M3 vs. M4: How Does Apple’s Latest Silicon Stack Up?

In May, at its 2024 iPad event, Apple, for the first time, launched its next-generation processor on the iPad Pro instead of a Mac laptop or desktop. It was an unusual opportunity for the iPad Pro to lead the way with the new M4 platform. However, it was only a matter of time before this chip, as well as upper-tier M4 Pro and M4 Max chips, arrived inside new Mac systems.

With Apple pulling the covers off the powerful M4 Pro and M4 Max chips inside new MacBook Pro and Mac mini systems, that time has come. Along with the base M4 processor that debuted in the iPad Pro, these two new chips are available in both the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models. The M4 and M4 Pro are also available in a new Mac mini desktop, and a refreshed iMac with M4 is here, too. (Apple made waves for a week with these announcements, instead of a one-time mega-drop.)

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The base M4 chip, which the iPad Pro M4 launch already detailed, is shared across the systems. However, given the different thermal environments among the iPad Pro, the MacBook Pro, and the Mac desktops, the chip will perform differently in practice among them. (How the M4 gets implemented between a slim tablet like the iPad Pro and the giant 16-inch MacBook Pro will undoubtedly vary.) Meanwhile, the M4 Pro and M4 Max seriously boost the core count and power potential from the base M4.

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Here’s everything we know about how the M4 trio stacks up to its predecessor. First up is the generational comparison between the M3 and M4.

Apple M3 vs. M4: Specs Compared

Regarding hardware specifications, the difference between M3 and M4 is essentially a matter of degrees. Both chips use Apple’s 3-nanometer (nm) manufacturing process and a similar overall architecture. In simple terms, both chips use a mix of performance core and lower-power “efficiency” cores; both chips have powerful integrated graphics, with support for hardware-accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading; and both chips employ Apple’s dynamic cache technology.

So, what’s different? From the number of processor cores to the graphics, display, and AI capabilities, the Apple M4 enhances several elements of the chip. Let’s look at each in detail.

Apple M3 vs. M4: Processing Cores

Where the previous Apple M3 chip was issued with four processor cores, the Apple M4 comes in three- and- four-core versions in the iPad Pro. The Apple M3 MacBook Pro and MacBook Air pair those four full-fat cores with four efficiency cores, bringing the total CPU core count to eight. The M4 chip, however, bumps the number of efficiency cores to six, for a total of nine or 10 CPU cores, depending on the configuration.

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This raises the total core count of the M4 in either flavor above the previous M3, but, notably, it’s a couple of cores short of the M3 Pro, Apple’s step-up variant for MacBook Pro laptops. That “pro-grade” processor has 12 total CPU cores, with six performance and six efficiency cores.

Apple M3 vs. M4: Graphics Cores

Apple’s M4 integrated graphics hardware has the same 10 GPU cores you can get on the M3 chip, and the same amount of GPU cores as their M2 predecessor. The other features of the GPU may not be new to the current M-series chips—namely, dynamic caching and hardware acceleration for ray tracing as well as mesh shading—but they’re a big step up for the iPad Pro, which didn’t have these capabilities the last time around, relying on M2.

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Apple M3 vs. M4: Neural Engine

Apple’s neural engine—the equivalent to Intel’s neural processing units (NPUs) in its late-model “Meteor Lake,” “Lunar Lake,” and “Arrow Lake” processor families—is a dedicated chunk of silicon made for AI and machine-learning features. While the core counts haven’t changed, the M4’s 16-core neural engine is rated capable of up to 38 TOPS, or trillions of operations per second, 20 TOPS more than the M3 can ostensibly pull off.

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It’s safe to say, that with the surge of interest around local-processing-reliant AI tools and features in key creative apps, like Adobe’s Creative Suite, Apple is working hard to optimize this capability as much as possible. We’ll just have to wait for further information or testing to see how it’s improved, or what the real-world effects are.

Apple M3 vs. M4: Display Engine

Apple’s display engine handles automatic features like brightness and color adjustment, but it also supports ProMotion, Apple’s dynamic 120Hz refresh-rate technology, which has been featured in everything from the iPhone to the MacBook Pro. That’s not new.

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What may set the M4 apart here, though, is its support for the new Tandem OLED display technology that showed up in the M4-equipped iPad Pro. The OLED panel in the 2024 iPad Pro is the biggest OLED display Apple has made to date. (Until now, it had used OLED technology only for much smaller iPhone and Apple Watch displays.) Apple has boosted the standard OLED brightness by bonding two OLED panels together in the manufacturing process. The result? It has pushed the rated SDR and HDR levels to 1,000 nits, with a maximum of 1,500 nits of brightness when needed.

