Apple's M5 MacBook Pro achieved 58 frames per second in Cyberpunk 2077 with ray tracing enabled, while an M4 MacBook Air managed just 20 frames per second, creating a 290 percent performance gap. The comparison tested the actively cooled M5 against the passively cooled M4 Air, which lacks a cooling fan and relies on a heatsink. Without ray tracing, the M5 reached 75 frames per second compared to the M4 Air's 48 frames per second, reducing the advantage to 56 percent.
YouTuber Tom from The Tech Chap conducted the benchmarks but compared different product categories rather than equivalent models. The fanless M4 Air likely experienced thermal throttling when running the demanding game. The base M5 MacBook Pro sells for $1,584 on Amazon, while the M4 MacBook Pro costs $1,349 at the same retailer.
