The New MacBook Pros with M4 - Ultimate Review Part 1 (CPU Performance & Battery Life)
November 13, 2024
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Summary
Overall we liked this release! But, whether one of these new M4 MacBook Pros is right for you will depend on a lot of factors.
Table of contents:
Our Biggest Takeaways
As a whole, we like the M4 MacBook Pro release much better than the M3 one. These now start with 16GB of memory rather than 8GB and the M4 Pro models start at 24GB instead of 18GB, which is great to finally see. The M4 and M4 Pro chips also have more cores, with the M4 Pro chips having a greater ratio of Performance to Efficient cores. Plus, now we get faster performance and greater memory bandwidth across the board.
M4: MacBook Pro 14
These changes make the base M4 MacBook Pro a much better laptop. It is significantly faster than its M3 version and you no longer need to upgrade its memory. You also get the 3rd thunderbolt port and it has better external display support. Previously, this laptop just wasn't worth buying. By the time you upgraded its memory, you may as well have just bought an M3 Pro model.
The M4 base model is now a fantastic choice for students or light users who want more than an Air. It’s even viable for some performance users like web developers. Just be aware that it only has a single fan cooling solution rather than the 2 fans of the more powerful MacBook Pro 14s. This means it may get warm or have fan noise for performance tasks. If you don't like this and want to stick around this price point, check our website for a M3 Pro MacBook Pro which are now heavily discounted. Those laptops will perform similarly, and have a 2-fan cooling design.
M4 Pro: MacBook Pro 14 & 16
When it comes to the M4 Pro MacBook Pros, these are the most improved this year. With their higher core count and additional performance cores, we see a huge boost in performance. Surprisingly so for creative tasks like video editing. One thing we really like is that you can now get close to the max CPU performance available in an M4 laptop by buying a Pro chip. Previously, you had to upgrade to a Max chip which had additional GPU cores you may not have needed but had to pay for.
A MacBook Pro with an M4 Pro chip is what most people who do performance work should buy. Coders, audio engineers, and even a lot prosumer creators will be very happy with this laptop. 24GB of memory is going to be enough for most of you. For example, programmers can run an 8GB VM and still have 16GB for the rest of the system.
We believe the M4 Pro 12-core is the one to get if you want the best balance of performance with as little fan noise and heat as possible. You get a powerful processor that won’t run as hot as the 14-core, and you still get that dual fan cooling solution.
M4 Max: MacBook Pro 14 & 16
The M4 Max equipped MacBook Pros are not as revolutionary a step up from their prior generations, at least on paper. But, if you are an actual power user and really pushing these laptops, like we do, you will definitely notice a difference. For Josh's use case of doing high-end video editing, his older M2 Max and M3 Max MacBook Pro 16s would often drop frames when playing back from the timeline. This happened a fraction of the time with this new M4 Max MacBook Pro 16. Plus, tasks like applying effects and exporting videos were faster. Often noticeably so. We'll dive into this in part 2 of this article about creative tasks, which we will be posting soon.
And, just like MacBook Pros of old, we do not recommend buying a Max chip in a MacBook Pro 14. It just can’t be properly cooled in that chassis.
Should You Buy One?
Overall, if you aren’t seeing performance issues with your current MacBook Pro, you likely don’t need to upgrade to an M4. Particularly if you are coming from an M2 or M3.
Our biggest disappointments with these laptops are the lack of Wi-Fi 7 and the low amounts of storage. Many people keep these laptops for a long time. Home internet connections are increasing well beyond the speeds that Wi-Fi 6 is capable of. It’s a shame that Apple is going to dangle this as a reason to upgrade your MacBook in the future. On the storage front, people use these laptops for large projects and Apple is trying to push gaming. Both require a lot of storage. Apple should not be forcing you to upgrade here. Selling MacBooks for well over $2,000 with 512GB of storage is a disgrace.
And on that note, avoid Apple’s custom upgrades at all cost. Not only are they expensive, but they are only available from Apple themselves. Apple doesn’t put their laptops on sales like their retailers do. Always think of an upgrade in terms of its cost plus the amount you’re missing out on by not being able to buy the laptop on sale at a retailer. For example, going to a 1TB drive on a MacBook Pro base model costs an extra $200. When you factor in missing out on a $200 sale we might have posted here on the site, that upgrade really costs you $400. Instead, you may just want to step up to a more expensive model that already comes with what you want. Or, just deal with it and upgrade your entire laptop sooner. Apple laptops hold their value well in the second-hand market and this launch has shown us just how much progress can be made in a 2-year window.
