Home > CPU Comparison > M4 (10-Core) or Apple M2: what's better?

Apple M4 (10-Core) vs Apple M2

76 out of 100
Apple M4 (10-Core)
VS
57 out of 100
Apple M2
Apple M4 (10-Core)
Apple M2

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 4.46 GHz Apple M4 (10-Core) with 10-cores against the 3.5 GHz Apple M2 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

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 M2 and (10-Core)
Advantages of Apple M4 (10-Core)
  • Newer - released 2 years later
  • More modern manufacturing process – 3 versus 5 nanometers
  • 46% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 3777 vs 2589 points
  • Has 2 more physical cores
  • Supports up to 32 GB LPDDR5X-7500 RAM
  • More powerful Apple M4 GPU (10-core) integrated graphics: 3.8 vs 2.9 TFLOPS
  • Around 17.6 GB/s (17%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
M4 (10-Core)
vs
Apple M2

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
M4 (10-Core) +38%
172
Apple M2
125
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
M4 (10-Core) +69%
982
Apple M2
582
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) +46%
3777
Apple M2
2589
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
M4 (10-Core) +46%
14818
Apple M2
10122
File compression 1500 MB/sec 1130 MB/sec
Clang compilation 120.2 Klines/sec 80.4 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 329.3 pages/sec 235.3 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 362.1 Mpixels/sec 266.1 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 352.1 pages/sec 257.4 pages/sec
Background blur 69.8 images/sec 42.1 images/sec
Photo processing 114.4 images/sec 107 images/sec
Ray tracing 18.1 Mpixels/sec 10.5 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 465 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
M4 (10-Core) +16%
4499
Apple M2
3883
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
M4 (10-Core) +51%
23603
Apple M2
15651
Integer math 54.2 GOps/sec 37 GOps/sec
Floating point math 49.6 GOps/sec 37.5 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 263M Primes/sec 174M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 34.3M Strings/sec 23.7M Strings/sec
Data encryption 15.1 GBytes/sec 9.5 GBytes/sec
Data compression 280.5 MBytes/sec 185.8 MBytes/sec
Physics 2527 Frames/sec 1667 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 13.6B Matrices/sec 7.8B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 2752 & 4611 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
M4 (10-Core) +111%
229.85
Apple M2
109.19

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 40.9 PPW 32.3 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 617.4 PPW 562.3 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 983.5 PPW 869.5 PPW
Blender / Watt 9.58 PPW 6.07 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 M2
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-14 (T)Geekbench 6 CPU2647 / 10245
πŸ“˜ 2026-01-05 (AR)Geekbench 6 CPU2655 / 10211
πŸ“˜ 2025-10-24 (Shivam)Geekbench 6 CPU2619 / 9900
Add View all (3)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Apple M4 (10-Core) and Apple M2

General

Vendor Apple Apple
Released May 7, 2024 June 6, 2022
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set ARMv9 ARMv8
Codename Apple M4 Apple M2
Model number APL1206 -
Integrated GPU Apple M4 GPU (10-core) Apple M2 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 3.5 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 6 4
E-Threads 6 4
Base Frequency (E) 2.89 GHz 2.4 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) 16MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Transistors 28 billions 20 billions
Fabrication Process 3 nm 5 nm
TDP (PL1) 24 W 18 W
Socket Apple M-Socket Apple M-Socket
Peak Temperature 100Β°C -
Die Size 169.4 mmΒ² -
Laptop processors ranking (28th and 133rd place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Apple M4 GPU (10-core) Apple M2 GPU
GPU Base Clock 500 MHz 500 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1470 MHz 1398 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) +31%
3.8 TFLOPS
Apple M2
2.9 TFLOPS
More info: Apple M2 GPU (8-core) compared to M4 GPU (10-Core)

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5X-7500 - LPDDR5-6400
Max. Memory Size 32 GB 24 GB
Memory Channels 8 8
Max. Memory Bandwidth 120 GB/s 102.4 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
631 (79.4%)
164 (20.6%)
Total votes: 795

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7. Apple M4 (10-Core) vs Apple M5 (10-Core) (4)
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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Apple M2 or M4 (10-Core)?
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