New MacBook Pro arrives with M4 Pro, M4 Max, and a black colorway

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited October 30

Apple has introduced its update to the MacBook Pro, upgrading the chips from M3 to use M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max, and adding Space Black to the mix.

Laptop on wooden stand with colorful screen, surrounded by a potted plant, game controller, camera lens, and notebook on white table against brick wall.
14-inch MacBook Pro



The new 14-inch MacBook Pro and the 16-inch MacBook Pro have finally followed after the iPad Pro in gaining M4. Launched on Wednesday, Apple's update to the portable models gives the movable workstations a lot more performance.

The key of the change is the M4 chip, which offers consumers a considerable performance bump for single-core and multi-core applications over M3. As well as that, Apple's bringing in the M4 Pro and M4 Max to the table.

The M4 has a 10-core CPU with 4 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores, and a 10-core GPU.



The M4 Pro is offered with either a 12-core CPU with 8 performance cores and four efficiency cores, or 14 cores with two more performance cores. The GPU is either 16 cores or 20 cores, depending on the version.

The new M4 Max option starts with a 14-core CPU with 10 performance cores and a 32-core GPU. There's an upgrade available to a 16-core CPU with a 40-core GPU.

The memory bandwidth also scales up with the chip tier. While the M4 is at 120GB/s, the M4 Pro goes up to 273GB/s, and the M4 Max hits 410GB/s or 546GB/s, depending on the variant.

While the internals are bolstered with more performance, the rest of the MacBook Pro models are practically the same as the predecessors in many other ways.

This includes the 14.2-inch and 16.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR displays, offering resolutions of 3,024 by 1,964 and 3,456 by 2,234 respectively. The mini-LED backlit screens have a maximum brightness of 600 nits for standard content, 1,000 nits sustained for full-screen HDR content, and 1,600 nits at a peak.

True Tone, ProMototion, and Wide Color (P3) support return as usual. At the top of the display is a 1080p FaceTime HD camera with an advanced ISP for computational video improvements.

Audio is provided by a six-speaker sound system with force-cancelling woofers, complete with Spatial Audio support and even Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking when using compatible hardware. There's also a trio of mics with high signal-to-noise ratios and directional beamforming, and even a 3.5mm headphone jack with support for high-impedance headphones.

Connectivity-wise, there are three Thunderbolt 5 ports on the M4 Pro and M4 Max versions, depending on the model, while the M4 uses Thunderbolt 4. MagSafe 3, HDMI, and an SDXC card slot round out the physical connectivity options.

Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 are also included for wireless connectivity.

Another change is color, with customers now able to get a Space Black version alongside the existing Silver variant.

Shipping on November 8 with preorders starting from Wednesday, the M4 14-inch MacBook Pro starts from $1,599, and the 16-inch starts from $2,499.



Read on AppleInsider

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 18
    Is it just me or does the M4 Max feels like a less improvement. Maybe it's because M4 Pro took such a leap I was expecting M4 max to become a 16 and 18 CPU with maybe 32 and 42 GPU cores but it remains the same on core counts as M3 Max......I think I got my hopes up a bit too much
    williamlondon
  • Reply 2 of 18
    blastdoorblastdoor Posts: 3,566member
    Galfan said:
    Is it just me or does the M4 Max feels like a less improvement. Maybe it's because M4 Pro took such a leap I was expecting M4 max to become a 16 and 18 CPU with maybe 32 and 42 GPU cores but it remains the same on core counts as M3 Max......I think I got my hopes up a bit too much
    Yeah, the M4 Pro was definitely a bigger improvement over the M3 Pro. But part of that is because the M3 Pro wasn't much better than the M2 Pro. So, comparing both M4 Pro and Max to their M2 counterparts, they are similarly large improvements. It's just that for Max, more of that improvement happened during the M3 generation while for Pro more of the improvement happened during the M4 generation. 
    GalfanwilliamlondonAlex1N
  • Reply 3 of 18
    Not going to lie. A bit disappointed that the m4 pro added cores and the Max did not. 

    Reserving judgement until performamce reviews come in. But… kinda sad. 

    Hopefully we see what the Ultra is all about tomorrow. 
  • Reply 4 of 18
    Galfan said:
    Is it just me or does the M4 Max feels like a less improvement. Maybe it's because M4 Pro took such a leap I was expecting M4 max to become a 16 and 18 CPU with maybe 32 and 42 GPU cores but it remains the same on core counts as M3 Max......I think I got my hopes up a bit too much
    Memory bandwidth difference is what to look at per the Pro/Max versions of the chips. Max can have double the transfer rate. 
    williamlondonAlex1N
  • Reply 5 of 18
    nubusnubus Posts: 594member
    Did MBA M3 and M2 just get 16 GB as minimum? A $200 extra value. Interesting!
    edited October 30
  • Reply 6 of 18
    Does anyone know if there are any big improvements to SSD speeds of late?  I have a 2021 MBP (32gb, Max chip) and my daily workflow revolves around compiling thousands of  files of code - a faster processor isn't  going to help me much, but a much faster SSD would definitely get me to upgrade.

