The brand new iPad Professional has debuted as Apple’s first machine with the M4 chip, leaping up from the M2. How does the newest Apple Silicon enhance over its predecessors? Right here’s an in depth take a look at M4 vs M3 and M2 on CPU, GPU, Neural Engine, and extra.
Since there’s no iPad with an M3 and no Mac with an M4, there’s a little bit of unraveling to know the variations and enhancements between the three most up-to-date Apple Silicon chips.
Try our detailed comparability on the newest units and beneath we’ll dig into M4 vs M3 and M2 😁.
M4 vs M3 and M2: Apple Silicon comparability
CPU, GPU, Neural Engine specs
M4 | M3 | M2 | |
CPU | 9 or 10-core | 8-core | 8-core |
GPU | 10-core | As much as 10-core | As much as 10-core |
Neural engine | 16-core | 16-core | 16-core |
RAM | 8 or 16GB with iPad Professional (24GB doubtless with future Macs) | As much as 24GB | As much as 24GB (max 16GB with iPad Professional) |
Storage | As much as 2TB with iPad Professional (8TB doubtless with future Macs) | As much as 8TB | As much as 8TB |
Reminiscence bandwidth | 120GB/s | 100GB/s | 100GB/s |
Course of | 3nm 2nd-gen | 3nm | 5nm |
Transistor rely | 28 billion | 25 billion | 20 billion |
The general transistor rely has elevated to twenty-eight billion for the M4 chip. That’s in comparison with 25 billion for the M3 and 20 billion for the M2.
That’s a formidable 40% enhance in simply two years.
CPU benchmark scores
Apple says that the M4 CPU is as much as 50% quicker than the M2. Nonetheless, it hasn’t shared an in depth comparability between the M4 and M3 CPUs.
However when taking a look at what could also be early M4 iPad Professional benchmarks, outcomes present a ~3,700 single-core rating and ~14,000 multi-core rating.
That’s in comparison with an M3 Mac CPU benchmarking at a ~3,100 single-score rating and a ~12,000 multi-core rating.
- If correct that places the M4 CPU as much as 18% quicker for single-core efficiency and as much as 21% quicker for multi-core efficiency
GPU and media engines
- Apple says the M4 GPU is 4x quicker than the M2. And it says the M3 GPU is as much as 1.8x quicker than the M2.
- Primarily based on these numbers from Apple the M4 is as much as ~2x quicker than the M3 GPU
In what could also be early Steel benchmark scores for the M4 iPad Professional, a mean rating of 53,000 has been established.
In comparison with the M3 common Steel rating of 46,571, that’s solely 13% quicker for Steel compute.
However Apple’s extra spectacular numbers could also be “as much as” velocity enhancements for various GPU processes.
Like its predecessors, the M4 has devoted media engines to supply hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes, and ProRes RAW assist. They usually function the identical quantity of engines because the M3 and M2.
However the M4 hardware-accelerated assist for H.264, HEVC, ProRes, and ProRes RAW now works with 8K video.
M4 | M3 | M2 | |
{Hardware}-accelerated 8K H.264, HEVC, ProRes, and ProRes RAW | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
{Hardware}-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes, and ProRes RAW | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
{Hardware}-accelerated ray tracing | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
Video decode engine | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Video encode engine | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
ProRes encode and decode engine | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
AV1 decode | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
Neural Engine
On the subject of the upgraded Neural Engine within the M4, Apple says it’s a extra highly effective neural processing unit in “any AI PC as we speak.”
The M4 Neural Engine can course of 38 trillion operations per second. That’s greater than double the 18 trillion ops/sec of the M3 and nearing 3x greater than the 15.8 trillion ops/sec of the M2 Neural Engine.
Exterior show assist
For now, the M4 solely helps one exterior show with the iPad Professional.
However that can doubtless be completely different when the primary M4 Macs arrive as even the M3 MacBook Air helps as much as 2 (when the lid is closed).
M4 vs M3 and M2 wrap-up
The M4 delivers spectacular efficiency enchancment over the M3 and M2. However is it price upgrading your iPad proper now?
For professionals or aspiring professionals who want the newest and best from Apple, desire a tax write-off, or are simply comfortable spending the cash, selecting up a brand new M4 iPad Professional may be price it.
However for anybody who doesn’t have intense workflows that require the quickest efficiency, passing on the M4 for now in all probability makes probably the most sense.
We’ll have to attend to see the M4 present up in Macs in addition to the arrival of the M4 Professional, Max, and Extremely chips.
The M4 iPad Professional is obtainable at Apple, Amazon, quickly Greatest Purchase, and extra.
Thanks for studying our information on M4 vs M3 and M2!
FTC: We use revenue incomes auto affiliate hyperlinks. Extra.