Apple breaks the ceiling again | M4 MacBook Pro tests

[@dennisvillamor2806]

Thank you for being a mac "reviewer" that doesn't only focus on performance in video editing and content creation 🙏🏻

[@Traumatree]

That doesn't only focus on Geekbench and claims it is game over for AMD and Intel... lol

[@ecko10full]

Yes! All videos are about video editing and all of that. Its really valuable to find these videos

[@fallinginthed33p]

​@@ecko10fullAlex is just about the only reviewer on here who looks at development workflows. His Snapdragon X reviews are great.

[@Traumatree]

@@TechGameDev What you said x 10000 ! You are so right! Geekbench is almost like userbenchmark web site.

[@rdmuller]

@@dennisvillamor2806 yes cant wait for the machine learning test

[@AlmorTech]

The guy literally set up a laptop testing facility in his bedroom.

[@toadlguy]

Not exactly his bedroom, but he does have to sleep there sometimes 😂

[@AlmorTech]

@@toadlguy🤣

[@holthuizenoemoet591]

This man is a godsend for a ML master student like my self. comparison against older but more powerful models is also much appreciated. The most context the better.

[@brunonascimentofavero6097]

CPU wise in multicore 14Core M4 Pro and base M4 Max are almost identical to maxed (16core) M3 Max, GPU Wise M3 Max is still quite more powerful than 14core M4 Pro and a little above the base M4 Max. Maybe if there is a good deal or refurbished M3 Max value is still quite good I'd say.

[@fallinginthed33p]

ML inference is pretty good on these M4 machines but model training or fine-tuning still needs Nvidia horsepower.

[@RocketLR]

3:35 sooooo I'm no expert or anything but the relationship between NVMe SSD capacity and speed is actually quite logical when you understand how they work. The main reason is parallelism in the NAND flash chips. When an SSD's capacity increases, this means there are more physical NAND chips inside the drive. Each chip can handle read and write operations independently. A 2TB drive might have 16 NAND chips while a 500GB version of the same model only has 4 chips, allowing the larger drive to handle four times as many simultaneous operations. The controller uses a technique called die interleaving, distributing data operations across multiple chips simultaneously. This creates an effect similar to RAID 0 striping but at the chip level. The controller's firmware optimizes these parallel operations, so when more chips are available, it can achieve significantly higher throughput. This is why larger capacity versions of the same SSD model often advertise much higher speeds. It's not just marketing - it's a fundamental architectural advantage of having more physical NAND chips to work with. This scaling isn't infinite though. At some point, other bottlenecks like the controller's capabilities and the PCIe interface bandwidth become limiting factors. But within the same SSD model line, the larger capacity versions will typically offer better performance due to this increased parallelism.

[@AZisk]

nice explanation

[@SunSin91]

@@RocketLR I was just about to say raid 0 across multiple chips. But hey. This guy beat me to it with a pretty good explanation. I’m still on my M1 Max with 2tb drive and it does 6gb r/w. Which is pretty impressive for a 4 year old machine.

[@LJLLC]

“I’m no expert,” and gives an expert-level explanation. Thanks G.

[@bsnyr]

The King with the best Testing Videos ever

[@apbrandom]

Your channel is absolutely fantastic and informative! I truly enjoy watching your videos. I have a small suggestion: could you consider adding summary tables at the end of your tests? It would make it easier to see the results at a glance and get a clearer picture. Thanks for the great content!

[@PokeFX_Tube]

3:46 I got the M4 Max but with 1tb and it does run at that speed. +7k and +6k, so I believe it does change when you choose the +1tb SSD.

[@nf6sv]

Thank you for the info. I've decided that my next laptop will be a M4 Max /1tb. I will use some external ssd for archival and projects.

[@PokeFX_Tube]

@@nf6sv great! I bought 4tb SSD with T4 connection and it runs at 5k read and write! I will check which brands and let you know.

