Apple Renames M5’s Performance Cores To ‘Super Cores,’ Hinting That The M5 Pro And M5 Max Won’t Have Any Clock Speed Advantages; Here’s Why It Matters

The M5 Pro and M5 Max announcement was accompanied by some changes in the way Apple categorizes its CPU cores. With the company introducing the term ‘super’ to the lineup, perhaps it was a hint that its Fusion Architecture allowed it to develop even more capable custom cores without compromising on efficiency. Sadly, this isn’t the case, because the M5’s performance cores have also been renamed to ‘super cores,’ concluding that the M5 Pro and M5 Max won’t be clocked any higher, removing any advantage that we thought was present because we fell victim to Apple’s clever marketing.

The super cores were re-branded after the M5 Pro and M5 Max announcement to make you believe that you were getting significantly powerful specifications

The M5 was announced months before the M5 Pro and M5 Max, meaning that we got our look at its specifications long before we took a gander at the more powerful Apple Silicon. In a Geekbench 6 benchmark comparison, we found that the now-renamed super cores operate at 4.61GHz, meaning that the same frequency has been adopted by the M5 Pro and M5 Max.

This lack of change indicates that all three SoCs will produce similar results in single-threaded workloads. Now, if you turn your attention to the images below, the efficiency cores belonging to the M5 haven’t been renamed to ‘performance’ cores, suggesting that the new performance cores belonging to the M5 Pro and M5 Max will have higher clock speeds than M5’s efficiency cores, but a lower frequency than the super cores.

These changes would explain why Apple has used more performance cores on the M5 Pro and M5 Max, as they will enable both chipsets to deliver impressive multi-core performance without sacrificing thermals. All configurations of Apple’s three SoC releases for the new MacBook Pro range have been listed below.

2 of 9

M5

• 10-core CPU (4 super cores running at 4.61GHz, six efficiency cores running at 3.00GHz)

M5 Pro

• 15-core CPU (5 super cores running at 4.61GHz, 10 performance cores running in the 3.00GHz - 4.61GHz range)
• 18-core CPU (6 super cores running at 4.61GHz, 12 performance cores running in the 3.00GHz - 4.61GHz range)

M5 Max

• 18-core CPU (6 super cores running at 4.61GHz, 12 performance cores running in the 3.00GHz - 4.61GHz range)
• 18-core CPU (6 super cores running at 4.61GHz, 12 performance cores running in the 3.00GHz - 4.61GHz range)

This is a smart approach from Apple because just sticking with the ‘performance + efficiency’ configuration was eventually going to begin delivering diminishing returns. Think about it; with TSMC’s 3nm N3P process, there’s a clock speed ceiling that the company cannot break through, or else it will compromise the efficiency of the M5 Pro and M5 Max.

This could be why Apple hasn’t attempted to go beyond 4.61GHz, and it is a lesson that can be understood by Qualcomm, as its Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro, a silicon specifically designed for smartphones, is rumored to be tested at 5.00GHz. With 4.61GHz being the limit, Apple thought out of the box and decided to offer slightly lower frequencies, which wouldn’t hurt power draw and would keep both chipsets within their thermal limits.

Now all that remains is figuring out the clock speeds of the new ‘performance’ cores. As soon as we stumble upon this information, we’ll update our readers. If you have any idea, participate in the poll and share your thoughts in the comments.

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