The Apple M4 chip has landed, but how does it compare to the M3? Here’s everything we know so far.
Apple has announced the M4 chip, its successor to the M3 that’s currently found in a bunch of Macs and iPads. The M3 is an excellent chip and a real leap above the M2 that came before it, so the question is whether the M4 can manage a similar feat.
Right now, the M4 is only in the iPad Pro, and that means information about how good it is and what it does is rather limited. But if you’re interested in finding out more, you’re in luck, as we’ve gathered up everything we know about Apple’s M4 chip and compared it side by side with the M3. If you want to learn more about Apple’s next chip — and how it compares to the M3 — read on.Where can you find these chips?
At the time of this writing, the M4 chip is only present in the 2024 iPad Pro. That device has a few different configurations of the M4, including with varying amounts of memory and storage, but right now it’s not found in any other Apple devices.
That said, the M4 is undoubtedly also coming to the Mac. Given it’s an entry-level chip, we can expect to see it in the 14-inch MacBook Pro, both sizes of the MacBook Air, the iMac, and the Mac mini. It’s expected to land in the MacBook Pro, the iMac, and the Mac mini around late 2024, with the MacBook Air following in spring 2025.
As for the M3 chip, that’s already out in the wild. It’s currently in the 14-inch MacBook Pro, the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air, and the 24-inch iMac.
Unlike the M4, the M3 has never appeared in any iPad. The new iPad Air and previous-generation iPad Pro have the M2, while the iPad and iPad mini use the A14 and A15 chips, respectively.What’s different under the hood?
There are a few differences under the hood between the M3 and M4 chips, but those differences are subtle rather than monumental. They’re less significant than the changes experienced when Apple moved from the M2 to the M3, but we won’t know for sure what kind of divergence there is until we get to test an M4-equipped device.
