Apple M5 MacBook Pro: Music Production Benchmarks and Real-World Performance

Comprehensive benchmarks of the M5 MacBook Pro for music production across Logic, Ableton, and FL Studio.

Published 2026-04-04

We've spent two weeks putting the new M5 MacBook Pro through its paces with Logic Pro, Ableton Live, and FL Studio. Here are our comprehensive benchmarks and real-world production tests.

Raw Performance Numbers

The M5 chip delivers approximately 35% more CPU performance than the M4 in sustained workloads, which translates directly to more tracks, more plugins, and lower buffer sizes. In our Logic Pro stress test, we managed 412 Alchemy tracks before hitting the CPU ceiling — up from 305 on the M4.

Plugin Performance

Where the M5 really shines is in plugin-heavy sessions. We tested with Serum, Omnisphere, Kontakt, and various UAD plugins. The results are impressive: a session with 24 instances of Serum and heavy automation ran at just 45% CPU usage at a 128-sample buffer.

Memory and Storage

The base model now ships with 24GB of unified memory, which is a welcome change from the previous 16GB. For producers working with large Kontakt libraries or Omnisphere patches, this makes a noticeable difference in sample loading times.

Our verdict: the M5 MacBook Pro is the best laptop ever made for music production. Check our benchmarks page for detailed comparisons.