[@PokeFX_Tube]

@ bro I added another reply but it’s gone :(

[@PokeFX_Tube]

​@@nf6sv I'm going to try again and add the comment but without links! maybe it was that. Before, I was saying that I got a 4tb SSD. Originally I went with the WD Black that does +7k speeds but it wasn't going over 5k speeds. Sent it back and got my money back, then I bought a 5k SSD and it ran at the same speed as the expensive one. I bought these: - Crucial P3 Plus 4TB PCIe Gen4 3D NAND NVMe - Qwiizlab Fanless 40Gbps USB4 Thunderbolt External SSD Enclosure Seems that the 7k plus speeds is only if you use the SSD directly into the motherboard. Maybe this can help you to save at least $100 as I did. Btw, I used a Thunderbolt 4 cable from WD, OWC and the cables that came with the enclosure and the OWC and/or cable that came with the enclosure worked perfectly.

[@franky47]

At 66Gbps, it would take only two minutes to clone the entire 1TB drive from one machine to the other. That's insane.

[@jackconrad4814]

To explain the drive speed, it has to do with the number of nand chips soldered to the board since the controller itself is identical in each machine. The base specs typically only have 1-2 chips to address with reads and writes with all others unpopulated, putting a hard cap on their speed.

[@andyH_England]

Yes, other sources tested this. The 1TB NAND has four 256GB modules running in parallel, while the 512GB drives have two 256GB NAND modules. Hence, the theoretical increase in speed is 2X.

[@Jorge-2.0]

What about the 256gb model? ​@@andyH_England

[@TheAyushSomani]

@@andyH_England Do you mind sharing those other sources? I tried to find but could not.

[@jchi6822]

WebKit release build for Windows via Docker for Windows Containers, Intel i7-14700K, avg. 142W for CPU. Time is: 23m52s. Matched by M4 Pro, beaten by M4 Max. Impressive.

[@drm42]

Can't wait to see the video of using a cluster of Mac Minis for Machine Learning. I was wondering if/how that would work as you could potentially get 4 base models for the price of one M4 Pro.

[@ravind2704]

I feel sad for not mentioning the Legendary Schwarzenegger 😔

[@AZisk]

2.0

[@aeonlancer]

​@@AZisk I thought it was a 3.0; I don't remember it being so aggrandized

[@c4g5]

@@aeonlancer Rather 4.0 for 4 x fingers ;)

[@maxvamp]

Swartzen-Finger!

[@AZisk]

[@merion297]

😁 "I forgot which is which, who cares, we'll find out!" 😂🤣😂 Like a boss!

[@mursalint]

Thanks

[@AZisk]

thank you so much!

[@alanhatter4327]

Thanks!

[@AZisk]

thank you!

[@dimitris9277]

Thanks for the review, long awaited. Next time you test them, can you check in the fan noise on the M4 which is talked a lot? I would like to see a regular workflow test like the ones you do. Everyone is doing heavy benchmarks and long exports which is not representive. How about running vms, compiling, writting code, multiple tabs etc... would the fan go crazy on the base M4?

[@cainam24]

Maybe someone pointed this out before, but if you try to recreate those results with the browser benchmarks it has a big impact whether you run the test for the very first time or not. I ran e.g. the jetstream 2 test on my M4 Pro MB Pro twice (in Chrome). The first time I got a score around 330 the second time it was 495 - so close to Alexs results. I assume Alex did not have to do that because he took over all the data from his previous machine...

[@bdybdybdy]

Bro u are the only one who is programmer who tests these macs so PLEEEEASE WE NEED YOUR OPINION ON NANOTEXTURE FOR CODERS (because it is said that the main objective of programming - text is kinda bad on nanotexture). Is the text code looking bad on it? And to what extent?

[@aelohinjuz]

the finger device is awesome!

[@ugurcamtas2919]

amazing engineering... Thanks Alex to perform all these tests. KR..

[@sachaDS0]

The best reviewer for devs! Gotta love the thumb machine xD

[@abdurrahmankhan129]

Any ideas for a 16” for starting to code and some gaming. Can’t decide between the 16” M4 pro 48/1tb and the 16” M3 max 36/1tb. There’s about $100 difference in price.

[@heyselcuk]

can you pls test the m4 chip versus rtx 4090 or another rtx gpu with ai image genration locally? which is faster of slower

[@DrumsAndGadgets]

About single core tests; You could rig a test with parallels. You can set only one core to parallels virtual machine. Then you can basically run any WIN11, Linux etc. software with a one core.

[@bambo999]

I been checking every hour for this to drop, finally. Alex the GOAT 🐐

[@iLegionaire3755]

M4 MAX is the new KING of laptop processors!

