Understanding the Apple M4 Series processors
Apple M4
Apple announced the M4 chip on May 7, 2024, along with the new seventh-generation iPad Pro models. The M4 is based on the N3E process rather than the N3B process used by the M3, and contains 28 billion transistors. It has three or four performance cores, six efficiency cores and ten GPU cores. Apple claims the M4 has up to 1.5x faster CPU performance compared to the M2.
Wikipedia
The M4 Series is built on the N3E 3nm process. Previously they were rumored to go into production in the 2nd half of 2025 with systems available starting in 2026. Now apparently, Mark Gurman says in the end of 2024 we will begin to see low-end and mid-tier M4 series Mac systems, with high-end in 2025.
May 7, 2024 Apple announced the M4 for the iPad Pro will be available May 15, 2024. There has been no official announcements yet about the M4 Series for Macs.
TSMC who manufactures these chips for Apple, is also working on 2nm chips, expected in 2025. TSMC is also working on 1.6nm or 16 angstrom (angstroms are 10 times smaller than nanometer) or A16 chips, expected as soon as 2027. There are also plans for 1nm or 10 angstrom or A10 chips at a later date.
We must be getting closer to the limit of how far we can shrink these chips. A human hair is 80,000-100,000 nanometers wide. A single gold atom is about a third of a nanometer, so you would think a 1nm process must be awfully close to the limit.
Yehuda Rothschild Apple M4 Processor Series YouTube Channel
The brilliance of Apple silicon is the components of each one are the same. There are just more or less of them in each type.
Performance of the various M4 processors, just like their predecessors really will boil down to the base M4 processor performance. At this point specifications are wild guesstimates starting with M3 Series specifications.
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Component | M4 | M4 Pro ? | M4 Max ? | M4 Ultra ? | M4 Extreme ? |
Efficiency CPU Cores | 6 | 6 | 4 | 8 | 16 |
Efficiency Clock | 2.75GHz | 2.75GHz | 2.75GHz | 2.75GHz | 2.75GHz |
Performance CPU Cores | 3 or 4 | 5 or 6 | 10 or 12 | 20 or 24 | 40 or 48 |
Performance Clock | 3.93GHz | 3.93GHz | 3.93GHz | 3.93GHz | 3.93GHz |
Neural Engine Cores | 16 | 16 | 16 | 32 | 64 |
GPU Cores options | 8 or 10 | 14 or 18 | 30 or 40 | 60 or 80 | 120 or 160 |
Unified Memory options | 8GB 16GB | 18GB 36GB | 36GB 48GB 64GB 96GB 128GB | 64GB 96GB 128GB 192GB 256GB | 128GB 192GB 256GB 384GB 512GB |
Memory Bandwidth | 120GB/s | 150GB/s | 300GB/s or 400GB/s | 800GB/s | 1600GB/s |
Video Decode Engines | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
Video Encode Engines | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 8 |
ProRes Encode-Decode Engines | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 8 |
Assuming a 2 year processor life cycle, before the end of 2026 the M4 Series should be history and fully replaced by the Apple M5 Processor Series in newly released products.
CPU & GPU Performance Benchmarks
Buying an Apple M4 Series computer
Any Apple M4 Series computer will be an incredible experience compared to music and video production on Intel hardware. However it is highly recommended to get at least 16GB of memory (or more) and 512GB storage (or more) if you select an M4 Series system.
There are 9 basic form factors of Apple macOS systems with M4 Series processors expected, 5 laptops and 4 desktops.
- 13″ MacBook Air M4
- 15″ MacBook Air M4
- 14″ MacBook Pro M4
- 14″ MacBook Pro M4 Pro & M4 Max
- 16″ MacBook Pro M4 Pro & M4 Max
- 24″ iMac M4
- Mac mini M4 & M4 Pro
- Mac Studio M4 Max & M4 Ultra
- Mac Pro M4 Ultra & M4 Extreme
Thanks!
-Yehuda
Useful Links
Apple related pages
Updated periodically – Apple Silicon is the DAW standard
Updated periodically – Apple Mac Studio M1 Max & M1 Ultra
Updated periodically – Apple Mac Studio M2 Max & M2 Ultra
Updated periodically – Apple Mac Studio M4 Max & M4 Ultra
Updated periodically – Apple MacBook Pro M1 Pro & M1 Max
Updated periodically – Apple MacBook Pro M2 Pro & M2 Max
Updated periodically – Apple MacBook Pro M3 Pro & M3 Max
Updated periodically – Apple MacBook Pro M4 Pro & M4 Max
Updated periodically – Apple Mac Pro M2 Ultra
Updated periodically – Apple Mac Pro M4 Ultra & M4 Extreme
Updated periodically – Apple Mac mini M1
Updated periodically – Apple Mac mini M2 & M2 Pro
Updated periodically – Apple Mac mini M4 & M4 Pro
Updated periodically – Apple Studio Display
Updated periodically – Apple M1 Processor Series
Updated periodically – Apple M2 Processor Series
Updated periodically – Apple M3 Processor Series
Updated periodically – Apple M4 Processor Series
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