Why Is My MacBook Pro M5 So Slow and Overheating?

if you are not running any of the things I mentioned, the best way forward is to use etrecheck and post its pre-sanitized reply here on the forums for readers to look at. Many eyes looking have found many subtle problems and allowed them to be solved directly in a short amount of time.

Consider downloading and running this little "discovery" utility, Etrecheck. It changes NOTHING. Etrecheck was developed by a senior contributor here, and uses mostly system calls and simple tests to collect often-needed information.

it contains little tests for speeds of devices, CPU utilization, memory usage, energy usage and a digest of recent problems, in one easy to use package. it does not even need to be Installed. Because less can be learned when your Mac is running great, best time to run is when your problems are actually occurring, if possible.

if you follow the directions faithfully, its report (pre-laundered of all personally-identifiable information) can be "Shared" to the System ClipBoard, then Pasted into an ‘Additional Text’ window in a reply on the forums.

Use Etrecheck Pro for free:

http://Etrecheck.com

The amount of data you get can be daunting. If you POST your report, some Readers here are willing to look over those reports, and can provide valuable insights.

then start reply on the forums, click the 'additional text' icon, and PASTE

Some things to try:

1. Turn on Low Power Mode (System Settings > Battery > Low Power Mode > Always). Sounds odd, but on Apple Silicon this cuts unnecessary CPU/GPU usage and heat without really hurting normal design work. Many people found this stopped the overheating and freezing almost instantly, especially if it started after a software update.
2. Check Activity Monitor (Utilities folder > CPU tab, sort by "% CPU"). See if something is using a lot of CPU even when you're not actively working, browser tabs with video are a common hidden cause.
3. Remove any third-party cleaner, optimizer, antivirus, or VPN apps. These are a very common cause of slowdowns and overheating on Macs.
4. Do a full shutdown (not restart) shut down completely and wait 30 seconds to turn back on. Clears thermal/power glitches.
5. Make sure macOS is fully updated (System Settings > General > Software Update).

The base M5 MacBook Pro also only has a single fan and tests have shown it running quite hot (close to 99°C) under load, so it does run hotter than people expect for a "Pro" machine but constant freezing on basic design work isn't normal. If none of the above fixes it it could be a defective unit and worth a Genius Bar visit.

alexiabasswerner wrote:

I bought a MacBook Pro M5 in December with 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. As a graphic designer, I mainly use it for creating visual pieces and brand identity work — nothing extremely heavy or technically demanding.

You would expect a 1TB, 24GB RAM MacBook Pro M5 to be a powerful, reliable tool for this kind of work. But instead, it constantly freezes, overheats, and sounds like it’s about to take off with how hard the fans are working. It struggles with tasks that shouldn’t even be challenging for a machine with these specs.

What’s even more ironic is that I never experienced this with my old MacBook Air with only 8GB of RAM. That laptop handled my workflow much more smoothly. For a device marketed as “pro” level, this performance is honestly disappointing.

Has anyone experienced something similar? Any tips or solutions would be really appreciated.

I was in the Apple Store the other day and they have laptops out for buyers to try out, laptops with less capable specifications than yours, and they run silently and quickly no matter how many browser windows I open or how many other apps I activate. You can go see this for yourself. So the conclusion is that something is installed most likely that is interfering. Grant's suggestion on Etrecheck is the right approach, it might identify the culprit.

Other things you can try: create a new user and log out of your account and log in to the new user, and retest. Also: boot into Safe Mode and retest. If either results in a smooth running Mac, then something is installed that is causing the issue (that might be true anyway, so Etrecheck is the best approach).

By far the easiest way to cause poor performance, instability, overheating and crashing is to install ANY third-party speeder-uppers, Cleaners, Optimizers, Third-party Virus scanners, Bit Torrent, or a VPN that you installed yourself.

¿Are you running any of those?

Make sure the wattage provided by the charger is sufficient or that it's even working correctly. Not sure how this holds up for the M-chips, but for the older i9-models the difference of using the original power brick versus a third-party (possibly lower wattage) brick was night and day.

I have had the same problem. I bought my new MacBook Pro M5 three months ago and after a software update it’s suddenly started overheating and freezing and unfreezing for seconds constantly across all applications. I searched the Internet for solutions before making a genius appointment. Then I came across a post that suggested checking my battery mode. When I did my battery mode was set to ‘low power mode’ - ‘never’. I believe this might have been changed in the software update. When I changed my battery mode to ‘low power mode - always’, reducing energy usage, the overheating stopped immediately and the freezing for seconds also stopped

I have the exact same hardware and I am experiencing the exact same issue. I used to have a MacBook Pro M2 8GB of RAM, and I honestly never saw it heat up. I am submitting my new M5 to a considerably lower load, and it heats-up like no other laptop I have ever had.