[@Dj_Ropes]

I'm waiting on the m4 max ML video to buy one! I'm studying ML as my research subject in uni, normally I use linux just because of the hassle windows is for new packages and whatnot alongside the capacity for customization. That being said I've seen some other students with mac m1 max's and they generally have a good time with everything. Looking forward to your next video!!

[@szabobalazs211]

I was really fed up with other "reviews" on youtube, where someone just read the geekbench score, some specification and run some synthetic test on the machine. I really like your chanel because you test the machines with real life tasks, like Android and visual studio applications. Thats how a programmer chooses a machine, not based on some synthetic tests.😊😊

[@scloudes]

Thank you so much for the review! The code benchmarks are what I was looking for

[@JayzBeerz]

Dude you do the best reviews. Love your channel.

[@AZisk]

Thanks dude.🙏

[@desisparta]

could you also mention the specs of each of the laptop aswell?. I mean the cpu and gpu cores? You only listed the ram and storage space.

[@AZisk]

good call. i added it to the description

[@desisparta]

@@AZisk thank you so much. It’ll make my shopping decisions easy ♥️

[@RomPereira]

M4 Stravaganzza!!!! Holly Canolly Alex! Good job!

[@xeong5]

The iPhone and the Mac range of products share the same type of Nand flash, the MacBook Air has one slot, MacBook Pro 13 two slots and MacBook 14/16 has 4 slots. Depending on what drive size configuration you go with is how they populate them.

[@google_doodles-games]

14" m4 pro 12c vs 14c, heat/performance trade offs please 🥺

[@SimoneFolador]

I always love your videos: clear, simple, precise, complete and detailed. The way you explain things is clear for beginners as well as advanced users and this is a gift you have. Thanks for this benchmark, it helped me a lot. Now i am definitely convinced to get a M4 Max... can't wait to try it out after years of Intel!

[@bmc1222]

You have quickly become one of my favorite people to watch for insightful reviews. Great format and excellent attention to detail. Thank you 👍

[@denhouse1]

You should call your starting gadget the “synchronator” 😂😂

[@parshwa_1]

Mate very impressive ,detailed, different kinds of tests 👏

[@EXPERTISE]

Just upgraded my m2 air and m1 pro. My base model air was killing me and with black friday sales I had to pull the trigger and get a 16/512 MBA since I use my air a lot. Went with 48gb in my MBP...would love to get the max chips, but with how bad the thermals are with the max chips in the 14" chassis it's just not a smart thing to do. Regardless I know I'll get a good three years or so out of both of these machines. Side note the keys on the apple silicon macs are definitely the weakest point, and I agree Apple really should do something about it, It cant be a hard or expensive fix, but will keep the computers looking better longer. I mean at the end of the day you can buy a new keyboard set from Apple for about $25, but they really should last longer than a few months before showing so much wear.

[@UthayaharanYanushanth]

This is how you use a skill for the exact pupose. Great job with the setup and the video Alex

[@mattjax16]

1:21 nice keychron Q1 max I have the same one love it. What switches do you use?

[@makgunay83]

Can you exp them together with T5 and see how big a model they can handle?

[@AZisk]

🤔 i might just do that

[@arty712]

Alex, in your experience, do you find that the 14” models present a noticeable hinderance compared to the 16”, in terms of legibility of lines of code and potential eye strain?

[@AZisk]

not really in terms of legibility (for me). But in terms of screen real estate and thermals

[@arty712]

Thanks for the reply. I find the form factor of the 14 really appealing, but all things considered, I think I will go with a 16 inch model; for the dollar spent, I don’t want to leave any potential on the table. Not to mention the weird caps that Apple put on the memory options this year.

[@KurnazTilki-b4r]

As a software developer that also does LLM fine-tuning I would go with the m4 pro as the bandwidth you get with the m4 max is nice but it's not comparable to an A100 or so. Using a more powerful GPU for like 2 to 4USD/hour makes so much more sense to me. With the M4 Max you cannot get good training times, you cannot evaluate token/s for production properly and you can barely do hyper parameter optimization. I would personally save my money and ssh into a more beefy remote/cloud machine

[@Markste-in]

it would be nice if u could integrate the m1 mba again. that gives you a create idea how far the m series macbook have come in a really short amount of time

[@Argt00]

Hi Alex, given that you have several Macbooks. may I please ask you to check how different is the color uniformity across the screen for the models you have, do you notice any having a warmer screen on one side, or with blotches or redness, or anything like that, while looking at white content?

