After the M4 Pro chip this morning, here are the first benchmarks of the M4 Max chip, the one that will equip the new high-end 2024 MacBook Pros. If the processor is much faster than its predecessor, the gap is even greater than announced by Apple. Once again, Apple has given the competition a real slap in the face, both in CPU and GPU.
The first official benchmarks
The processor part
The first Geekbench 6 benchmarks for Apple’s M4 Max chip, featuring a 16-core processor, show that it outperforms the M2 Ultra (24-core) with up to 25% faster peak multi-core performance. Previous benchmarks for the M4 Pro indicate that the M4 Max is up to 20% faster than the M4 Pro.
Here’s a comparison of average multi-core scores:
- MacBook Pro with M4 Max (16 cores): 26,445
- Mac mini with M4 Pro (14 cores): 22,094
- Mac Studio with M2 Ultra (24 cores): 21,351
The M4 Max of the MacBook Pro 2024 thus becomes the fastest Apple chip in the Geekbench 6 database, rivaling or exceeding the performance of the M2 Ultra sold from €4,799. Likewise, the M4 Pro in the Mac mini 2024 offers comparable performance to the Mac Studio M2 Ultra, but for a significantly lower price of $1,649.
The graphic part
In terms of graphics performance, Metal scores from Geekbench show substantial gains, with the M4 Pro and M4 Max offering up to 40% and 25% faster respectively than the M3 Pro and M3 Max. Better, the new M4 Max, with its 40-core GPU, achieves 85% of the performance of the 76-core GPU of the M2 Ultra, although it has practically half as many cores.
Here is a comparison of Metal scores:
- Mac Studio with M2 Ultra (76 GPU cores): 221,640
- MacBook Pro with M4 Max (40 GPU cores): 190 330
- MacBook Pro with M3 Max (40 GPU cores): 154,860
- Mac mini with M4 Pro (20 GPU cores): 110,550
- MacBook Pro with M3 Pro (18 GPU cores): 78,681
These benchmarks highlight the significant improvements in CPU and GPU performance of the M4 Pro and M4 Max compared to their predecessors, justifying the recent investment of game studios such as Ubisoft, Capcom and CD Project RED, in particular.