Given the huge steps forward of these M4 MacBooks over the M3 series, we have updated our recommendations on our website. We are now only going to recommend purchasing an M3 model if it's $400 cheaper than its M4 counterpart. Now, let's talk about how these M4 improvements translate into CPU performance and Battery Life.
CPU Performance: A Strong Showing
Ranging from the M4 Max with 16 cores all the way down to the base M4 with 10, there are 5 chips available to you in this release. We ordered in 3 MacBook Pro 14s with the M4 10-core, M4 Pro 14-core, and M4 Max 14-core. For this new release, both the M4 Pro chips and base M4 have more cores for the same cost as the prior generation. We also ordered a MacBook Pro 16 with the M4 Max 16-core.
Geekbench
Let’s start with Geekbench which tests a variety of common performance tasks that you may do on your laptop.
In single-core we are seeing around a 25% boost from M3 to M4, which is a huge leap forward. M2 to M3 was only 15%. Compared to Windows laptops M4’s single-core performance is much faster, which contributes to these laptops feeling incredibly snappy.
In Multi-core the new MacBook Pro 16 with the highest end M4 Max chip is the fastest laptop we have ever tested. It’s 25% faster than the equivalent M3 Max. This makes sense as both these laptops have the same number of cores, so this matches the difference in single-core performance. Compared to the older M2 Max equipped MacBook Pro 16, this new one is a whopping 81% faster. It has more cores and they each run faster.
Compared to Windows laptops, the M4 Max 16-core MacBook Pro just wallops them. It is 46% faster than our maxed out Legion Pro 7i with an Intel i9-14900HX. And keep in mind that laptop is significantly larger and heavier than the MacBook Pro 16, especially when you factor in its power brick.
When it comes to the M4 Pro, it sees an even bigger jump generation to generation. It is 67% faster than the M3 Pro 12-core, which is the model it's replacing. When it comes to the M4 Pro chips specifically, the ratio of Performance to Efficient cores has changed. You now get more Performance cores.
Now for our base M4 laptop, it performs between an M3 Pro 11-core and 12 core, which is a big step forward. The performance of the M3 chip at this price point was a little lackluster. This increase in performance and the fact that this laptop now starts with 16GB of memory makes the base MacBook Pro 14 far more appealing. Especially for people who need a bit of performance but not a ton, like Web Developers. This also bodes very well for the upcoming MacBook Airs with M4.
But Geekbench tests several specific tasks many of which can be hardware optimized by a CPU. Apple has historically done very well here. This isn’t a bad thing. These are tasks you legitimately do on your laptop. File compression, PDF rendering, background blur and that sort of thing.
Cinebench
To see maximum general CPU performance let’s now take a look at Cinebench. The MacBook Pro 16 with the highest end M4 Max chip is 21% faster than the prior M3 Max and an insane twice as fast as the M2 Max. It is 18% faster than Intel’s fastest processor the i9-14900 HX. Intel can technically beat these Max chips, but our only example we've tested is in Eluktronics' Hydroc-16 that is water-cooled. That one gets a 2,029 Cinebench R24 score.
When it comes to the M4 Pro and M4 Max 14-core CPUs that we have in our MacBook Pro 14s, they perform so well that they compete with huge gaming laptops like the Legion and Scar.
One thing we really like about these new M4 processors, is that you can get close to maximum CPU performance from an M4 Pro chip. You no longer have to upgrade to a Max chip, which you did with the M3 series. There was a significant difference in the total number of performance cores between the M3 Pros and M3 Max chips. Since Max chips come with a bunch of stuff like extra GPU cores, a lot of buyers were forced to pay for things they didn’t need.
The rest of the story is similar to Geekbench. The M4 chip is now very competitive to a high end Windows laptops, whereas the M3 wasn’t.
Sustained Performance
Let’s now talk about sustained performance over time. To test this, we ran Cinebench on a loop for 10 minutes. Most of the laptops in our test suite were able to sustain their performance. The MacBook Pro 14 with the M4 Max chip could not. This matches what we’ve seen in every M series generation to date. Putting a Max chip in a MacBook Pro 14 is not ideal. It does not have the cooling required to get the most out of that processor.
CPU Efficiency: An Impressive Improvement
Performance Per Watt
During that 10 minute torture test, we measured the average power draw. These MacBooks draw a similar amount of power to the MacBooks they are replacing. The only noticeable change we see is that the 14 core M4 Pro draws more than the outgoing 12 core M3 Pro. But that of course is because it has 2 extra cores. And more of its cores are now Performance cores.
