We’ve been using Apple’s 16” MacBook Pro with the brand new 5600M graphics option
for over two weeks now, and the performance has been so good that we can confidently say
that it actually makes more sense to buy this MacBook Pro right now instead of waiting for
a high-end ARM version later.
The main reason is that the people who are in the market for this high-end MacBook Pro
need reliable and fast performance, and there’s a very good chance that the third-party apps
they use right now will take a couple of years to get completely re-optimized for ARM, or
at least to the same level as current Intel-based Macs.
Vadim discussed all of the reasons in yesterday's video, so be sure to check it out after this
video is over.
So getting back to the 5600M 16” MacBook Pro, the performance has been nothing short
of incredible. It’s so good that this is the first time we’re seeing a MacBook Pro
matching up to the performance of desktop Macs that are even more expensive while not
being portable like the MacBook Pro is.
Not only did we see a MASSIVE improvement in graphics performance, so much so that it
outperforms the most popular eGPU setup in every single test that we ran, which I’ll
show you in a minute, but we even saw processor performance improvements as well.
I even compared it to my $15,000 Mac Pro in a recent video and we concluded that it actually
makes more sense for most people to buy the 5600M equipped MacBook Pro where they would
have needed to buy a Mac Pro just 6 months ago.
Now I want to show you some of the impressive results comparing this new 2020 5600M MacBook
Pro and the previous best which has the 5500M 8GB GPU, the same exact 2.4GHz i9 CPU and
32GB of RAM,
but first I want to mention that you can find our new Apple Product merch right below this
video in our Merch shelf.
In terms of RAW processing power using Geekbench 5, the 5600M model improved by around 250
points. And in the more realistic Cinebench R20 stress test, our score improved by around
6%, and that’s impressive since it’s literally the exact same CPU.
We even tested exporting 500 42MP RAW images in Lightroom and the new model finished 3
minutes faster.
This basically shows us that the 5600M graphics model somehow has better cooling for the processor
itself, allowing it to clock higher and perform better.
But that’s not the main focus of this new machine, the major difference is the graphics.
In terms of RAW graphics performance, the 5600M was 50% faster than the 5500M, which
was the previous best graphics option, and that’s with it having the same 50W TDP.
And to our surprise, we saw an even bigger difference running the Unigine Heaven Gaming
benchmark in Windows 10 using bootcamp.
How can this be possible with the same TDP? Optimization. The 5600 the more optimized
navi 12 and while the clock speeds have been dropped we have 40 cores instead of 24 which
is how we’re getting this amount of performance per watt.
Naturally, we had to test gaming performance in Fortnite and Call of Duty Warzone and found
that we could get a consistent 60FPS or above with fairly high settings, and that was with
the default bootcamp driver which have since been updated.
This puts the 5600M in line with the RTX 2060 in terms of performance all while having much
faster memory and using quite a bit less power as well, which is what really makes the 5600M
impressive.
We’ve tested multiple laptops with 2060 graphics cards, and while most of them cost
quite a bit less money while offering similar graphics performance, there is a massive drop
off in performance when you unplug the laptop.
On top of that they require big power bricks and can’t be run off of usb-c power. That
is where the 5600M really shines. You get that same performance when on the go all while
getting way better battery life and you can run off cheap USB-C power banks due to the
whole laptop using less than 100W of power.
Because of this if you need the best graphics power while on the go the 5600M equipped MacBook
will even beat of the most powerful windows laptops like the Quadro equipped Blade Studio
while costing less and having a faster CPU.
It doesn't stop there. We compared the performance of this 5600M MacBook Pro to our 5700 XT eGPU
and this thing by itself got much better FPS, which I wasn't expecting.
And all of that power is built-in. You don’t have to deal with an eGPU, and if you watched
that video from a couple of days ago,
you’ll know that eGPUs can actually slow down performance for things like video editing.
Now here is the crazy part in terms of gaming, we tested the best Vega 48 graphics card in
the 5K iMac, and it only scored 75.4FPS in Unigine heaven under bootcamp, compared to
83.8.
So we can now confirm that the 5600M 16” MacBook Pro is by far the best value option
for anyone who wants to play games in Windows 10 using Bootcamp, being a much better choice
compared to buying an eGPU or an expensive high-end Mac desktop.
Now one of the concerns that I’ve read is that the 5600M will overheat and lose performance
during long workloads like gaming, but while filming our Gaming Review, we played for many
hours under bootcamp and the performance was consistent.
This shows us that the cooling system was keeping up just fine.
A lot of people also asked us about fan noise while connected to an external display, and
I can confirm that the issue is now fixed, at least with the 5600M.
I connected it to Apple’s 6K Pro Display XDR and the MacBook Pro was staying cool and
completely silent.
This is a multi-part issue with previous Macs so if you want to know more watch our “how
to fix your 16” MacBook Pro.” video.
Now lets touch on productivity, this new 5600M model continues to impress us.
We ran a version of the Blender benchmark which uses graphics, and it was 36% faster
than the 5500M model.
In our Blackmagic RAW 6K export test using Resolve, the 5600M was an even bigger 60%
faster.
And we see a really good improvement in Premiere Pro as well, finishing much quicker.
And then moving on to Final Cut Pro X video editing tests, let’s also introduce the
5700XT eGPU and compare the scores.
In the 5K BruceX benchmark, the 5600M wiped the floor with the 5500M, and the eGPU was
surprisingly slow, and I think that’s because of eGPU optimization issues in the latest
version of macOS, and that’s one of the things you have to worry about with eGPUs.
Moving on to our 1 minute HEVC stabilization test, the 5600M was twice as fast as the eGPU,
and 50% faster than the 5500M.
And we saw an even bigger difference in our 30 second C200 RAW stabilization test, with
this MacBook Pro finishing in only 39 seconds.
So this basically shows how it not only beats the eGPU in gaming, but in video editing as
well.
Now there are some video editing tasks that we ran where there was no difference at all
between the 5500M and the 5600M, and that’s because the test wasn’t being limited by
graphics, but actually by the maximum speed of the hardware encoding technology, so if
you’re not pushing the graphics card hard having a faster one won’t help.
The only downside of the 5600M graphics option is that it’s $600 more expensive than the
8GB 5500M model. Thats a big difference in price, mostly due to ultra fast but very expensive
HMB2 memory.
With that said, if you’re already spending over $3000 and you need graphics performance
paying the extra price is a better value than buying an eGPU and the power is always there
and unlike windows laptops you can use that power when unplugged.
And I’m even gonna take it one step further, because of the portability, I’ll say that
if you’re gonna buy just one more Intel-based Mac for app compatibility and for using boot
camp before you switch to one of the future ARM Macs, the 5600M 16” MacBook Pro is the
Mac you should buy.
Hopefully you enjoyed this review, and if you did, tap the like button below and click
the circle above to subscribe. Thanks for watching and we’ll see you in the next one!