Home > CPU Comparison > M4 (10-Core) or Apple M1: what's better?

Apple M4 (10-Core) vs Apple M1

76 out of 100
Apple M4 (10-Core)
VS
53 out of 100
Apple M1
Apple M4 (10-Core)
Apple M1

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 4.46 GHz Apple M4 (10-Core) with 10-cores against the 3.2 GHz Apple M1 with 8-cores. On this page, you'll find out which processor has better performance in benchmarks, games and other useful information.

  1. Review
  2. Differences
  3. Performance
  4. Specs
  5. Comments (11)

Review

General overview and comparison of the processors
Single-Core Performance
Performance in single-threaded apps and benchmarks
Multi-Core Performance
Measure performance when all cores are involved
Power Efficiency
The efficiency score of power consumption
Integrated Graphics
iGPU capabilities for gaming and 3D-intensive tasks
NanoReview Final Score
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
πŸ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Key Differences

What are the key differences between M1 and (10-Core)
Advantages of Apple M4 (10-Core)
  • Newer - released 3 years and 6 months later
  • Supports up to 32 GB LPDDR5X-7500 RAM
  • Around 51.75 GB/s (76%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • More modern manufacturing process – 3 versus 5 nanometers
  • 57% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 3777 vs 2410 points
  • More powerful Apple M4 GPU (10-core) integrated graphics: 3.8 vs 2.6 TFLOPS
  • Has 2 more physical cores

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
M4 (10-Core)
vs
Apple M1

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
M4 (10-Core) +56%
172
Apple M1
110
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
M4 (10-Core) +87%
982
Apple M1
525
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) 3211 -
Cinebench Scores (#158th place)
Submit your benchmark results

GeekBench v6

The new version of this benchmark emulates common operations often used in real-world apps
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
M4 (10-Core) +57%
3777
Apple M1
2410
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
M4 (10-Core) +73%
14818
Apple M1
8547
File compression 1500 MB/sec 941 MB/sec
Clang compilation 120.2 Klines/sec 68.2 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 329.3 pages/sec 192.4 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 362.1 Mpixels/sec 211.9 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 352.1 pages/sec 250.8 pages/sec
Background blur 69.8 images/sec 34.1 images/sec
Photo processing 114.4 images/sec 60.9 images/sec
Ray tracing 18.1 Mpixels/sec 9.74 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 760 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
M4 (10-Core) +22%
4499
Apple M1
3673
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
M4 (10-Core) +67%
23603
Apple M1
14123
Integer math 54.2 GOps/sec 33.2 GOps/sec
Floating point math 49.6 GOps/sec 35.5 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 263M Primes/sec 141M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 34.3M Strings/sec 21M Strings/sec
Data encryption 15.1 GBytes/sec 8.5 GBytes/sec
Data compression 280.5 MBytes/sec 168 MBytes/sec
Physics 2527 Frames/sec 1359 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 13.6B Matrices/sec 7B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 2752 & 10702 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
M4 (10-Core) +141%
229.85
Apple M1
95.27

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 40.9 PPW 37.5 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 617.4 PPW 610.5 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 983.5 PPW 1008.8 PPW
Blender / Watt 9.58 PPW 6.81 PPW
These are rough calculations, as most CPUs surpass PL1 TDP wattage even in multicore workloads.

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Apple M4 (10-Core)
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-06-13 (doannguuyenmfs)Geekbench 6 CPU3703 / 15450
πŸ“˜ 2026-04-18 (Avacada)Geekbench 6 CPU3906 / 15577
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-05 (Dovlet)Geekbench 6 CPU3916 / 15202
πŸ“˜ 2025-12-31 (gmamorim)Geekbench 6 CPU3730 / 15258
πŸ“˜ 2025-12-28 (LC)Cinebench 2024174 / 993
Add View all (10)
Apple M1
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-24 -> op1Geekbench 6 CPU2420 / 8793
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-06 (gaR)Geekbench 6 CPU2396 / 8763
πŸ“˜ 2025-04-11 (Ario)Geekbench 6 CPU2395 / 8820
πŸ“˜ 2025-04-11 (Ario)Cinebench 2024110 / 465
πŸ“˜ 2025-01-17 (Qianhe)Cinebench 2024110 / 525
Add View all (7)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Apple M4 (10-Core) and Apple M1

