Apple M4 Pro analysis - Extremely fast, but not as efficient

[Redaktion]

Apple has presented its new MacBook Pro models featuring the new M4 processor generation and we have taken a look at the new M4 Pro SoC. Aside from its pure performance, we are interested in how efficient it is. Has Apple managed to further extend its lead over Qualcomm, AMD and Intel?

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-M4-Pro-analysis-Extremely-fast-but-not-as-efficient.915270.0.html

[996forever]

You only looked at gpu efficiency while gaming but without including gaming performance result itself? What's wrong with you?

[Toortle]

Another interesting innovation relates to the M4, as the M4 SoCs inside the MacBook Pro models have Thunderbolt 4 support and an improved display engine, which now allows two external displays to be connected (in addition to the internal panel).

Innovation is to have two external displays running?

[paviko]

When M1 was introduced, Geekbench and Cinebench showed true performance of the new chip - top desktop performance at laptop power level. It is not true anymore with M4, these benchmarks shows biased, faked results (version 2024). Just compare these benchmark results versus M3 series, then compare real world application performance and it's clear. M4 is only slightly faster, not as much as Geekbench and Cinebench shows. Don't get me wrong, M4 is the best CPU for laptops but not with as high margin as those fake benchmarks show.

[Yuriy]

You didn't publish Cinebench R23 Single Core scores, only multi-core scores.

[TruthIsThere]

I'm super appalled at NotebookCheck, after YEARS of reviews, that NBC is still part of this SYNTHETIC BENCHMARK fake news for today's performance devices.

Either change your testing methodology use with REAL-TIME software rendering... e.g. Premiere Pro, Maya, Neural Network workloads, games gameplay in-game, ect or it NEVER HAPPENED and NBC is just part of the YouTube reviewers, ect. fake news establishment!!!

[JohnIL]

I can understand better why some M4 iPad Pro users complain about heat issues when doing intensive tasks. I have a M2 iPad Air that has also had some minor heat issues as well. Will be interesting when the Macbook Air M4 comes out early next year on how well a passively cooled system behaves with a more robust MacOS vs what we have already seen with a iPad Pro M4. Do we really even need these annual chip improvements anymore? Seems like Apple is again dealing with a inevitable reality that the more performance the more heat is produced. Of course their M series vastly improved efficiency over Intel. But in the end, it only delayed the same results by designing products that simply limit how much thermal cooling is available. What good is more power if it only will be thermally throttled.

[Aras]

There are diminishing returns when the power consumption of a CPU/GPU increases. The efficiency might have decreased because Apple allows M4 to consume more power, which should increase the performance slightly. The current analysis is based on the maximum load and maximum power, which is not enough to analyze the efficiency of a CPU/GPU because it won't be used under full load all the time in practice. A better analysis would be to compute the performance (or efficiency) for several different TDP values, e.g., 5W, 10W, 15W, etc., to see how efficient it will be in everyday tasks. This is important for battery life, heat, and fan noise in a typical usage.

[Randy Hill]

Another interesting innovation relates to the M4, as the M4 SoCs inside the MacBook Pro models have Thunderbolt 4 support and an improved display engine, which now allows two external displays to be connected (in addition to the internal panel).

Innovation is to have two external displays running?

Two 6K (6000 by 3000) displays, and three Thunderbolt 5 ports running at 120 Gb/sec.

[Worgarthe]

Another interesting innovation relates to the M4, as the M4 SoCs inside the MacBook Pro models have Thunderbolt 4 support and an improved display engine, which now allows two external displays to be connected (in addition to the internal panel).

Innovation is to have two external displays running?

Two 6K (6000 by 3000) displays, and three Thunderbolt 5 ports running at 120 Gb/sec.

Unheard of. My P16 Gen 2 can simultaneously run four independent external 7680x4320@60Hz (or four at 3840x2160@240Hz) plus its internal (2560x1600@165Hz), so five displays in total, but yeah - two with lower res is such an innovation. Apple brainwashing at its finest.