Apple has unveiled its new M4 Pro chip with the latest Mac mini. It is claimed to be the fastest CPU for single-threaded performance. The chip comes with a 14-core CPU, a 20-core GPU, a 16-core Neural Engine, and support for Apple Intelligence. Here are the details.
Apple M4 Pro Chip: Details
The Apple M4 Pro is the successor to the Apple M3 Pro chip. Currently, the M4 Pro is only available on the newly released Mac mini. Apple says the M4 Pro is 1.6x faster than the M2 Pro and 1.9x faster than the M1 Pro. However, a direct comparison with the M3 Pro was not revealed by the company.
The 14-core CPU on the M4 Pro chip consists of 10 performance and 4 efficiency cores. As per Apple, this chip offers the best single-threaded performance and huge upgrades in multi-threaded performance compared to any other computer chip.
The Apple M4 Pro chip comes with a 20-core GPU. This brings hardware-accelerated ray-tracing for the first time on a Mac mini. The GPU on the M4 Pro chip is two times faster than the base M4 chip. It also supports two display outputs at a 6K 60Hz resolution over Thunderbolt 5, making it the most powerful GPU on a Mac mini.
The 16-core Neural Engine on the M4 Pro chip supports on-device Apple Intelligence models. Apple mentions this Neural Engine is three times faster than the M1 chip. However, the company has not revealed any additional details on this aspect.
The M4 Pro chip comes with up to 64GB of RAM. It has a memory bandwidth of 273GB/s, which is twice that of any other AI PC chip. This helps the M4 Pro chip to accelerate AI tasks locally on the computer. It also enabled data transfers of up to 120GB/s over Thunderbolt 5.
Here are some metrics shared by Apple for the performance capabilities of the new M4 Pro chip, compared to the M2 Pro:
- 1.8x more audio effects in Logic Pro.
- 2x faster rendering in motion graphics.
- 2.9x faster 3D rendering in Belnder.
The M4 Pro chip supports all Apple Intelligence features, including ChatGPT integration in Siri, Writing Tools, Emoji Generation, and many others. These features will be made available in December. It is worth noting that Apple has not announced any plans to release a MacBook with the M4 Pro chip.
