Apple M4 Pro GPU (20-core) vs M2 Pro GPU (19-core)

We compared two integrated laptop professional GPUs: the Apple M4 Pro GPU (20-core) with 320 pipelines and 2560 shaders against the 1 year and 10 months older M2 Pro GPU (19-core) that utilizes 304 pipelines and 2432 shaders. Here you will find complete details about specs, efficiency, performance tests, and more.

Review

General comparison of performance in games, applications, power efficiency, and other metrics
Gaming
Performance in DirectX, OpenCL, and Vulkan games
Workstation
Perf. in 3D modeling, video editing and rendering apps
AI/ML
Capabilities for machine learning and AI-related tasks
Energy Efficiency
Power consumption efficiency in different scenarios
NanoReview Final Score
Overall video card score

Key differences

Key distinctions and advantages of M2 Pro GPU (19-core) over M4 Pro GPU (20-core)
Reasons to consider the Apple M4 Pro GPU (20-core)
  • Performs significantly better (up to 58%) in 3DMark Steel Nomad Lite
  • Manufactured using a more efficient 3 nm process technology
  • 19% higher maximum theoretical performance (8.1 vs 6.8 TFLOPS)
  • Achieves 42% more points in the GeekBench 6 Compute test (70K vs 49K)
  • Has 33% higher memory bandwidth: 273 vs 204.8 GB/s

Benchmarks

Graphics cards’ performance in recent benchmarking apps

3D Mark

Multiplatform graphics benchmark suite that directly correlates with performance in modern games
Steel Nomad Lite Score
Solar Bay 33418 16218
Wild Life Extreme 19535 12726
Sources: 3DMark [1], [2]

GeekBench 6 OpenCL

GPU test for computational tasks (image processing, photography, computer vision, and ML)
GB6 Compute Score
Background Blur 125.1 img/sec 89.7 img/sec
Face Detection 80 img/sec 58 img/sec
Horizon Detection 2.88 Gpixels/sec 1.94 Gpixels/sec
Edge Detection 4.22 Gpixels/sec 3.26 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian Blur 2.98 Gpixels/sec 2.19 Gpixels/sec
Feature Matching 0.8 Gpixels/sec 0.55 Gpixels/sec
Stereo Matching 235 Gpixels/sec 163 Gpixels/sec
Particle Physics 9516.1 FPS 6139.2 FPS
API OpenCL OpenCL
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]

Cinebench 2024 GPU

Hardware benchmark using Maxon's Cinema 4D rendering engine
Cinebench 2024 GPU

Blender

Rendering performance test for 3D modeling
Blender GPU
Sources: Blender [9], [10] – 399 & 206 samples

Artificial Intelligence Tests

Performance in machine learning and artificial intelligence tasks

GeekBench 6 ML

Tests throughput of AI operations in single, half, and quantized precision
GB6 ML Single Precision
GB6 ML Half Precision
GB6 ML Quantized
Image Classification (SP) 8046 5279
Image Segmentation (HP) 15443 8089
Image Super Resolution (Q) 20807 15007
Face Detection (HP) 30860 19212
Pose Estimation (Q) 56783 44046
Text Classification (SP) 2888 2280
Machine Translation (HP) 6167 1972
Object Detection (SP) 7592 4941
Depth Estimation (Q) 33607 22209
Style Transfer (SP) 126726 79898
Framework Core ML Core ML
Backend GPU GPU
Sources: Geekbench [9], [10]

Specifications

Technical specifications of Apple M4 Pro GPU (20-core) and M2 Pro GPU (19-core)

General

Vendor Apple Apple
Build Integrated Integrated
Released October 29, 2024 January 17, 2023
Case Laptop Laptop
Purpose Professional Professional
Segment Mid-range High-end
Architecture Apple M GPU Apple M GPU
GPU Codename Custom -
Rival Equivalent - GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop - GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop
Successor - Apple M5 Pro GPU (20-core) - Apple M5 Pro GPU (20-core)
Recommended CPU - Apple M4 Pro (14-Core) or above - Apple M2 Pro or above
Used in CPUs - Apple M4 Pro (14-Core) - Apple M2 Pro
Laptop GPU ranking (37th and 69th place)

Graphics Processing Unit

Base Clock 500 MHz 450 MHz
Boost Clock 1578 MHz 1398 MHz
Shading Units 2560 2432
Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) 160 152
Render Output Units (ROPs) 80 76
Compute Units (Pipelines) 320 304
Instructions Per Cycle 2 IPC 2 IPC

Raw Performance

Pixel Fill Rate 126 GPixel/s 106 GPixel/s
Texture Fill Rate 252 GTexel/s 212 GTexel/s
FLOPS (FP32)
8.1 TFLOPS

Physical

Interface Custom Custom
TGP 26 W 35 W
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Fabrication Process 3 nm 5 nm
Transistor Count - 26 billion
Max. Temperature 100°C 94°C

Memory

Memory Type System Shared System Shared
Memory Clock 8533 MHz 6400 MHz
Effective Memory Speed 15000 Mbps 12800 Mbps
Bus 192-bit 256-bit
ECC No No
Memory Bandwidth
273 GB/s

API

Ray Tracing Yes No
DLSS No No

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Total votes: 6

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