[@christianwheeler8441]

Awesome content as usual Alex! Can we expect an ML review soon? Would really like to know what memory config to get the M4 Max in.

[@rickkarrer8370]

I would love to see a color measurement between the older MacBook Pro and the new ones. Apple changed the display technology slightly on these, and didn’t bother to advertise it. They now use quantum dot technology. The new MacBook Pro should be capable of brighter colors, particularly in the greens and blues, as well as more accurate color steps between the three primaries. That should overall increase the color gambit and total colors achievable.

[@silversepp392]

What about Parallels performance. I am torn between 14" Macbook Pro M4 Pro (14-core) and 13.8" Surface Laptop Elite X. I know M4 Pro is better on paper but what about when in Parallels - people rarely give their VMs 100% of CPU and Ram (not even possible). So how would they both fare in Windows ARM? A real life scenario with Docker, multiple Visual Studios running etc?

[@chonnawathbalana7819]

This channel is a gem, diamon, gold and BTC

Please also show us the performance improvement using Android Studio and a large Android project. The difference between M1-Max and M4-Pro is particularly interesting.

[@pablosepulvedavaldes]

your youtube award on the wall is unaligned, it drives me crazy 😆

[@noahleaman]

Could fan behavior be affected by the High Power mode? It would be nice if “I don’t care about fan noise” = High Power mode and “I would rather not hear the fan as much” = Automatic/Low Power mode.

[@gaiustacitus4242]

If you're outside in the sun on a typical summer day in the Deep South, then you'll find that your laptop begins to malfunction in a matter of minutes. The fans just can't keep it cool enough.

[@erangadesilva4317]

Hey Alex. Since you have different Macbooks with M4 pro and M4 MAX chipa with different RAM, have you done any testing to check whats the max LLM parameter size if we run unquantized or 16bit quantized with usuable tokens per seconds. If you can do a video on that, really appreciate that. Thanka a lot. Keep up the good work buddy.

[@belugabruh9112]

It is 1000 nits that boosts up to 1600 nits btw

[@TamasKiss-yk4st]

And which part of his workflow showed you any HDR movie..? Because if he can only reach the 1600 with HDR content, but he doesn't use any HDR alias the display max is 1000 in his perspective.. who cares if the highroad have 200km/h speed limit if you are only drive your car in a 50km/h speed limited town..? It's a good marketing number to tell the bigger number, but still if you never use that, why you should repeat brainlessly the same marketing numbers instead of the actually used numbers by yourself..?

[@belugabruh9112]

@ I listed the correct specifications. Quit yapping

[@mr.mike678]

All benchmarks focus on 4K video editing, 3D rendering, and similar tasks. However, as developers, we rarely (never for me) engage in these activities. We need more benchmarks that are specifically tailored to developer needs.

[@betossaurow]

Will you compare the mac mini with the m4 macbooks? Just to see how it compares in these tests

[@TheAyushSomani]

Finally, finally it's here. Been waiting for this over a month. Thank you, Alex!

[@AZisk]

it’s not over

[@sigb0y]

I would like too how these machines perform when an external monitor is attached and how support for 120hz is working.

[@drdudewin]

Honestly, to me performance has become a bit more nuanced. My value is on quietness and coolness more than benchmark scores. I’m either taking an M4 Pro 16” or M3 Pro 16” for the value any day of the week over any max chip. I personally see myself performing better (as a human) in a completely quiet environment, and my machine should not interfere with that even when pushing it.

[@brunonascimentofavero6097]

I have a top M3 Max and live in Brazil, so a pretty hot country, and rarely do the fans kick up really loud they barely turn on at all, except if I'm doing a large build of code for prolonged time or running some gpu intensive tasks. For day to day usage with incremental builds it runs cool and quiet.

[@brunonascimentofavero6097]

the 16 inch model of course, I believe that wouldn't be the case in the 14 inch.

