AMD details the 16-inch MacBook Pro's Radeon Pro 5000M-series GPUs
AMD has revealed the specifications of the new Radeon Pro 5000M-series GPU options available in the just-launched 16-inch MacBook Pro, with the Radeon Pro 5300M and 5500M offering better graphics performance and an option for up to 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM.

Introduced as part of Apple's launch of the 16-inch MacBook Pro, the Radeon Pro 5000M-series graphics processing units offer a significant bump in performance compared to the previous options available for the 15-inch MacBook Pro.
Alongside the integrated Intel graphics, the new MacBook Pro models are equipped with a Radeon Pro 5300M with 4GB of GDDR6 memory in the base model, while the second base option includes a Radeon Pro 5500M, again with 4GB of GDDR6 memory. Upgrades are available in both cases, from the 5300M to the 5500M, as well as from the 5500M with 4GB of VRAM to the same GPU but with 8GB of VRAM.
The Radeon Pro 5000M series is made using AMD's new RDNA architecture, as seen in its graphics cards, and are billed as the first discrete mobile GPUs that are made using a 7-nanometer process. The use of GDDR6 enables up to 192 gigabytes per second of memory bandwidth, twice that of GDDR5, though only the 5500M can use 8GB of the memory while the 5300M is limited to 4GB.
The Radeon Pro 5500M GPU is equipped with 24 compute units, 1,536 stream processors, a peak engine clock of 1,300MHz, and can provide up to 4 teraflops of single-precision floating-point performance. The Radeon Pro 5300M GPU has 20 compute units and 1,280 stream processors, along with a peak engine clock of 1,250MHz, giving it up to 3.2 teraflops of performance.
Based on the standard configurations, Apple claims consumers will enjoy 2.1 times faster graphics performance than the GPUs used in the previous standard configuration. In the 15-inch MacBook Pro, this would have consisted of a Radeon Pro 555X or a Radeon Pro 560X, both with 4GB of VRAM.
In a comparison of the highest-performing GPUs for each, consisting of the Vega 20 with 4GB of VRAM against the 8GB Radeon Pro 5500M, Apple claims there is an 80-percent increase of graphical performance for the 16-inch MacBook Pro's GPU. Effects rendering for color grading in DaVinci Resolve is 1.8 times faster in the new model over the previous one, while 1.6-times faster performance is touted for "Fortnite."

Introduced as part of Apple's launch of the 16-inch MacBook Pro, the Radeon Pro 5000M-series graphics processing units offer a significant bump in performance compared to the previous options available for the 15-inch MacBook Pro.
Alongside the integrated Intel graphics, the new MacBook Pro models are equipped with a Radeon Pro 5300M with 4GB of GDDR6 memory in the base model, while the second base option includes a Radeon Pro 5500M, again with 4GB of GDDR6 memory. Upgrades are available in both cases, from the 5300M to the 5500M, as well as from the 5500M with 4GB of VRAM to the same GPU but with 8GB of VRAM.
Radeon Pro 5500M | Radeon Pro 5300M | Radeon Pro Vega 20 | Radeon Pro Vega 16 | Radeon Pro 560X | Radeon Pro 555X | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
MacBook Pro Model | 16-inch Late 2019 | 16-inch Late 2019 | 15-inch Mid 2019 | 15-inch Mid 2019 | 15-inch Mid 2019 | 15-inch Mid 2019 |
VRAM | 4GB or 8GB GDDR6 | 4GB GDDR6 | 4GB HBM2 | 4GB HBM2 | 4GB GDDR5 | 4GB GDDR5 |
Compute Units | 24 | 20 | 20 | 16 | 16 | 12 |
Stream Processors ("Shaders") | 1,536 | 1,280 | 1280 | 1024 | 1024 | 768 |
Max Performance (FP32 in TFlops) | 4.0 | 3.2 | 3.2 | 2.4 | 2.0 | 1.4 |
Peak Engine Clock | 1,300MHz | 1,250MHz | 1,283MHz | 1,190MHz | 1,004MHz | 907MHz |
GPU Process Size | 7nm | 7nm | 14nm | 14nm | 14nm | 14nm |
The Radeon Pro 5000M series is made using AMD's new RDNA architecture, as seen in its graphics cards, and are billed as the first discrete mobile GPUs that are made using a 7-nanometer process. The use of GDDR6 enables up to 192 gigabytes per second of memory bandwidth, twice that of GDDR5, though only the 5500M can use 8GB of the memory while the 5300M is limited to 4GB.
The Radeon Pro 5500M GPU is equipped with 24 compute units, 1,536 stream processors, a peak engine clock of 1,300MHz, and can provide up to 4 teraflops of single-precision floating-point performance. The Radeon Pro 5300M GPU has 20 compute units and 1,280 stream processors, along with a peak engine clock of 1,250MHz, giving it up to 3.2 teraflops of performance.
Based on the standard configurations, Apple claims consumers will enjoy 2.1 times faster graphics performance than the GPUs used in the previous standard configuration. In the 15-inch MacBook Pro, this would have consisted of a Radeon Pro 555X or a Radeon Pro 560X, both with 4GB of VRAM.
In a comparison of the highest-performing GPUs for each, consisting of the Vega 20 with 4GB of VRAM against the 8GB Radeon Pro 5500M, Apple claims there is an 80-percent increase of graphical performance for the 16-inch MacBook Pro's GPU. Effects rendering for color grading in DaVinci Resolve is 1.8 times faster in the new model over the previous one, while 1.6-times faster performance is touted for "Fortnite."