To provide a more comprehensive view, we ran each major processor on all available performance modes and plotted them on a scatter plot. This shows us a general idea of performance capabilities per watt of power drawn. Where you see connected lines is where we were able to manually adjust the power draw to paint a clearer picture.
What you want to see is high performance for as little power drawn as possible. The white dots are these new M4 processors, and as you can see, they just dominate. The grey dots are the older M3s. The next best is the red, which is AMD’s highest end Zen 5 chip. The yellow is Qualcomm, which outperforms Intel, who are indicated by blue.
Now a more power efficient machine leads to less heat, less fan noise, and longer battery life. So, let’s see how that plays out.
Heat You Feel
The MacBook Pro 16 with the M4 Max chip appears to get hotter than the prior MacBook Pro 16’s with the M3 Max chip. It now feels similar to the M2 Max powered one. This is as I said for pure CPU tasks, but this didn’t match Josh's real-world experience for video editing.
The MacBook Pro 14 with the M4 Max chip is the worst here. It gets very hot. This again clearly highlights the downside of getting a Max chip in a smaller MacBook Pro 14. It can’t be properly cooled. And, keep in mind, we have the less powerful of the 2 Max chips. It would probably be worse with the 16-core one.
The MacBook Pro 14 with the 14-core M4 Pro chip gets warmer than the M3 Pro laptop it replaces but that of course has less total cores and a lot less Performance cores. It is around the same in terms of heat you feel as the older M2 Pro 12-core.
The MacBook Pro 14 with the M4 10-core chip is the coolest feeling. It's amazing that this little laptop performs almost as good as the much larger Yoga Pro 9i and stays cooler to the touch.
Fan Noise
Here the M4 Max equipped MacBook Pro 16 is noticeably quieter under max load than the M3 Max MacBook Pro 16. This is likely why the M4 model feels warmer, it doesn’t run its fans as much. When you factor in both heat and fan noise, it does appear that the M4 Max MacBook Pro 16 does have better thermals that matches my personal experience. If you want to run the fans higher for better cooling download the Mac’s Fan Control app, you’ll be able to manually control them.
The M4 Pros have about the same fan noise as the M3 Pros they replace. The base M4 MacBook Pro does show its downside here. It gets very loud for sustained high performance tasks. This is because this variant has only has 1 fan. So, it has to run its fan faster, which makes it louder.
One thing we noticed during testing is unlike Windows laptops that immediately raise their fan speeds for performance tasks, these Macs did it far more gradually. That meant for burst performance tasks, their fan noise was next to nothing. Way quieter than comparable Windows laptops.
Battery Life: Great, As Always
Efficiency usually helps a laptop with its battery life, and this story is no different. As per usual with MacBooks, all of them are able to maintain their full performance in Cinebench when unplugged. This year’s M4 series do not last as long as the prior M3 or M2 series. This is very evident when you look at laptops with unchanged core counts like the 16-core Max chips. In fact, the lower performing M4 10 core does very well here. Particularly as this version of the MacBook Pro 14 has the same large battery as the versions with the M4 Pro and Max chips.
Running performance tasks while on battery continues to be a big advantage of Mac laptops over Windows ones.
Switching to very light tasks, we played a video on repeat with the laptops’ brightness all lowered to 200 nits. This year’s M4 MacBook Pros last longer than the M3 MacBook Pros that they are replacing, anywhere between an hour to over 2. Once again, the M4 Pro 14-core MacBook Pro was the big winner. The Macs continue to smash high performing Windows laptops in this test. But, this time around the new breed of laptops with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors and Intel’s Lunar Lake do win out here.
We then played Netflix movies on repeat for 4 hours and measured the battery drain. This is a bit more realistic as it actively uses Wi-Fi. The M4 MacBook Pros are within a margin of error of the M3 MacBook Pros. One thing that’s interesting is those Windows laptops that I mentioned that did well in the other tests, now do a little worse than these new MacBooks. As always, we continue to improve the way we test. We are looking at ways for improved battery tests in the future, like a full run-down over Wi-Fi.
Stay Tuned
We have a lot more tests that we ran on these MacBooks, and we can't wait to share these real-world examples with you. Our part 2 of this article regarding graphics, video editing, and other creative tasks will be out very soon. In the meantime, you can check out our video we are putting out with all those juicy details. Thanks for reading and we hope you have an awesome rest of your day!