Apple vs AMD & Intel in the test: The M4 Pro compared to the Ryzen 9000 and Core Ultra 200S 317 comments
Image: Apple
In the test of Apple M4 Pro in the new Mac mini, the chip between the M4 and M4 Max has already proven how much faster it can be compared to the processors in laptops from AMD, Intel and Qualcomm. This test provides results for the 14-core M4 Pro in the desktop CPU category.
Table of contents M4 Pro compared to Ryzen 9000 and Core Ultra 200S Apple M4 Pro with 14 cores against AMD and Intel
Apple M4 Pro vs. AMD and Intel in desktop test results. Single-core benchmark Multi-core benchmarks Power consumption Efficiency Conclusion
The Apple M4 Pro with 14 cores against AMD and Intel
Comparisons between chips actually intended for laptops and desktop solutions are often not that simple or even really fair. But with the new Apple M4 Pro offers it once again, because the Mac mini is ultimately also a small desktop PC like ASRock DeskMini, Asus NUC and Co. So how does the performance compare in direct comparison with Intel Core? (Ultra) and AMD Ryzen?
Apple M4 Pro processor (Image: Apple)
This is the subject of this short exchange: what power does an M4 Pro offer? Apple versus the current AMD Ryzen 9000 and Intel’s new Core Ultra 200S, aka Arrow Lake, actually?
Apple M4 Pro against AMD and Intel in the office
Apple’s M4 family will consist of M4, M4 Pro and M4 Max at the end of 2024, but only the M4 and M4 Pro are intended for the Mac mini used in the test. Even the base model of the Mac mini comes with the current full configuration of the M4, which offers 4 P and 6 E cores. The M4 is only available in the iMac with only two ports, reduced to 4 P and 4 cores. E.
Details about Apple’s M4 series compared to Apple M3
The M4 Pro, on the other hand, is offered to customers with 8 P and 4 E cores or with 10 P and 4 E cores. The Mac mini test sample had the larger version, which also had 20 GPU cores instead of 16. According to macOS’s internal Powermetrics tool, this processor consists of two P clusters with 5 cores each and one E cluster with 4 cores.
Processor CPU-Kerne GPU-Kerne Geräte P-Cores E-Cores M4 9 10 iPad Pro 3 6 8 8 iMac 4 4 10 10 iPad Pro, iMac, Mac mini, MacBook Pro 4 6 M4 Pro 12 16 Mac mini, MacBook Pro 8 4 14 20 10 4 M4 Max 14 32 MacBook Pro 10 4 16 40 12 4
Test results
All tests were carried out on Mac Mini with M4 Pro with the native version of macOS, now available for all course benchmarks.
Single-core benchmark
The strength of AppleProcessors is known for having a very high IPC with still relatively low clock speeds. In testing, the average was around 4.5 GHz for single-core applications, in which competitors offer their best processors up to 5.7 GHz. In the end there is the Apple M4 Pro but even at the forefront compared to these high frequency cores.
Multi-core benchmarks
The image rotates slightly when there is load on multiple cores. This is where purely office processors can now demonstrate their advantages, including doubling threads via SMT. Compared to the 24 cores of an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K or the 32 threads of an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X, Apple’s 14 cores then no longer stand a chance.
But a look at the details with a similar number of cores/threads quickly shows that there is still plenty of performance: Intel’s Core Ultra 5 245K has 14 cores, the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X has 16 threads – in both case. Apple Version M4 Pro.
Energy consumption
With all the reference values, we must not forget that the consumption values are also poles apart. The Apple M4 Pro maxes out at 54 watts; On average, it consumes around 45 watts when converting a video on the Mac mini due to temperature.
Efficiency
Even though other processors are faster under full load, they often consume not just two, but more than three times as much power. This is reflected in Handbrake’s “Performance per Watt” rating.
Conclusion
Apple has with Apple M4, M4 Pro and M4 Max once again developed a series of extremely fast processors and had them manufactured at TSMC in 3nm. The M4 Pro can easily compete with a variety of mainstream desktop processors: in single-core scenarios, the CPU wins on average against the competition; in multi-core loads, it depends on the number of cores of the adversary. If the power consumption under load and therefore the efficiency card are drawn, the x86 competition once again has no chance.
The fact that the M4 Pro, with a peak consumption of just over 50 watts, cannot beat a 32-thread CPU in highly specialized scenarios, but which consumes three to four times more power, is not not a classic defeat. And above the M4 Pro, there is also the M4 Max. Unfortunately, Techconseil has not yet had a test sample.
The Mac mini was loaned by Techconseil Apple and made available for testing. The manufacturer had no influence on the test report and was not obliged to publish it. There was no NDA.
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Topics: Processors
Marc deciphers processors by testing their performance for gaming, content creation, and artificial intelligence.
