Apple M2 vs Apple M4

The Apple M2 was introduced in mid-2022 and was the first upgrade to Apple's M processors, which were introduced in 2021 with the Apple M1 processor.

With the M processors, Apple introduced its own processors based on ARM technology, primarily to improve energy consumption in mobile devices such as notebooks. In the past, Apple had relied on Intel processors (x86-64). With the Apple M4, Apple released the 4th generation of M processors in mid-2024, after the Apple M3 processor was released quite quickly as a replacement for the Apple M2.

However, the Apple M3 saw little technological improvement and was primarily used by Apple to transition its manufacturing process to a new process. The Apple M4 is used in most Apple products, such as the MacBook Air, the MacBook Pro, and the Mac Mini. However, the Apple M4 was first introduced in the iPad Pro with a reduced core count.

The Apple M4 is the first to feature 3 P-cores (previously 4) and 6 E-cores (previously 4). The Apple M4 is even more efficient than its predecessors and, with 38 TOPS, offers significantly higher AI performance, compared to 15.8 TOPS on the Apple M2 processor, for example.

The graphics of the Apple M4 support ray tracing via the Metal graphics interface for the first time. It benefits from the fast LPDDR5X-7500 memory used by the Apple M4 processor. Memory bandwidth is now 120 GB/s. Larger configurations, such as the Apple M4 Pro processor, offer even faster memory speeds.

The TDP of the Apple M4 remains at 20 watts (or less depending on the device), but thanks to TSMC's modern 3 nm manufacturing technology and the increased number of E-cores, the processor can maintain its maximum core frequency much more stably and for longer. Overall, the Apple M4 processor is about 30% faster than the Apple M2.