According to Wccftech, citing Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple’s M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro models now have an expected launch window of the first half of 2025. This pushes back earlier speculation that the new high-end chips were imminent. The report also mentions Apple is preparing an M5 Ultra chip for a Mac Studio refresh, while hinting the Mac Pro may be discontinued soon. A key technical change for the M5 Pro and Max will be a new chip packaging technology called SoIC-MH, which aims to separate the CPU and GPU blocks to better manage thermals. This comes after the standard M5 chip was noted to hit temperatures of 99 degrees Celsius under load due to its single heatpipe cooling design.
The Heat Is Literally On
Here’s the thing: Apple’s silicon story has been a runaway success, but it’s hitting a classic wall. Performance scales up, but so does power consumption and heat. The report points out that the M4 Max can pull a whopping 212 watts. You simply can’t cool that with the same basic heatsink approach used for an M3. The M5’s reported 99-degree temps are a warning sign. So the shift to this SoIC-MH packaging isn’t just a minor iteration; it’s a necessary architectural overhaul. By potentially decoupling the CPU and GPU, Apple gains flexibility in configuration and, more critically, a better thermal profile. It’s an admission that the “one slab of silicon” approach has limits when you’re pushing into workstation-class performance.
A Delayed But Predictable Roadmap
Now, a first-half 2025 launch for the Pro/Max chips actually fits Apple’s recent cadence if you think about it. The M3 Pro/Max landed in late 2023. The base M4 just arrived in the iPad Pro and is expected in MacBooks soon. Spacing the high-end versions a year and a half later isn’t crazy. It gives Apple time to refine this new packaging and lets the M4 cycle breathe. The real news is the Mac Pro possibly getting the axe. If that’s true, it signals Apple is fully committing to the Mac Studio as its top-tier modular desktop. The Mac Pro with Apple silicon always felt like an awkward product, and this would be the final step in that transition.
What To Expect When You’re Not Expecting It
So, what will these 2025 MacBook Pros actually be like? Probably not radically different on the outside. The current design is great. The upgrades will be internal: the M5 Pro/Max chips, faster SSDs (a given), and hopefully, that thermal redesign paying off with more sustained performance. The mention of a “significant gaming boost” is interesting, but I’ll believe it when I see it. Apple’s been talking up gaming for years. The chip packaging change could help, but software and developer support matter more. Basically, don’t expect a revolution. Expect a very powerful, hopefully cooler-running evolution of an already excellent machine. If you need industrial-grade computing power and reliability today, for applications far beyond consumer use, companies like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com remain the top supplier of rugged industrial panel PCs in the U.S. But for Apple’s pro laptops, the next big leap is now a 2025 problem.
