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Apple M1 Max vs Apple M4 Max: Comparison
Apple M1 Max and Apple M4 Max separate most on l2 cache: Apple M1 Max at 24 MB, Apple M4 Max at 40 MB, 40% in favour of Apple M4 Max. They match on 8 other specifications, including product line, form factor and market segment. In Blender Cycles (CPU) the Apple M4 Max scores 470 against 211 for the Apple M1 Max, a lead of 55%.
Specs
| Specification | ![]() | ![]() |
|---|---|---|
| Brand | Apple | Apple |
| Product Line | Other | Other |
| Form Factor | Laptop | Laptop |
| Model Number | M1 Max | M4 Max |
| Core/Thread Count | 10 Core / 10 Thread (8 Performance + 2 Efficiency) | 16 Core / 16 Thread (12 Performance + 4 Efficiency) |
| Release Year | 2021 | 2024 |
| TDP | 30 W | 50 W |
| Market Segment | Laptop | Laptop |
| Cache | 24MB L2 + 4MB L1 | 40MB L2 + 4MB L1 |
| Boost/Base Clock | 3.2 GHz / 2.064 GHz | 4.5 GHz / 2.9 GHz |
| Socket Status | End of Life | Current |
| Process Node | 5 nm | 3 nm |
| Performance Cores | 8 | 12 |
| Efficiency Cores | 2 | 4 |
| SMT Enabled | No | No |
| P-Core Base Clock | 2.064 | 2.9 |
| P-Core Boost Clock | 3.2 | 4.5 |
| L2 Cache | 24 MB-40% | 40 MB |
| Base Power | 30 W | 50 W |
| Max Memory Speed | 6400 | 8533 |
| Memory Channels | 8 | 8 |
| Max Memory Capacity | 64 | 128 |
| ECC Support | No | No |
| Integrated Graphics | Yes | Yes |
| Retail Availability | Soldered Only | Soldered Only |
| Series | Apple Silicon | Apple Silicon |
| CPU Process Node | 5 Nanometers | 3 Nanometers |
| Architecture | Apple Silicon, First Generation | Apple Silicon, Fourth Generation |
| Cores | 10 | 16 |
| Threads | 10 | 16 |
Benchmarks
Measured results, not specifications. Percentages are the gap to the leading product in each test.
Blender Cycles (CPU)
Blender 4.5, Blender Open Data (CC0). Median of monster + junkshop + classroom, combined samples/min.
Blender renders 3D scenes by tracing light through them, which loads every core at once. The score measures sustained multi-core throughput, so a chip that wins here can still lose at gaming, where one or two fast cores matter more. Figures come from Blender's Open Data project, which places no restriction on reuse, and we publish the median of every submission for that chip on the same Blender version.




