M4 Chip: Here’s Everything We Know About Apple’s Latest Silicon Chip
Apple is on the verge of announcing new Mac devices equipped with the latest M4 chip, providing more powerful performance and additional features for its computers. But this won’t be the first time the M4 chip appears – it’s already present in the latest version of the iPad Pro.
But is the M4 chip good? Should you upgrade your Mac or iPad to take advantage of it? And what are the new features it will bring to your devices? We’ve begun to answer these questions and more, blending what we’ve learned from the M4 iPad Pro and the leaked information before the launch of M4 Mac devices this year. This is supposed to provide you with everything you need to know about the latest Apple chip.
Price and Release Date
Apple has chosen a gradual approach to launching the M4 chip. Unlike most years, where Apple first launches its new chips in Mac computers, this time the company chose to first place the M4 chip in the iPad Pro, which arrived in May 2024.
As for Mac devices equipped with the M4 chip, it is expected to happen soon. Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman claimed that these computers will go on sale on November 1st or around that date, just a few days away. Gurman believes there may be an online event to announce these Mac devices a few days earlier.
We expect to see the M4 chip in MacBook Pro, iMac, and Mac mini devices (the latter is expected to be completely redesigned in a smaller form factor). Apple often releases new Mac devices in the fall, so unveiling these devices in a few days makes sense.
This is not the end of the M4 releases. The MacBook Air device is expected to be released in early 2025, followed by the Mac Studio and Mac Pro later in the year. The MacBook Air is likely to be limited to the M4, while the Mac Studio and Mac Pro will come with more powerful variants (such as M4 Max or M4 Ultra).
As for the price of M4 Mac devices, we should not rule out an increase here. When Apple launched the M4 iPad Pro, it increased the price of both models by $200 each. While other changes were made (such as doubling the initial storage capacity and introducing a new Tandem OLED display) that would contribute to the price, the fact remains that the consumer cost has risen. This means we may see a similar price increase when the M4 chip reaches the Mac lineup.
Performance and Features
Typically, performance evaluation of an Apple chip before it is related to a Mac device is mostly guesswork, but that has changed this time. This is due to two main reasons: the iPad Pro device and a series of extensive leaks for the M4 MacBook Pro device.
Starting with the iPad Pro, we can infer the performance of M4 Mac devices based on the capabilities of this tablet device. The M4 chip in the iPad Pro comes with a 10-core CPU and a 10-core GPU (higher than the 8-core CPU in the M3 chip), helping give it more appeal across all types of workloads.
In our review, we saw significant improvements in both previous Apple iPad Pro devices and competitive tablets. Some of this improvement will be attributed to the second-generation 3-nanometer process used in chip manufacturing, which Apple says is more efficient than its previous efforts. The M4 also features an updated 16-core neural engine capable of performing up to 38 trillion operations per second (TOPS). Apple claims it is more powerful than any AI processor in any computer today.
But what about Mac performance? Well, we have an idea of what to expect here as well, thanks to a series of extensive leaks that saw the M4 MacBook Pro device fall into the hands of many YouTube users well before the scheduled launch date, who began testing and revealing its performance pieces.
One such YouTube user was a well-known Russian tech reviewer called Wylsacom, who tested the M4 MacBook Pro device using a series of Geekbench tests. Here, the M4 chip in the MacBook Pro achieved a single-core score of 3864 and a multi-core score of 15288, which is about 27% and 31% better than those achieved by the M3 chip, respectively. This is a significant improvement.
Additionally, the Metal API benchmarks for Apple’s custom graphics also appeared on Geekbench, highlighting the upcoming graphics capabilities of the MacBook Pro. In these tests, the M4 chip scored 57603 points, which is about 20% better than the M3 chip. Again, this is an encouraging result.
Another thing revealed by the M4 MacBook Pro leaks is that Apple is likely to upgrade the base memory in these laptops from 8GB to 16GB. This long-awaited change is expected to allow the devices to handle multitasking and demanding workflows better.
Many of these improvements, particularly the increase in RAM, are expected to help Apple devices handle AI tasks. With the launch of Apple Intelligence, Apple has finally entered the AI field and needs its devices to perform well in this increasingly important area.
When it comes to the most powerful chip in the M4 lineup (M4 Ultra), there is a potentially significant change on the way. As claimed by the Max Tech YouTube channel, the M3 Max is said to lack Apple’s UltraFusion technology. This allowed Apple to previously combine two M2 Max chips to create an M2 Ultra.
If the M3 Max does not have this feature, it indicates that the M4 Ultra could be an independent chip rather than two integrated M4 Max chips. This could mean improved performance compared to previous generations. Alternatively, maybe the M3 Max lacked UltraFusion because the M3 Ultra was never released, so there was no need to combine two M3 Max chips to get a nonexistent high-quality chip. We may not know for sure until the M4 Max and M4 Ultra are launched in 2025.
Which Devices Will Get M4?
We can carefully guess which Mac devices will contain the M4 chip, in addition to devices getting the latest versions like M4 Pro, M4 Max, and M4 Ultra.
Starting with the M4, this is likely to come to MacBook Air devices (13-inch and 15-inch sizes), 14-inch MacBook Pro, iMac, and Mac mini. Since the chip will be at the lower end of Apple’s hierarchy, it makes sense to expect it in more consumer-facing devices. However, it is already present in the new iPad Pro device, which Apple describes as a very powerful device.
Moving on to the more professional chips, we can expect the M4 Pro to end up in 16-inch and 14-inch MacBook Pro devices and as an upgrade variant for the Mac mini. At the same time, the M4 Max device is expected to arrive in 16-inch and 14-inch MacBook Pro devices and in the Mac Studio.
Finally, look for the flagship M4 Ultra chip inside the Mac Studio and Mac Pro. This is not expected to happen until sometime in the second half of 2025, so there may be an anticipation until we see them in action.