    Well....maybe the new matte display might too: I'm writing this, barely able to read my screen with all the reflection going on :-(


  • Reply 7 of 18
    Beautiful machines, cannot afford them at all sadly. Will stick with M1 series for some years more.

  • Reply 8 of 18
    Wasn’t the Space Grey color changed to Space “Black” for the M3 MBP? During the Apple video they acted like it was a brand new color.  I remember seeing review videos talking about M3 models being noticeably darker but still not black. I could be misremembering though. My memory isn’t what it once was. 

    The new models look nice, especially the matte screen option, and I would love to get one. But, my M1 Max MBP with 64GB of RAM is still meeting my needs. Don’t want to drop another $4k + unless I have to. Adding a 4th monitor to my setup would be pretty sweet though…
  • Reply 9 of 18
    sphericspheric Posts: 2,684member
    Not going to lie. A bit disappointed that the m4 pro added cores and the Max did not. 
    It didn't. They just returned from the castrated M3 Pro to the original market position for the "Pro" CPUs — as basically identical to the Max, except with less graphics power. 

    And also an entry-level binned version of the Pro with two cores shut off. 

    We're back to the M1 Pro/M2 Pro product lineup. 

    HOORAY!

    edited October 30 Alex1N
  • Reply 10 of 18
    24 hour battery life seems like a good thing with these new beasts.
    Alex1N
  • Reply 11 of 18
    A disappointing upgrade.  Still the unnecessary notch remains.   Really no excuse for it in such a high priced laptop.  An example of what happens when too much work from home  is allowed.   Also has only WiFi 6E when WiFi 7 should have been incorporated.
    edited October 30 williamlondonldenninggrandact73
  • Reply 12 of 18
    mpantonempantone Posts: 2,223member
    Galfan said:
    Is it just me or does the M4 Max feels like a less improvement. Maybe it's because M4 Pro took such a leap I was expecting M4 max to become a 16 and 18 CPU with maybe 32 and 42 GPU cores but it remains the same on core counts as M3 Max......I think I got my hopes up a bit too much
    It’s not wise to expect a linearly scaling improvement. Some generations will likely have larger increases than others. And some SoC variants will have bigger increases than others.

    Remember that it’s not just core counts or clock frequencies. There are other factors like cache size and memory bandwidth that heavily impact real world performance.

     Comparing simple specs will result in simple conclusions.
    ronnwilliamlondonAlex1N
  • Reply 13 of 18
    tyler82tyler82 Posts: 1,111member
    An example of what happens when too much work from home  is allowed. 
    Says the person commenting in the middle of the day in the middle of the work week.
    ronnwilliamlondonAlex1Nldenningzeus423beowulfschmidt
  • Reply 14 of 18
    chasmchasm Posts: 3,571member
    A disappointing upgrade.  Still the unnecessary notch remains.   Really no excuse for it in such a high priced laptop.  An example of what happens when too much work from home  is allowed.   Also has only WiFi 6E when WiFi 7 should have been incorporated.
    Um … the notch contains the FaceTime camera and mic. You may find it aesthetically displeasing if you want, but it’s absolutely not “unnecessary.”
    williamlondonAlex1Nzeus423ronn
  • Reply 15 of 18
    mpantonempantone Posts: 2,223member
    tyler82 said:
    An example of what happens when too much work from home  is allowed. 
    Says the person commenting in the middle of the day in the middle of the work week.
    It is unwise to automatically assume that every AppleInsider forum participant lives in a timezone in the USA and has a traditional M-F daytime work schedule. In fact, there are some retirees here, some students, some unemployed.

    Who knows, maybe johnwhite1001 is an AI 'bot? LOL

     :p 
    Alex1Nmuthuk_vanalingamJanNL
  • Reply 16 of 18
    Weren't the previous Macbook Pro's released in Space Black already? What am I overlooking here? There were all the comparisons between the pro black and the air midnight black/blue...
    tyler82zeus423
  • Reply 17 of 18
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,479moderator
    Galfan said:
    Is it just me or does the M4 Max feels like a less improvement. Maybe it's because M4 Pro took such a leap I was expecting M4 max to become a 16 and 18 CPU with maybe 32 and 42 GPU cores but it remains the same on core counts as M3 Max......I think I got my hopes up a bit too much
    Apple has comparisons to M3 Max on their site, under the 'go deeper' link at the bottom of the popup. Divide M4 amount by M3 amount to get the relative difference:

    https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/

    M4 Max has about 15% improvement over M3 Max but there are a couple of areas where it's as much as 30%. M4-series uses Armv9 so has faster vector computing. They also have 2nd-gen raytracing cores.

    As usual, it's not worth upgrading for a single generation but there's a large jump every 3-4 generations. M4 is 2-3x M1 so people with M1 Max could comfortably move to M4 Pro to get the same performance at lower power and lower price.
    Alex1Nronnwilliamlondon
  • Reply 18 of 18
    chromafox said:
    Weren't the previous Macbook Pro's released in Space Black already? What am I overlooking here? There were all the comparisons between the pro black and the air midnight black/blue...
    This go around you can get the Space Black variant on the non-Pro chipped MacBook Pro (the plain M3 MBP was only available in Silver and Space Gray). So I guess that makes it a “new color” for that model now lol. 
    ronnchromafox
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