks related to artificial intelligence.