[@MrSparc]

I have M2 Max with 96GB RAM that is great for larger LLM models. The M4 Max is not configurable for that amount of memory, you need to jump to 128 GB and spend a good money on that. I would like to know token per seconds between m2 max an m4 max (seems that was not visible on this video or I missed that detail)

[@johntdavies]

Like you I had the pimped out M2 Max and upgraded to the M4 Max (both 8TB with just a few hundred GB free). I've got 78 ollama models and a couple of dozen in LM Studio and raw HF models too. It's about 33-50% faster than my M2 but the 128GB over 96GB of the M2 means I can now run slightly larger or less quantised models. Keep making the videos, ping me if you want / need any ideas, frameworks, alternative numbers etc.

[@AZisk]

wow, you really need the storage!

[@johntdavies]

@@AZisk Most of it is taken up with my astrophotography (my hobby), a whole night of 30 second exposures on a 50MP camera that then need to be processed by a superb app called PixInsight that NASA use. It creates numerous new versions of each one, aligned, normalised and then subtracts the dark noise, and "light noise" for each image before stacking them. A single evening can generate a good 200+ GB of sub-images before the final image. Then new MBP is a superb machine for processing astrophotography, and of course for work in AI 🙂

[@lightify97]

The one with one hot spot is M4 (has only one fan) the other one is M4 Pro (got two fans).

[@grzymsiu]

So which m4 i should choose for indie ios development? base m4 will be enough or not?

[@DielsonSales]

Definitely it will. I have an M2 with 16GB and the only way to get it to fill up the memory is if I’m using a local LLM or a virtual machine on VMWare together. But since Apple lowered the price of RAM, it’s maybe a good idea to go for 24GB of RAM if you plan to keep it for many years. And regarding processor speed, even an M1 will be very fast with incremental compilation, unless you’re compiling something like a Linux kernel, CPython etc. from scratch.

[@sreeharisreelal]

Hi bro, Is sideloading on Mac not as easy as before after macOS 15.1? Is this news real?

[@Techonsapevole]

Thanks for ollama test!!!

[@BurntOrangeHorn78]

Great revuew, but I fund it strange there is no mention of the displays. Is OLED available on any Mac?

[@rramnel]

Thanks for the great video. Can you also comment on the latest display upgrade information floating around where the new M4 MBP have a Quantum Dot display. Are you able to see less visible "ghosting" compared to the M2 Max?

[@BrandonStewart-lm3tp]

I waited so long for this to know if I should return my 16 inch M4 pro, but looks like its okay, but still can't say enough how great that m4 base model is

[@PositivitysDust]

Just in the right time! I am thinking of buying one this end of the month!

[@bikkikumarsha]

NANDs are in RAID configuration: that might account to the increased speed in higher storage ssds

[@akatoxa]

I’m curious is there a significant difference of performance between 14” m4max and 16” m4max

[@levirouse1701]

Thanks for the WebKit build. Also, call it The Arnold.

[@rafaelcordoba13]

Mac Mini M4 Pro with 64GB ram and 1TB must be the best deal for programming if you don’t need a laptop. Happy times to be a coder!

[@smiss4934]

god bless u bro

[@LucasAndradeX]

The price tho

[@rafaelcordoba13]

@@LucasAndradeX still much cheaper than a macbook Pro or Max

[@zedpassway4140]

Thanks for all this work, but I really wish someone would do a test like Topaz that uses the neural engine, to compare the machines.

[@AZisk]

Just tried it, and yep, it does use the ANE - great to see that.

[@artemturetskiy8936]

Amazing video, thanks! Exactly the info I needed. Would be great if you could summarize all results in a table overlayed on the screen after each run. Easier to imbibe such info visually

[@kokoinmars]

Can you add the M4 mini 64gb (or any 64gb model) to your tests?

[@shulhi55]

Can you review nano texture for programming work please? Are the texts blurry when used with smaller font size?

[@ArtemGrinevich-t3m]

@AZisk, thanks for video. Please tell a little bit about fan noise. Is it really annoying or insane loud as they say everywhere? Have you really heard them doing usual stuff like web browsing, watching movies, listen a music, etc.. And the same question about a coding tasks: writing code in VS Code, compile anything and so on. The main question: is it really as bad as people say.

