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Mac M4 Chip Performance Unveiled in First Benchmarks

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Apple is planning to launch the first M4 Macs in early November, and new benchmarks for one of the upcoming models surfaced on Geekbench, giving us some insight into how the M4 Mac will perform compared to the M4 iPad Pro and prior-generation M3 Macs.

M4-Real-Feature-Red.jpg

The "Mac16,1" that was benchmarked features a 10-core CPU and it earned a single-core score of 3864 and a multi-core score of 15288.

Comparatively, the base M4 iPad Pro with 9-core CPU has an aggregate single-core score of 3647, and a multi-core score of 13135. The iPad Pro models have either a 9-core CPU or a 10-core CPU depending on storage capacity, and 10-core models have higher multi-core scores of around 14500 on Geekbench.

When pitting the M4 against the M3 chip with 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU that was used in last year's Macs, single-core performance is up 26.7 percent, and multi-core performance is up 30.6 percent. The M3 iMac, for example, has a single-core score of 3048, and a multi-core score of 11708.

In the iPad Pro, Apple said the M4 was up to 25 percent faster than the M3, and M4 performance in Macs will be the same or better. Note that this is just one benchmark, so there will be some variability in scores when the machines are actually released.

Metal scores for one of the new M4 Macs also surfaced today, and GPU performance is roughly on par with the M4 iPad Pro chip. Mac16,1, which has 16GB RAM, earned a Metal score of 57603. The M4 iPad Pro has a Metal score of 53374. The M4 Macs will likely perform a little bit better due to thermal differences, but again, there is variance in scores.

The M4 chip showing up on Geekbench is the standard M4, and it will be used in the Mac mini and 14-inch MacBook Pro models. We are also expecting to see M4 Pro and M4 Max chips for the higher-end MacBook Pro and Mac mini models, and benchmark results for those machines have not yet surfaced. The M3 chip had a Metal score of 47414, suggesting GPU performance will improve around 20 percent year-over-year.

Apple will likely hold a small event to announce the new M4 Macs toward the end of October, with a launch to follow on November 1.

Article Link: Mac M4 Chip Performance Unveiled in First Benchmarks
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2024/10/07/m4-mac-chip-benchmarks/
Show me a Mac mini that can drive three 5k monitors, and I will show you my money. 48GB RAM would also be nice.

Otherwise I guess I have to wait for a Studio update.
 
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DavidSchaub said:
Any year-over-year improvement over 15% is a big win in my books.
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That 25% performance increase is really great already. And aside from synthetic benchmarks, this increase would certainly be felt in the increase speed and efficiency over any existing apps + increased battery life.

But since my M1 is still going strong, I think I'll held off any purchases until my M1 cannot take it no more. That's probably until the M10 arrived lol.
 
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Anglagard said:
We already had the scores of the M4 chip without proper cooling so these small higher differences are expected, what we are really after is M4 Pro and M4 Max.
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Exactly! I'm really shocked that we haven't heard anything (in terms of rumors or leaks) about the M4 Pro and Max chips. Usually we get several rumors months in advance about the higher end MBP models but this year it's been quiet except for the entry level MBP model. I want to know about the chip specs and if we're getting more RAM (maybe 24 or 32gigs) or another Thunderbolt port.
 
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Analog Kid said:
Remarkable that we're still seeing improvements like this after this many generations of Apple Silicon.
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The M series silicon is remarkable in of itself. We are just now starting to see other "mainstream" processors that can compete in pure processing power, but they still lack the power savings and thermal profile that even the early M1 silicon possessed. And yes - to see 15 to 25% annual increases in performance - without backtracking on power and heat - is something other manufacturers have to be envious of. Sure - there are limited runs and specialized processors out there that can beat the M series, but to have that kind of power in a tablet that can run most of the day on a single charge... Remarkable. Can't wait to see what is next.

And HOW Apple does it is also magnificent. I have seen other brands of portables, etc that have "similar" performance, but they are inelegant, noisy, and so forth - they don't have that "feel" that so much (or all) of Apple's portables have. Classy design, a tightly integrated system, and mind-bending performance in a device not much bigger than a magazine... Thats a hard win for Apple.
 
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At this point they need to just focus on OS stability/bugfixes, I can't possibly see any reason to upgrade my 2023 16" with an M3 Pro. it shreds through all kinds of editing workflows and i've never heard the fans
 
CPU-wise it’s surpassed my M1 Pro by a significant amount, although GPU scores aren’t quite there yet. Maybe by the next generation the M5 non-Pro will surpass it. If rumors of a thinner MacBook Pro pan out by then I’d consider upgrading.
 
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I’m on an M1 iMac, and have no plans to upgrade. That’s a good thing. Across Apple’s products, the need for yearly upgrades isn’t nearly as high as it was during the first few years of iPhones, iPads and the Macs that were introduced in their time. The change from moving hard disks to SSD’s was also part of the equation on the Mac side.
 
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Safe to say this is more powerful than a base M2 Mac Mini Pro?

I told myself if I buy new M4 Macs and iPads that I would hold off on purchasing any new Macs and iPads for 5 years 😮‍💨
 
DestructoTim said:
As if a 25% year over year isn't a really good improvement?
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I think some people became fans of Apple right after they introduced the iPhone and iPad, and they were coming out with chips that had 2x CPU and 9x GPU gains, and people got their expectations a little too high. Those jumps in performance weren’t normal.

Anyway, 25% sounds more impressive if you apply real world benefits to it. If someone creates a lot of videos and it would normally take 12 minutes to export a 4k video, theoretically M4 shaves 3 minutes off of that. I’m sure lots of people would be thrilled about that.
 
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dannyyankou said:
I think some people became fans of Apple right after they introduced the iPhone and iPad, and they were coming out with chips that had 2x CPU and 9x GPU gains, and people got their expectations a little too high. Those jumps in performance weren’t normal.

Anyway, 25% sounds more impressive if you apply real world benefits to it. If someone creates a lot of videos and it would normally take 12 minutes to export a 4k video, theoretically M4 shaves 3 minutes off of that. I’m sure lots of people would be thrilled about that.
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That's almost certainly a multicore operation, so it would shave closer to 4 minutes off. Rendering is probably a GPU operation, so there's the metal benefits as well. I can't remember if the media cores improved going to M4...
 
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