Apple M4 (10 cores) vs Intel Core i9-14900HX

Apple M4 (10 cores)

The 10-core Apple M4 is an impressively fast ARM architecture processor (SoC) sporting 4 performance and 6 efficient CPU cores along with a 16-core neural engine and a 10-core GPU with hardware RT support and other modern features. On-package 7500 MT/s LPDDR5x RAM, USB 4 support and Thunderbolt 4 support are onboard as well, as are Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3.

The M4 debuted in May 2024 as part of an iPad launch event; its 4 performance cores run at up to 4.4 GHz, representing a healthy improvement over the M3 (10-core GPU) and its 4.06 GHz top clock speed. Besides, this new chip also has 6 efficient cores at its disposal that run at up to 2.9 GHz. The M3 had to make do with 4 performance cores and 4 efficient cores, for reference.

Architecture and Features

The new CPU cores run at faster clock speeds than what the M3 was capable of while also featuring some minor architectural improvements. A heavily customized version of ARM's v9.4-A microarchitecture is reportedly employed here. The M4 comes with on-package LPDDR5x-7500 RAM (120 GB/s) whereas the M3 was limited to 6400 MT/s. The updated NPU delivers up to 38 TOPS of performance for AI workloads.

Performance

In 2024 iPad Pros, the 3 nm chip is 10% to 20% faster than the M3 (10 GPU cores) in both multi-thread and single-thread short-term workloads. It also delivers about 10% higher multi-thread performance than the 9-core M4. This puts the 10-core part on an equal footing with the Ryzen 7 7745HX, Core i7-13705H and other higher-end x86 processors released in 2023 and 2024.

iPad Pros come with no active cooling solution however Mac minis and MacBook Pros do have one and the latest iMacs probably do as well. As our Fall 2024 Mac mini review shows, the M4's short-term performance doesn't benefit much from the presence of a fan, however its sustained performance benefits tremendously.

Graphics

The M4 GPU (10 cores) has hardware support for ray tracing as well as mesh shading and other modern technologies. It supports external displays with resolutions as high as 8K.

The graphics adapter runs at higher clock speeds than what the (otherwise identical) 10-core GPU built into the 9-core M4 can muster. As our Mac mini 2024 review confirmed, its performance is good enough to run many 2023 and 2024 games at 1080p on low or medium quality settings.

• Сyberpunk 2077 2.1 Phantom Liberty (1080p, Med): 28 fps

Much like it is with CPU performance, M4-powered iPad Pros will be much slower in long-term GPU-intensive workloads than iMacs, Mac minis and MacBook Pros due to the lack of proper cooling.

Power consumption

This specific M4 chip is found in 2024 iPad Pros, 2024 iMacs, 2024 Mac minis and 2024 MacBook Pros. Within the thin metal cases of the iPads - no active cooling - the chip's sustained power consumption hovers in the 4 W - 5 W area, with short-term peaks of up to 14 W possible. However, Mac minis and MacBook Pros do have an active cooling solution (and the new iMacs probably do, too) meaning the power consumption figures are several times higher. In our Fall 2024 Mac mini review, the SoC consumed 30 W to 40 W when under high loads.

The M4 is built with a "second generation" 3 nm TSMC process which is still cutting-edge as of late 2024.

Intel Core i9-14900HX

The Intel Core i9-14900HX is a high-end CPU based on the Raptor Lake architecture for large and heavy notebooks. The CPU was introduced at the beginning of 2024 and is a slightly higher clocked variant of the older Core i9-13980HX.

The total of 32 threads are divided into P-cores and E-cores, which we already know from Alder-Lake. Here, 8 performance cores (P-cores) with hyperthreading are used and 16 efficiency cores, so that a total of 32 threads can be processed simultaneously. The P-cores clock from 2.2 GHz (base clock) to 5.8 GHz (single-core turbo) and the E-cores from 1.6 GHz to 4.1 GHz.

Performance

Due to the slightly higher maximum clock rates, the single-core performance of the 14900HX in particular increases slightly compared to the 13980HX. Compared to AMD's top model, the Ryzen 9 7945HX or 7945HX3D the 14900HX comes in just behind (on average in our benchmarks). However, the performance depends on the benchmark and the cooling and is usually very comparable.

Graphics

Like the Intel Core i9-12900HX, the Intel Core i9-14900HX offers an integrated graphics unit. The Intel Iris XE architecture continues to serve as the basis. In terms of performance, however, not much has changed with the Intel UHD Graphics 770.

The 14900HX is manufactured on the improved 10nm FinFET process at Intel (Intel 7 process) and is specified with 55 watts of base power and 157 watts of turbo power.