If you can’t decide between the 14-inch MacBook Pro and the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Max, there’s another point to consider besides size. The question was always whether the M5 Max would be slowed down by the smaller chassis. Now that the test results for these two machines are in, the answer appears to be a resounding yes.
How much power loss are we talking about?
The folks at Notebookcheck ran the same tests on both 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros equipped with top-of-the-line M5 Max chips with 40 GPU cores, and the results were revealing.
Early benchmarks show an 18 percent improvement in the MacBook Pro 16’s multi-core performance over the MacBook Pro 14. What makes this even more impressive is that the 16-inch MacBook Pro achieves this in automatic mode. Switching to high-power mode ensures even better continuous performance during longer sessions.
GPU performance tells a similar story. The MacBook Pro 16-inch performs 12% better than the 14-inch model in the 3DMark Steel Nomad test. More importantly, GPU performance remained stable under sustained workloads, while the 14-inch model dropped by up to 25% in the same test.
Why does the larger laptop perform so much better?
It depends on the heat and electricity consumption. The M5 Max is a powerful chip that consumes a lot of power. In benchmarks, the MacBook Pro 16 used 78 watts through its CPU cores, significantly more than the 14-inch model.
That’s because the smaller laptop simply doesn’t have enough space to handle this kind of heat effectively. With less space for cooling, the MacBook Pro 14 throttles the chip to protect it, resulting in reduced performance.
The 16-inch MacBook Pro features a larger chassis, improved airflow and higher thermal headroom, allowing the M5 Max to maintain peak performance with minimal throttling.
So should you choose the MacBook Pro 14 or the 16?
If you’re a creative professional who needs the M5 Max for demanding tasks like video editing or 3D rendering, the MacBook Pro 16 is clearly the better choice. The chip has more thermal leeway in the larger housing, and it shows.
However, if your workload requires this level of performance, I would recommend waiting for the Mac Studio to go with the M5 Max, as it will likely deliver better sustained performance at a lower cost. If you don’t have to travel a lot for work, this would be a better device than the laptop in every way.
