Apple's M5 chip leak shows new MacBook and iPad Pro models will gain big in one specific way

When it comes to leaks and rumours in the world of tech, Apple sits as something of an outlier. While many other brands are susceptible to seeing their as-yet-unreleased products paraded around ahead of time, the Cupertino-based brand tends to stay a little tighter, avoiding too many concrete leaks.

But rare doesn't mean never, and earlier today, we reported on a seriously high profile leak from a Russian YouTuber. That showcased the M5 iPad Pro, with an unboxing and some Geekbench testing.

Today, I'm digging a little more into the latter half, as those benchmarks tell us a lot about Apple's next generation of processors. The video shows the M5 iPad Pro tested against the current M4 iPad Pro model of the same size, which is about as controlled a test subject as you could ask for.

First up was the CPU performance. That saw some fairly modest gains – about 10% in single-core and 15% in multi-core – which is certainly welcome, but unlikely to be the kind of thing you'd write home about. It's the sort of generation-on-generation gain we'd come to expect these days.

Once we move into the GPU performance, however, we see a more marked change. There, a boost of around 35% should be much more noticeable in daily use.

It's an upgrade which is especially pertinent for Apple's gaming contingent. The brand has really pushed the envelope there in recent years, in a bid to escape previous stigma's surrounding gaming using its devices.

With the processor expected to make an appearance in the next generation of iPads and MacBooks, there should be ample opportunity for users to get hands on with it. It's also going to be a welcome spot of good news for the range, which had previously been touted as a last iterative update before the M6 processor arrives.

That's said to make use of a 2nm chip architecture, which should make it a seismic shift in terms of efficiency.