Apple Unveils Full M4 Family in New MacBook Pro Lineup
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For the third day of its week of Mac announcements, Apple has formally revealed its entire new lineup of M4 chips, which are debuting in its 2024 MacBook Pro models.
We got a teaser of what the M4 Pro is capable of with yesterday’s debut of the M4 Mac mini. However, Apple posted a newsroom announcement today officially listing the specs of not only the M4 Pro but also the even more powerful M4 Max.
The M4 Pro
The news confirms that the M4 Pro in the top-end Mac mini isn’t scaled down in any way. It supports up to 64 GB of fast unified memory with a 273 GB/s bandwidth. That’s a 75 percent increase in performance over last year’s M3 Pro chip and nearly double the maximum RAM.
M4 Pro takes the advanced technologies debuted in M4 and scales them up for researchers, developers, engineers, creative pros, and other users with more demanding workflows.
The full configuration features 14 CPU cores — 10 performance and four efficiency — plus a 20-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine. However, as we saw with the M4 Pro Mac mini, there’s also an M4 Pro chip — possibly a binned one — with only a 12-core CPU and 16-core GPU, although it retains the same maximum RAM and memory bandwidth.
As we saw with the M4 Mac mini, the M4 Pro now also supports Thunderbolt 5 ports, delivering data transfer speeds of up to 120 Gbps, provided you communicate with a Thunderbolt 5 device using an appropriately certified cable.
Apple notes that the M4 Pro offers CPU performance that’s up to 1.9x faster than the M1 Pro, up to 2.1x faster than “the latest AI PC chip,” and GPU performance that’s twice that of the standard M4 and up to 2.4x faster than whatever AI PC chip it’s measuring against.
The M4 Max
While the M4 Mac mini gave us a sneak peek at the M4 Pro, we all knew Apple had an even more powerful chip waiting in the wings. For now, the M4 Max will be found exclusively in Apple’s new MacBook Pro models and delivers a 16-core CPU with 12 performance and four efficiency cores, plus a 40-core GPU.
M4 Max is the ultimate choice for data scientists, 3D artists, and composers who push pro workflows to the limit.
The M4 Max can now be configured with up to 128 GB of unified memory and a staggering 546 GB/s of memory bandwidth. Apple says that’s four times the bandwidth of “the latest AI PC chip,” allowing developers to work with AI large language models (LLMs) with nearly 200 billion parameters.
The M4 Max also gets an enhanced Media Engine that supports two video encode engines and two ProRes accelerators to drive video editing performance to new heights. It naturally supports the same Thunderbolt 5 capabilities of the M4 Pro.
For comparisons, Apple says the M4 Max is 2.2x faster than the CPU in the M1 Max and up to 2.5x faster than the “latest AI PC chip.” For graphics, it gets the same 1.9x increase from the M1 Max as the M4 Pro over the M1 Pro and a 4x increase over its “AI PC” counterpart.
The 2024 M4 MacBook Pro Family
As usual, the new Pro and Max Apple Silicon chips are making their debut in Apple’s flagship laptops, the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro. However, Apple has added a few other enhancements beyond the core silicon.
For one thing, even the most affordable M4 MacBook Pro now starts at 16 GB of RAM, ending the era of the 8 GB MacBook Pro. The maximum RAM also tops out at 32 GB — a benefit of the M4 chip’s new capabilities. Meanwhile, the M4 Pro/Max models start at 24 GB of RAM and can be upgraded to 128 GB with an M4 Max chip.
We’ll have to wait and see if Apple repeats this base RAM upgrade with its M4 MacBook Air models, which are expected to arrive next year, but if so, this could signal the end of 8 GB RAM in any MacBooks. Of the M4-equipped devices Apple has released so far, only the lower-capacity 256 GB and 512 GB MacBook Pro models have 8 GB of RAM, but iPadOS is a fundamentally different animal than macOS.
Oddly, the M4 Pro MacBook models top out at 48 GB. That’s surprising, considering Apple claims the M4 Pro can handle up to 64 GB of RAM, and that configuration is available on the M4 Pro Mac mini the company announced yesterday.
However, for the MacBook Pro, you’ll have to move to the top-end M4 Max chip with a 40-core GPU to reach 64 GB or 128 GB RAM. In an even more unusual twist, the scaled-down M4 Max with a 32-core GPU can only hit 36 GB of RAM, compared to 48 GB with the M4 Pro in the MacBook Pro (and 64 GB with an M4 Pro in a Mac mini).
Here are the available RAM configurations:
- 16 GB (M4)
- 24 GB
- 32 GB (M4)
- 36 GB (M4 Max with 14-core CPU)
- 48 GB (M4 Pro and M4 Max with 16-core CPU)
- 64 GB (M4 Max with 16-core CPU)
- 128 GB (M4 Max with 16-core CPU)
Apple is also segregating its SSD capacities, with the minimum 512 GB SSD only available on the M4 Pro model, while the largest 8 TB SSD requires the M4 Max. The entry-level M4 MacBook Pro starts with a 512 GB SSD that can go as high as 2 TB, but you’ll need to spring for the higher-end models if you want more storage.
Beyond the odd mix-and-match of chips, storage, and RAM configurations, the M4 MacBook Pro models gain the same front camera upgrade that came to the M4 iMac this week: a 12-megapixel (MP) Center Stage camera with support for Desk View replaces the standard 1080p FaceTime HD camera, although it still only records video at 1080p.
Along with the base memory upgrade, the entry-level Mac also gains an extra Thunderbolt / USB 4 (USB-C) port (for a total of three). The higher-end MacBook Pro models have the same number of ports, but theirs are all Thunderbolt 5 across the board.
While the new MacBook Pro models now have a nano-texture display option, the underlying display technology remains the same as last year’s models, and the design remains unchanged. Weight and dimensions are identical, as are the speakers, mics, and even the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth specs — unlike the iPhone, it looks like none of Apple’s Macs are getting Wi-Fi 7 this year.
Pricing and Availability
The new MacBook Pro models are available in the same Space Black and silver finishes as their predecessors. They can be pre-ordered from Apple today in 28 countries and regions and will begin arriving in stores next Friday, November 8.
The 14-inch M4 MacBook Pro starts at $1,599 with 16 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD. The base M4 Pro models of the 14-inch MacBook Pro and 16-inch MacBook Pro, with 24 GB RAM and 512 GB storage, start at $1,999 and $2,499, respectively. A maxed-out 16-inch MacBook Pro with the most powerful M4 Max chip, 128 GB of RAM, and an 8 TB SSD sells for $7,349.
