I Tested the M5 iPad Pro: It’s Overkill for Most People, and That’s the Point

Apple’s M5 chip is the 2025 iPad Pro’s biggest upgrade over its M4-based predecessor. This new Apple silicon is based on the company’s third-generation 3nm technology. The M5 comes in two base configurations. Both models have a 10-core GPU with Neural Accelerators and a 16-core NPU (Neural Engine). One M5 variant has a nine-core CPU, and the other has a 10-core CPU.

Several things are worth pointing out here. The GPU’s Neural Accelerators help turbo-charge graphics tasks and processes. This is where I…