Apple M4 Benchmarks: Geekbench, 3DMark, Cinebench and More

Apple has released the M4 Mac Mini starting at just $599. At such a low price, you get the Apple M4 chipset which looks very promising on paper. So to test all the claims, we have benchmarked Apple M4 on several tests including Geekbench, Cinebench 2024, 3DMark, and more. We have also recorded the temperature and power consumption. On that note, let’s go through Apple M4 benchmarks and analyze the findings.

Apple M4 Specs

Apple M4: Geekbench 6 CPU

In our first Geekbench test that evaluates the CPU, the Apple M4 scored 3,781 in single-core tasks and 14,858 in multi-core tasks. The CPU packs four performance cores and six efficiency cores, and it clocks up to 4.40GHz. For a 10-core CPU, the performance on Geekbench is impressive, just like the A18 Pro.

Apple M4: Cinebench 2024

Next, in the Cinebench 2024 test, the Apple M4’s CPU got a single-core score of 176 points and a multi-core score of 972 points. The 10-core GPU on Apple M4 scored 4,005 points in Cinebench 2024. In our testing, the M4 Mac Mini consumed power below 50W and the maximum temperature touched 43.4 degrees C.

Apple M4: Geekbench 6 GPU

To test the 10-core GPU on the Apple M4, we ran the Geekbench 6 GPU test on Apple’s Metal graphics API. In this test, the Apple M4 scored 58,082 points with just 10 GPU cores. And when we ran the same test on OpenCL API, the score came down to 38,006 points.

Apple M4: 3DMark

In the intensive 3DMark Wild Life Extreme test, the 10-core Apple M4 GPU scored a whopping 9,807 points with an average frame rate of 58.7 FPS. In the next Steel Nomad Light test, the overall score of the Apple M4 GPU stood at 4,001 points with an average frame rate of 29.6 FPS.

Apple M4: Geekbench AI

To test the 16-core Neural Engine on Apple M4, we ran the Geekbench AI test. In Single-precision, Apple M4’s Neural Engine achieved 4,730 points; in Half-precision, it got 36,664 points; in Quantized data type, it scored 51,758 points. Apple says the new Neural Engine can perform up to 38 trillion operations per second (TOPS).

Apple M4: On-device LLM Performance

Besides benchmarks, we also did a practical test to see how well Apple M4 performs in on-device AI inference tests. So we installed LM Studio and loaded a Llama 3.2 3B model (4-bit quantized). It generated responses blazingly fast at 48 tokens per second. For running local LLMs on the device, the Apple M4 is well-equipped. Do note that LM Studio still uses the GPU and CPU to process AI workloads. It doesn’t utilize the Apple Neural Engine yet.

Apple M4: Speedometer 3.0

Finally, to test the web browsing experience, we ran the Speedometer 3.0 benchmark on Apple M4. It got a score of 33.2 points which is remarkable. Even the best desktop PCs can’t cross the 30 mark in this test. So as far as the responsiveness of web applications is concerned, you are well sorted with your base Apple M4 Mac Mini.

The Verdict

To conclude, the Apple M4 stands out as a powerful and efficient chipset. Its CPU performance is particularly impressive. Not even the best x86 chipsets with sky-high clock speeds can match it in terms of performance-per-watt. Apple has designed the M4 Mac Mini in such a small form factor yet the thermals are in control and we didn’t hear fan noise even once.

The GPU is also very strong, and with the official release of gaming titles on macOS in the future, it can become a great gaming machine, at such a low price. So what do you think about Apple M4’s performance? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.