Comments
If all you do is office automation, and want a big laptop display, you should complain that Apple doesn’t offer a defeatured MBP15 or MBP16 for $1800 to $2000.
Interestingly, the low end (5300) is almost identical spec-wise to the Vega 20, at least on paper. The 5500 would be worth the extra couple hundred bucks to me.
www.razer.com/gaming-laptops/razer-blade-pro
Does the Geekbench 5 Open CL benchmark for the GeForce RTX 2080 Max-Q @ 88,423 better even the Vega 64 ? browser.geekbench.com/opencl-benchmarks
2016: Radeon Pro 450, 455, 460
2017: Radeon Pro 555, 560
2018: Radeon Pro 555X, Radeon Pro 560X, Radeon Pro Vega 16, Radeon Pro Vega 20
2019: Radeon Pro 5300M, Radeon Pro 5500M,
would it kill these guys to have a coherent naming scheme
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Radeon-RX-5500M-vs-GeForce-RTX-2080-Max-Q-vs-GeForce-RTX-2080-Desktop_9943_9621_9286.247598.0.html
The RX 5500M there is a slightly faster model than the Pro 5500M in the MBP (4.6TFLOPs vs 4TFLOPs) but is also 7nm. In most cases the 2080 Max-Q (6.5TFLOPs) is about 50-70% faster.
The NVidia GPUs use more power though, Apple usually targets 45-50W. Both NVidia and AMD are pretty close on performance-per-watt. NVidia has been moving more towards catering to bulky gamer laptops that can accommodate 90W+ GPUs.
MBPs are designed for all kinds of professional work including software development, photography and design and not everyone wants to carry around a gaming-style laptop with large 200W power supplies, loud fans, excessive heat and 6 hour battery life.
The good thing about this update is the good performance is priced much more reasonably. The last model had the Vega 20 right at the top BTO option. This performance is now in the base model MBP. That was previously $3349:
https://everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/specs/macbook-pro-core-i9-2.4-eight-core-15-mid-2019-touch-bar-vega-16-vega-20-specs.html
Now the entry $2399 model has that GPU performance, $2699 to match the CPU so $650 cheaper. Plus better keyboard, physical escape key, larger display, better audio. The SSD pricing is vastly improved, around $0.30-0.40/GB, very close to retail SSD prices. The old SSD prices are listed here:
https://everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/macbook-pro-touch-bar-faq/macbook-pro-touch-bar-processor-ram-storage-upgrades.html#internal_storage
This is the best update to the MBP in a long time.
Can the Radeon Pro 5500M can support an external 4k monitor at 60hz?
How many external monitors can these MBPs support?
Anybody compare the sound from this upgrade vs an older MBP?
This upgrade has really got me interested in retiring my 2012 MBP 15 inch.
For 5K and 6K displays, it's basically one 5K or 6K display per Titan Ridge TB3 controller. So you need to connect 1 of those monitors on one side only. Can't connect 2 to one side.
Reviewers are saying the speakers are really good, nearly external speaker quality, while the new microphone array is good enough for podcasting. It's not all the way to external speakers or external microphones, but close. So, it outclasses all prior Apple laptops in both speakers and microphones.
That said, if you're trying to stretch it out for a few years, go for the 5500M, or get an eGPU to connect your Mac to your external monitor. This has an added benefit of taking heat off the machine, and into the PCI-E AMD card in the external enclosure. You won't be able to do this for £200, though, and looking quickly at UK prices, it looks closer to £500.