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M4 enables the breakthrough design and stunning display of the new iPad Pro, while delivering a giant leap in performance
M4 is a system on a chip (SoC) that advances the industry-leading power-efficient performance of Apple silicon.
CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA Apple today announced M4, the latest chip delivering phenomenal performance to the all-new iPad Pro. Built using second-generation 3-nanometer technology, M4 is a system on a chip (SoC) that advances the industry-leading power efficiency of Apple silicon and enables the incredibly thin design of iPad Pro.
It also features an entirely new display engine to drive the stunning precision, color, and brightness of the breakthrough Ultra Retina XDR display on iPad Pro. A new CPU has up to 10 cores, while the new 10-core GPU builds on the next-generation GPU architecture introduced in M3, and brings Dynamic Caching, hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and hardware-accelerated mesh shading to iPad for the first time.
M4 has Apple’s fastest Neural Engine ever, capable of up to 38 trillion operations per second, which is faster than the neural processing unit of any AI PC today. Combined with faster memory bandwidth, along with next-generation machine learning (ML) accelerators in the CPU, and a high-performance GPU, M4 makes the new iPad Pro an outrageously powerful device for artificial intelligence.
I assume the Mac will get M4 variants at WWDC in June - it’s interesting that iPad Pro has their highest performance processor for the moment.
The 38 TOPS number is also Interesting - behind Meteor Lake and Ryzen 8000’s 40-45 TOPS, and substantially behind the 100 TOPS expected by end of year for Arrow Lake (and probably an AMD equivalent). Not that they’re competing directly here, but interesting from a silicon prioritization perspective.
For comparison M3 was N3B with 25B transistors. M3 was a. 4+4 design, while M4 is 4+6. Given that the M4 has a much more powerful and capable GPU and NPU, It looks like Apple did a lot of optimization with this to keep transistor growth to only ~ 12%.
The CPU is advertised as “50% faster than M2”; Apple previously listed the M3 as 15% faster than M2. With a 25% core count increase (low power cores), that definitely indicates some kind of architecture / (process?) clock gains on top of M3.
I assume the Mac will get M4 variants at WWDC in June - it’s interesting that iPad Pro has their highest performance processor for the moment.
The 38 TOPS number is also Interesting - behind Meteor Lake and Ryzen 8000’s 40-45 TOPS, and substantially behind the 100 TOPS expected by end of year for Arrow Lake (and probably an AMD equivalent). Not that they’re competing directly here, but interesting from a silicon prioritization perspective.
This is an iPad M4, so comparing it to PC CPUs is probably not a good comparison. I'm guessing this version of the M4 is optimized for low power consumption, and has lower clock speeds and certainly far less DRAM in the package than the Mac versions will.
For comparison M3 was N3B with 25B transistors. M3 was a. 4+4 design, while M4 is 4+6. Given that the M4 has a much more powerful and capable GPU and NPU, It looks like Apple did a lot of optimization with this to keep transistor growth to only ~ 12%.
The CPU is advertised as “50% faster than M2”; Apple previously listed the M3 as 15% faster than M2. With a 25% core count increase (low power cores), that definitely indicates some kind of architecture / (process?) clock gains on top of M3.
The next-generation cores feature improved branch prediction, with wider decode and execution engines for the performance cores, and a deeper execution engine for the efficiency cores
Deeper branch prediction, more decode and execution engines for the performance cores, and "deeper execution engines" for the efficiency cores. (I'm not sure what the "deeper execution" means for the efficiency cores. Typically "deeper" refers to how far ahead the out of order execution goes, but I'm just guessing. Since my curiosity is piqued, I'll keeping looking for clues.) These changes are very significant architecture enhancements to the CPU cores, and given the tight power envelope they probably are enabled by better process efficiency.
This is an iPad M4, so comparing it to PC CPUs is probably not a good comparison. I'm guessing this version of the M4 is optimized for low power consumption, and has lower clock speeds and certainly far less DRAM in the package than the Mac versions will.