Apple Reaffirms iPad’s Place in Its Lineup

The iPad was a smash hit when it launched back in 2010, and it’s been a mainstay of the Apple product lineup ever since. But as the iPhone has remained a perennial best-seller, while the Macs have been revitalized by the emergence of Apple Silicon, the iPad has been something of a neglected middle child.

While tech journalists have long wishcasted for Apple to merge iOS and macOS in some way, the iPad has felt less like the natural blending point between the two ecosystems and more like an awkward chimera. It has been granted some of the Mac’s hardware and capabilities (especially with the iPad Pro’s excellent keyboard option), but the tablet was relegated to using a beefed-up, big-screen version of iOS, which eventually was renamed iPadOS.

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This move to introduce Apple’s latest processor in an iPad Pro, however, may be the shot in the arm the iPad needs—not in terms of sales, which have always been strong, but in prestige, solidifying the iPad’s place alongside the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro as flagship computing products.

Apple made several impressive claims about power consumption and performance per watt in its iPad Pro announcement. However, the iPad—especially Apple’s new thinner-than-ever iPad Pro—has much different power requirements and a different approach to thermal management than the Mac lineup. A glance at the profile of the new tablets tells you plenty: Apple has a lot less thermal headroom to work with in tablets like these than in a clamshell laptop.

A full-power MacBook Pro, pumping more wattage to the processor and cooling the chip as needed with physical fans, will surely outperform an iPad Pro with a similar chip, with its passive cooling and comparatively claustrophobic slimness. With far more room to work with, the M4 Pro and M4 Max inside the Mac mini and MacBook Pro models have a much higher power ceiling.

Pushing the Limits: M3 Pro & Max vs. M4 Pro & Max

So much for the iPad Pro. The two souped-up processors that feature in some configurations of the classic Mac computers build on the second-generation 3-nanometer (3nm) foundation of the M4. These aim to deliver significantly more performance than the base chip, as well as generational gains over the M3 Pro and M3 Max.

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Here are the key specs for the previous generation. The M3 Pro runs up to 12 processing cores (five or six performance cores, depending on the model, and six efficiency cores), up to 18 GPU cores, and a flat 16 neural engine cores. The M3 Max takes things further: up to 16 processing cores (10 or 12 performance cores, plus four efficiency cores), up to 40 GPU cores, and the same 16 neural engine cores.

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Now, here’s the rundown for the new generation. The M4 Pro ups the count to a 14-core CPU and a 20-core GPU while sticking with a 16-core neural engine. Meanwhile, the M4 Max actually matches the total number of cores from the M3 Max, remaining unchanged in number. Despite that, the key distinctions in performance are the M4 platform advantages, described in part above, and an increase in memory bandwidth of up to 75%. The M4 Pro and M4 Max also enable Thunderbolt 5 USB-C support on Mac, a first.

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What does this add up to? Apple’s announcements mentioned achieving the fastest CPU cores in any processor with the M4 Pro and M4 Max. In the new Mac mini, which never saw an M3-based version, the M4 Pro is reportedly two times faster than the M2 Pro-bearing Mac mini. On the graphics front, Apple says the superior GPU cores are twice as fast as the M3 generation at ray-tracing operations, too.

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Obviously, the M4 Max has the peak potential among the new M4 chips. (Apple hasn’t unveiled an M4 Ultra, at least yet.) The largest of the 2024 Macs that feature the M4 Max, the 16-inch MacBook Pro, is probably going to show this processor to its best advantage, thanks to the big MacBook Pro’s chassis size, capable of hosting superior cooling. Apple estimates the M4 Max delivers 3.5 times the performance of the M1 Max—not a generation-to-generation comparison, but exciting news if you haven’t upgraded since the M-series chips debuted.

However, in the comparisons with M3 chips, the M4 processors don’t appear leaps and bounds ahead, but rather in the 30%-to-40% improvement range. Not bad, but is that worth buying a whole new laptop or desktop to replace your M3 model? You’ll need to ask yourself how much that kind of gain is worth to you.

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Regardless, the neural-engine upgrade shouldn’t be discounted, targeting faster performance on AI workloads. This is a notoriously difficult area to test, as it’s a developing field, but for the M4 chips, Apple claims a generally doubled efficacy on these tasks. Apple Intelligence—the suite of AI tools deployed in macOS—will naturally benefit. But how that all shakes out in the real world is a longer-term question that can’t be sussed out merely by looking at projected specs and claims.

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It’s important to remember that these comparisons are based on M4 performance figures published during Apple’s announcements; proven head-to-head performance between M3 and M4 will come down to our targeted, first-hand testing. Check back for our full reviews of these systems soon.

On paper, it’s simple to declare the M4 the winner, boosting performance, AI features, and efficiency over the M3 alternatives. (Particularly at the high end, the M4 Max should be the most potent consumer processor Apple has produced to date.) Whether or not it’s worth upgrading, though, depends on which system you have…and on our upcoming M4 testing.