M4 is complete, it’s time to do a summary to know the notable differences between the three models. The price goes up a little more each time, but so does the performance. Here are the M4, M4 Pro and M4 Max.
Presentation of the complete M4 series
Apple is unstoppable. After announcing the M4 and M4 Pro chips, it unveils the M4 Max, the ultimate version of this new Apple Silicon series. Three chips made using second-generation 3-nanometer technology. Even more power with just as much energy saving, let’s do a complete summary.
M4: a standard version already very powerful
The M4 has a processor with up to 10 cores (4 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores), making it up to 1.8 times faster than the M1. Apple is basing the comparisons on the M1, which confirms that there is no need to switch if you are on an M2 and M3 series machine.
A 10-core GPU, up to 2 times faster than M1, and a 16-core Neural Engine, required to run the full power of Apple Intelligence in the years to come. Thanks to AI, Apple has now moved to a minimum of 16 GB of RAM for its new products. Up to 32 GB unified memory in addition to 120 GB/s memory bandwidth.
Finally, the M4 supports two external screens in addition to the initial screen and has the capacity to power up to 4 Thunderbolt 4 ports. As you will have understood, you can “do everything” with the M4. Multitasking, photo and video editing, AAA video games with ray-tracing and limitless generative AI.
M4 Pro: even more power, at a more affordable price than M4 Max
As its name suggests, for the M4 Pro, we are clearly on a chip dedicated to professionals. Researchers, engineers, creators, developers and other professions in “eurs” are the primary target targeted by Apple for this model.
M4 Pro has a processor with up to 14 cores (10 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores). It’s up to 1.9 times faster than the M1 Pro’s processor and up to 2.1 times faster than the latest AI PC chip, hello Windows.
A GPU that scales up to 20 cores, delivering 2x the graphics performance of the best M4 configuration and up to 2.4x the latest PC AI chip. The competition had better watch out. M4 Pro supports up to 64 GB of unified memory with 273 GB/s of memory bandwidth, an increase of 75% compared to M3 Pro.
Unlike M4 which is stagnating on Thunderbolt 4, M4 Pro is Thunderbolt 5 compatible, which is three times faster than the previous generation. In addition to all the activities that can be used on M4, the Pro version allows you to work via Xcode, on 3D renderings or even process large AI files. All this in silence, without overheating and at astonishing speed.
M4 Max: ultimate power for an ultimate price
Let’s not beat around the bush, we are here facing a monster of power. The most powerful chip for a professional laptop, according to Apple. Presented today on the occasion of the release of a MacBook Pro M4, M4 Max explodes all the statistics. Apple is talking squarely about a chip dedicated to data scientists, 3D artists and composers who never have enough power for what they achieve.
M4 Max has a processor with up to 16 cores (12 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores). 2.2x faster than M1 Max and 2.5x faster than the best AI PC chip. Once again, Apple is sending you the message that there is no point in considering M4 Max if you are already on the M2 Max or M3 Max.
A GPU with up to 40 cores (twice more than M4 Pro), which allows you to achieve 1.9 times more power than with M1 Max and even 4 times more than with competing models. The M4 Max supports up to 128 GB of unified memory and 546 GB/s of memory bandwidth. Again, this is four times more than other brands. Two video encoding engines, two ProRes accelerators and Thunderbolt 5 to finish.
With M4 Max, developers can easily interact with large LLM language models, up to 200 billion parameters. Also ideal for denoising raw video sequences in real time via DaVinci Resolve Studio. In short, we can do everything and always with energy savings, overheating limits and battery preservation. All this in a simple laptop.
