Apple M1 Pro 8-Core vs Apple M4 Pro (12 cores)

Apple M1 Pro 8-Core

The Apple M1 Pro 8-Core is a System on a Chip (SoC) from Apple that is found in the late 2021 MacBook Pro 14 and 16-inch models. It offers 8 cores from the 10 available in the chip divided in six performance cores (P-cores with 600 - 3220 MHz) and four power-efficiency cores (E-cores with 600 - 2064 MHz). The cores are similar to the cores in the Apple M1.

The big cores (codename Firestorm) offer 192 KB instruction cache, 128 KB data cache, and 24 MB shared L2 cache (up from 12 MB in the M1). The four efficiency cores (codename Icestorm) are a lot smaller and offer only 128 KB instruction cache, 64 KB data cache, and 4 MB shared cache. Finally, the SoC includes 16 MB System Level Cache shared by the GPU. The efficiency cores (E cluster) clock with 600 - 2064 MHz, the performance cores (P cluster) with 600 - 3228 MHz.

The unified memory (16 or 32 GB LPDDR5-6400) next to the chip is connected by a 256 bit memory controller and can be used by the GPU and CPU.

The integrated graphics card in the M1 Pro offers 14 cores (of the 16 cores in the chip).

Furthermore, the SoC integrates a fast 16 core neural engine, a secure enclave (e.g., for encryption), a unified memory architecture, Thunderbolt 4 controller, an ISP, and media de- and encoders (including ProRes).

The M1 Pro is manufactured in 5 nm at TSMC and integrates 33.7 billion transistors. The peak power consumption of the chip was advertised around 30W for CPU intensive tasks.

Apple M4 Pro (12 cores)

The Apple M4 Pro 12-Core CPU is a high-end SoC for laptops and mini PCs that was introduced in September 2024. It has 8 of the 10 powerful CPU cores running at up to 4.5 GHz and 4 efficient cores running at up to 2.6 GHz. The integrated 16-core GPU and at least 24 GB of fast LPDDR5x memory at 273 GB/s (depending on configuration) are included, as well as USB 4 and Thunderbolt 5 support.

The integrated neural engine with 16 cores (up to 38 TOPS) can be found in the entire M4 chip family. In addition, all M4 processors are assumed to be based on the ARM v9.4-A architecture to some degree.

The CPU performance when using all cores is similar to a AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 (Cinebench R23 slightly faster on average). The modern Core Ultra 9 288V can be clearly outperformed. In terms of single-core performance, the M4 Pro scores very well and is on a par with the fastest Intel chips, such as the Core i9-14900HX. Interestingly enough, the M4 and the faster M4 Pro variant with 14 cores were 4-5% faster than the slimmed-down entry-level M4 Pro in Cinebench (Geekbench at the same level).

The power consumption during Cinebench 2024 Multi is around 40 Watt at the beginning (according to powermetrics) and then goes down to around 32 Watt (sustained). Combined with the GPU (Cinebench + Valley) the SoC can hit 47,5 Watt peak at the beginning, but then reduces its power draw to 31 Watt combined (22 W CPU + 9 W GPU).

The 3 nm TSMC process of the 2nd generation, with which the M4 Pro is manufactured, offers good energy efficiency.