General

Vendor Apple Apple
Released May 7, 2024 November 20, 2020
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set ARMv9 ARMv8
Codename Apple M4 Apple M1
Model number APL1206 -
Integrated GPU Apple M4 GPU (10-core) Apple M1 GPU
Rival Equivalent - Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite (X1E-84-100) -
Successor - Apple M5 (10-Core) - Apple M5 (10-Core)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 4 4
P-Threads 4 4
Base Frequency (P) 4.46 GHz 3.2 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 6 4
E-Threads 6 4
Base Frequency (E) 2.89 GHz 2.1 GHz
Total
Total Cores 10 8
Total Threads 10 8
Bus Frequency 100 MHz -
Multiplier 44x -
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 16MB (shared) 12MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Transistors 28 billions 16 billions
Fabrication Process 3 nm 5 nm
TDP (PL1) 24 W 14 W
Socket Apple M-Socket Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100Β°C -
Die Size 169.4 mmΒ² -
Laptop processors ranking (28th and 173rd place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Apple M4 GPU (10-core) Apple M1 GPU
GPU Base Clock 500 MHz 450 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1470 MHz 1278 MHz
Shading Units 1280 1024
TMUs 80 64
ROPs 40 32
Execution Units 160 128
TGP 18 W 15 W
iGPU FLOPS
M4 (10-Core) +46%
3.8 TFLOPS
Apple M1
2.6 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M1 GPU (8-core) compared to M4 GPU (10-Core)

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5X-7500 - LPDDR4X-4266
Max. Memory Size 32 GB 16 GB
Memory Channels 8 8
Max. Memory Bandwidth 120 GB/s 68.25 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

PCI Express Version - 4.0
Further details
Notes on M4 (10-Core):
    - SoC is designed using ARMv9.4-A architecture.

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
892 (80.4%)
217 (19.6%)
Total votes: 1109

Competitors

1. Apple M1 vs Apple M4 Pro (12-Core)
2. Apple M1 vs Apple M3
3. Apple M1 vs Intel Core Ultra 5 125H
4. Apple M1 vs Apple M2 (8)
5. Apple M1 vs Apple M3 Pro
6. Apple M4 (10-Core) vs Apple A18 Pro (MacBook) (2)
7. Apple M4 (10-Core) vs Apple M6 (12-Core)
8. Apple M4 (10-Core) vs Apple M2
9. Apple M4 (10-Core) vs Apple M2 Pro
10. Apple M4 (10-Core) vs Apple M1 Pro (7)
Compare other CPUs (460+)

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M1 or M4 (10-Core)?
🌐 Register your profile and become part of NanoReview community!
Avatar
Charles Klingman June 19, 2025 at 12:13 PM
If you run audio plugins like UAs native plugins vs the DSP audio-2 versions, the M4 Studio with 32 gb of ram is 100% more awesome than m1, which was pretty damn good already, and blows away the increasingly geriatric UA DSP performance.
+6 Reply
Avatar
Max April 27, 2025 at 05:57 AM
M4 is much better than M1 in performance, and MacBook Air and Pro M1 is old design compared to M4 MacBook Pro and Air.
0 Reply
Avatar
Max March 22, 2025 at 03:00 PM
M4 is just beating M1 on paper, not much difference on daily use, if you are using 10 different apps on, than you can see a slight difference
+44 Reply
Avatar
John April 6, 2025 at 02:54 PM
The difference is huge and almost night and day. That is with the following use case scenario: 1) roll20 (camera streaming) and 5 more tabs open in chrome 2) chatgpt app open 3) 2 pdfs open in preview 4) a 42" tv with 120hz and 2k resolution This is the reason why I switched from m1 to m4 and it went from unusable to a breeze.
+29 Reply
Avatar
Pat July 16, 2025 at 05:23 PM
John, Are you sure this isn't mainly because you now have 16GB of RAM instead of 8GB?
+22 Reply
Avatar
Max March 22, 2025 at 02:58 PM
Not much difference if you have m1 laptops, you won't even notice the difference even after full day use side by side, m1 air the best for buck.
+18 Reply
Avatar
Ivan June 6, 2026 at 08:27 PM
If all you ever do is browse, cerck e-mails etc, sure stick to the M1. For very demanding workflows, the difference is night and day. The M4 blows the M1 out of the water. It's not even a contest.
0 Reply
Avatar
Anup November 30, 2024 at 10:06 AM
That's a huge difference.... Kudos to Apple!
+9 Reply
Avatar
Torrentos November 29, 2024 at 02:42 PM
M4 GPU features hardware raytracing. Can hardware en/decode Prores. Can drive up to three external displays (Mac Mini).
+15 Reply
Avatar
XrY November 10, 2024 at 04:11 AM
The M4 GPU is 20w not 15w
+18 Reply
Avatar
Boris May 9, 2024 at 09:17 AM
M4 is LPDDR5X-7500 (3750 MHz) and not regular LPDDR5.
+107 Reply
EnglishРусский