[@Michael-cs6cb]

Great video -- very informative. Graphs were helpful. Curious for some follow-up on the battery life low power modes -- in my excitement for the Best Buy deals I got an M4 Pro when I'm a light user by all accounts. Debating taking it back for the M4 base chip (which I have 3 days to pick-up or refund) if that does have a significant bump in battery life. The price difference was negligible for me at their discounts.

[@MihirStudy-ty3zc]

most awaited vid of the m4s🔥

[@AZisk]

[@rach7962]

M4 Max 64GB or 128GB for running LLM locally? Awesome channel!!

[@lucicam2007]

Please do a stable diffusion test with either automatic1111 or comfyui between the macs and also a PC

[@annraoi]

Hey Alex! This is perfect timing, as I'm having some heat issues with my Asus S14 UX5406 this week. I’ve decided to return it, and despite the Apple EU tax(ironically, Apple typically owes EU taxes), I’m considering getting a MacBook Pro! I’m still figuring out which variant to go for, though. Thanks for your help!

[@AZisk]

np. good luck.

[@nniklask]

Which config are you considering? I am kinda in the same shoes, tho i returned my s14 because i couldnt get on with windows again

[@scottkuzma125]

Not to get all political, but this is an example of the misunderstanding of how a Tariff works. Regardless of the tariff (aka: Tax) being imposed directly to the consumer, or to the country/company of origin…YOU are the one who will be paying the tax in the end. If the country of origin pays the tariff, then that cuts heavily into their bottom line. The only option that they have is to pass it on to you, the consumer.

[@annraoi]

@@scottkuzma125 I removed the Tax as in Europe, we include the tax on the prices of the goods. It worked out to about $340. I also looked at prices in some states in the US, and some states have a high tax rate, though.

[@annraoi]

​@nniklask Hi I decided to go for 16" Max 1 40 GPU Core, and 1 SSD, and 128 GB.

[@welsh1lad]

Did a blackMagic disk test on my Mac M1 Air Base Model , around 3776.2 write , and 2937 read , the drive is 512G so it writes faster than your M2 max , yet the read is slower . ???

[@sanskarmohan4934]

i wanted to know if I should go for a gaming laptop or macbook m4 pro because they are almost the same performance .

[@humancorrector-473]

for gaming - gaming laptop would be better 100%. if not only for gaming, then m4 pro. that's what i would choose

[@AbstraktMusicLab]

What are your impressions of the M4 Max's fan noise? Too much compared to the M1 Max? Similar?

[@lightoflifegames7227]

You call them 1 on the right, 1 on the left, this guy, etc. Can the models be labeled somehow?

[@AZisk]

this is what happens when you skip around

[@lightoflifegames7227]

And I have attention issues, love you anyway !

[@erza7333]

Hi! I'm currently deciding between a few MacBook models and was hoping you could share your expertise. I'm planning to apply for a data science program in 2026, so I need a laptop that will work well for studying and practicing in this field The options I'm considering are: Macbook Pro M3 (18GB RAM) Macbook Pro M4 (24GB RAM) Macbook Pro M4 Pro (24GB RAM) Which one would you recommend for data science studies, considering performance and long-term use? Thanks in advance for your advice

[@ramonfelizjr]

I like your videos , question I been watching refurbished MacBook Pro . For music production to run the most plugins : Like acustica audio , waves etc…. The M3 Max 16 core with 96GB ram and 2 TB vs M4 Pro 14 core with 48GB ram and 2 TB which is better choice for that purpose, thx

[@kevenCodes]

Any reports on fan noise?

[@inSpyr]

which chip ran the coolest thermal temperature during heavy load?

[@alexh2665]

Can you please do a Xcode test comparing the base M4 and M4 pro to the M3 pro?

[@aflury]

I suspect that the reflections from such a bright flashlight so close to the screen inflated your luminosity numbers.

[@elmarcentral]

4:17 it's 1000 nits base max brightness and up to 1600 nits.

[@gregoriorossi4519]

in your opinion 500$ more for the 16 inch m4 macbook pro are worth compared to 14 inch m4 macbook pro?

[@bikkikumarsha]

I will watch the video but first I need to like it, that’s how consistently good you are 🎉

[@andreygritsay762]

I wish you added some Flutter tests as well, but overall thanks for the video!