Recently posted benchmarks have revealed how capable the brand-new Apple M4 chip is in terms of single-core performance, outpacing even the best processors on the market.
As spotted by Tom's Hardware, there's a new champion in the Geekbench 6 CPU benchmarks as the iPad Pro line featuring the M4 chip actually beat out the previously leading Intel Core i9-14900KS in single-core benchmarks. Apple's latest silicon scored confident averages of around 3,800 in comparison to Team Blue's average of 3,100.
While things aren't quite as exciting in terms of multi-core performance, this marks an incredibly rare occassion where mobile hardware can not only stand in league with desktop, but surpass it. It's due in part to the new 10-core (4P + 6E) processor of the M4 chip which is bolstered by 10-core GPU, and a larger 16-core Neural Engine weighing in at 38 TOPS.
Apple claims that the M4 chip is roughly 50% faster than the M2 processor that you'll find in the incoming Apple iPad Air models as well as older MacBooks and iMacs from 2022. The M4 silicon's specs confidently tout improved branch prediction, next-gen ML accelerators, and a deeper execution engine according to Apple.
It's still early days for the new iPad Pro lineup which also feature what the company describes as a "Tandem OLED" display, and appear to be pushing the form factor in new directions. That means we can't quite draw a definitive line on Apple's tablets beating out leading desktop models across the board, even if the early reports are encouraging.
These strong figures are due in part to the newly revised Neural Engine which is the largest on Apple Silicon yet. Considering many manufacturers such as AMD and Intel are going all-in on AI computing with their incoming CPU generations, it's good to see Apple make a statement here, as the fourth-generation in-house chip makes a strong impression.
The start of what's to come from the AI revolution
It's still early days for AI computing regardless of form factor and time will tell exactly how well-optimized iPad OS software is to the new M4 chipset and more advanced Neural Engine. AMD has thrown its hat into the ring with the upcoming AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 170 flagship with an NPU of up to 77 TOPS according to a recent Asus leak.
Meanwhile, Intel already has a piece on the board with the Core Ultra 100 chips as Meteor Lake debuted in laptops last year. The real test for what the M4 chip is able to do will emerge when the playing ground is levelled. We're expecting Intel Arrow Lake later this year, so Team Red and Team Blue could widen the gap again. Until then, however, Apple's proven its tablets can hold their own against x86 confidently.