On the previous M chips — I believe the M1 and M2 in the iPad Pro was the same exact chip as the one used in the (base model) MacBook Air/Pro and Mac Mini.. That’s why I was mentally comparing to PC CPUs as the new Macs coming at WWDC should use these chips too, at least for the most common models sold.
..
Definitely please post more if you see more on the M4 architecture, I’m curious too.
On the previous M chips — I believe the M1 and M2 in the iPad Pro was the same exact chip as the one used in the (base model) MacBook Air/Pro and Mac Mini.. That’s why I was mentally comparing to PC CPUs as the new Macs coming at WWDC should use these chips too, at least for the most common models sold.
The M4 in the iPad may be the same chip as in a low-end MacBook, but the volumes of both products are sufficient for specialized versions, and we know there will be multiple Mac versions.
Definitely please post more if you see more on the M4 architecture, I’m curious too.
A small hint on yields (or segmentation) - the lower 2 models of the Pro (256GB/512GB) have “9 core” CPUs — 3 perf + 6 efficiency. While the 1TB/2TB model come with the full 10 cores (4+6) of M4. The GPU and NPU are the same for both.
The RAM goes from 8GB to 16GB also with this jump, but no change in memory bandwidth.
I assume the Mac will get M4 variants at WWDC in June - it’s interesting that iPad Pro has their highest performance processor for the moment.
The 38 TOPS number is also Interesting - behind Meteor Lake and Ryzen 8000’s 40-45 TOPS, and substantially behind the 100 TOPS expected by end of year for Arrow Lake (and probably an AMD equivalent). Not that they’re competing directly here, but interesting from a silicon prioritization perspective.
meteor lake is below 40TOPS today. It doesn't meet Microsoft's definition of an AI processor. Lunar Lake will be great..... not so sure on Arrow lake. Wait and see.
meteor lake is below 40TOPS today. It doesn't meet Microsoft's definition of an AI processor. Lunar Lake will be great..... not so sure on Arrow lake. Wait and see.
Shoot. I am getting my lakes mixed up. I'll fact check myself with stuff like this before I post again. It's Lunar Lake advertising 45 for the NPU and then some kind of combined TOPS for GPU and NPU.
I use my iPad Pro daily, it is a great device. I buy a new one when the battery doesn't hold a charge (3-4 years). I have never thought to get one for speed or any "new" feature.
I use my iPad Pro daily, it is a great device. I buy a new one when the battery doesn't hold a charge (3-4 years). I have never thought to get one for speed or any "new" feature.
I'm like you, but I use the iPad Air with the M1 CPU. I can't imagine ever needing more processing power, so I'll keep using it for a long time. I bought mine primarily as a controller for music streaming over AirPlay. I can also stream from the iPhone, so even if I drop and break the iPad I can wait until a pricing cycle occurs for the right time to buy. My wife, on the other hand, is obsessed with the NYT crossword puzzles. She's one of those mutants who can do the Sunday version in 20 minutes or so. So she can't travel without the iPad Pro either. She jokes that the iPad Pro was probably designed by puzzle-heads to be the perfect device for that app. If her iPad breaks I know mine will be confiscated until a replacement can be acquired. (She dropped her's once, so I have experience with what happens.)
Edit: My wife tells me her average Sunday puzzle time is more like 45 minutes, not 20 minutes. Mine would probably be >45 hours, so I see her correction as a trivial difference for normal people.
There was one time I upgraded an iPad (pro) for a killer feature. When Apple finally adopted USB-C with the 2018 model. I'm still using it daily and the battery life is good enough (less than new but OK). I try not to leave it plugged in at 100% all of the time since that is hard on lithium.
I also have an iPad pro 12.9 / M2 for work and it is more responsive but the only time I really see the difference is when updating iOS it's like 3-4x faster to do so.
