Apple’s latest chipset is a bigger leap than you might think.
If you work in graphic design, video editing or 3D, you probably use a Mac. Sleek looks combined with hardware acceleration, a neural engine and dedicated video encoders and decoders make Macs the perfect choice for creative work. But when should you upgrade?
New Macs sometimes look iterative in terms of physical design, but an upgrade can make a notable everyday difference if you’re dealing with heavy workloads in demanding software. And thanks to the residual value of Macs for trade-in, upgrading doesn’t necessarily need to cost a huge amount either.
All Macs other than the Mac Pro have now been updated to Apple’s M4 chipset, with the M4 Max Mac Studio and M4 MacBook Air joining the M4 lineup. That makes now a good time to assess just how much of a difference those new M4 chips can make in terms of real workflow implications.
Apple’s M4 chipset
There are 3 M4 chips, running from the base M4 in the MacBook Air, entry-level MacBook Pro 14in and Mac mini, to the M4 Max.
M4: 10 Core CPU and 10-core GPU
M4 Pro: up to 14-core CPU and up to 20-core GPU
M4 Max: up to 16-core CPU and 40-core GPU
Core counts are all well and good, but what does that mean in practice? The base M4 provides 1.5x faster CPU performance compared to the M2, while the GPU benefits from hardware-accelerated ray tracing, dynamic caching and mesh shading, which was added in the M3.
Across the board, the M4 chips also boast Apple’s fastest neural engine yet, capable of up to 38 trillion operations per second. That’s double the performance of the M3’s NPU and 3x faster than the original M1, which means faster on-device AI performance.
Compared to the old Intel Macs, the difference is like night and day since Apple's own ARM-based architecture introduced big gains in efficiency and battery life. In terms of multi-core CPU performance, the M4 Mac mini achieves almost three times the Geekbench score of the 2018 Intel Mac mini.
But these are ballpark figures. What interests us is real-world testing through the lens of creative workflows. We’ve been reviewing and testing Macs for over a decade, so we’re in a good position to provide some comparisons.
Our own benchmark testing in our MacBook M4 Pro review vouches for the M4 Pro’s performance for video editing. It gave us a Cinebench GPU score of 9,140, a 25% improvement over the M3 Pro. That will be felt by anyone who uses software like Cinema 4D for motion design or VFX.
Testing performance in Blackmagic's DaVinci Resolve Studio with PugetBench for Creators, we got scores of 7,615 for the M4 Pro and 10,916 for the M4 Max, a clear jump from 7,074 for the M3 Max. In the HandBrake test for video transcoding, which depends a lot on raw processing power, the M4 Pro finished in under 5 minutes, compared to closer to six minutes for the M3 Pro laptop from 2023. The M4 Max cut this down to 3 minutes, representative of faster workflows for media creation.
As for 3D work, previous models could still stutter in navigation or when dragging and dropping materials, but not with the M4. When configuring materials and shaders, there’s noticeably less of a wait for preview detail and denoising, which makes it easier to understand the impact of the changes you’re making.
3D rendering is one of the most demanding tasks creatives can expect to place on a laptop, but Blender benchmarks place Apple's M4 Max MacBook Pro 16 above the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Super and AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT for CUDA, Metal and Optix, with a median score of 4436, compared to 3434 for the M3 Max.
Mac mini M4: a compact marvel offering incredible value
(Image credit: Amanz via Unsplash)
The Mac mini M4 16GB is the cheapest point of entry for an M4-powered Apple device, but that doesn’t mean it should be overlooked for creative work. With its M4 chips, Apple sensibly upgraded the base memory, so now even the entry-level mini has 16GB, which makes it much more viable for creative work using lots of layers, and for multitasking in general.
In our tests, the CPU scores in Geekbench and Cinebench were among the best for any machine in the Mac mini's price range, and Geekbench multi-core testing showed a 50% improvement on the 2023 M2 Mac mini. That translates into smooth performance for demanding, multi-threaded applications like 4K video editing where previous minis could lag.
For more power, the Mac mini M4 Pro can be configured all the way up to 64GB of unified RAM. Our multiscore testing found that CPU performance even surpassed the M1 Ultra Mac Studio, showing how impressive this tiny machine is. And there are design improvements too since the mini now has more easily accessible ports on the front of the device for a simple but notable quality of life improvement.
M4 iMac 24in: the all-in-1 gets a new life
(Image credit: Milanmarkovic78 via Adobe Stock)
The M4 iMac has injected new life into the streamlined all-in-one form factor thanks to the power of the M4 chip combined with a stunning 24in display. The design is as sleek as ever, and it now has a 4.5K display making the iMac now a worthy contender for high-resolution video editing. But the real news is the performance. When we put the M4 iMac through its paces, we found impressive test results on a par with the M4 Mac mini.
In practical terms, our reviewer found he was able to work smoothly with a browser full of tabs open in Google Chrome and Photoshop and Final Cut running at the same time – a situation that would cause the M1 iMac to sweat. We were able to handle multiple large vector files in Illustrator and multi-layer work in Photoshop smoothly, making the M4 iMac a great option for graphic designers looking for a static device for home office or studio use.
Mac Studio: all the power
(Image credit: Joey Banks via Unsplash)
Finally, if you’re looking for a mighty desktop computer for a studio, the brand new M4 Max Mac studio offers epic power with a multitude of ports.
Compared to the M2 Max Mac Studio, it scores 66% higher in Geekbench Multi-core tests. But where the Studio really excels is in GPU performance, achieving a Cinebench 2024 GPU score of around 16,574 and a Geekbench Metal GPU score of 191,249, close on the heels of the more expensive M2 Ultra configuration. For GPU intensive work, the M4 Max Mac Studio is the way to go for incredible power at a more affordable price.
But it’s not only an upgrade in processing and graphics power. The new Mac Studio has Thunderbolt 5 ports for lightning-fast connectivity. If you work with external SSDs, for video editing for example, this can make a big difference to the speed at which you can work with large files.
The Mac Studio M3 Ultra takes graphics prowess even further, with a Metal GPU score that’s 30% higher at 251,466. That surpasses even some new Nvidia chips like the GeForce 5070 Ti.
When to upgrade your Mac
It’s always tempting to put off an upgrade to the next iteration of a device. But whether you’re a freelance, an in-house creative or a studio of any size, upgrading to an M4 Mac could provide a palpable day-to-day impact on your workflow while future-proofing your setup for the demands of upcoming leaps in file sizes and software capabilities.
You'll also get longer operating system support, including for new capabilities like Apple Intelligence and seamless integration into the broader Apple ecosystem for years to come.
Performance improvements sometimes seem like a luxury, but for many creatives, time is money. Accelerating day-to-day tasks can increase the amount you can accomplish in a session, and real-time performance gains can even improve creativity by making work more fluid.
