Apple Macbook Pro (m4 Pro And Max) Review: Still On Top

When you’re editing photos successful nan mediate of a wedding, each 2nd counts.

I occasionally moonlight arsenic a wedding photographer. It’s a high-stress business that involves taking thousands of photos passim a 10-hour workday and ne'er missing a important moment. And nan squad I activity connected goes supra and beyond: our extremity is to get a group of photos picked, edited, and connected show earlier nan happy mates is cutting their cake.

That rapid-fire editing process usually takes astir 2 hours connected an M1 Max MacBook Pro. But a mates of weekends ago, I brought connected our reappraisal information of nan caller M4 Max MacBook Pro. It took conscionable half nan time.

The M4 Max is nan astir powerful of Apple’s caller M4 processors. It was released this November alongside nan M4 Pro, and it’s disposable successful immoderate nan 14- and 16-inch versions of Apple’s apical laptops. While nan entry-level M4 MacBook Pro saw fantabulous improvements this twelvemonth acknowledgment to an added larboard and velocity gains, nan higher-end M4 Pro and M4 Max models mostly received year-over-year spot bumps pinch immoderate somewhat faster ports. They’re not nan astir breathtaking upgrades around, but they correspond nan champion capacity Apple tin relationship successful a laptop.

Instead of conscionable moving nan aforesaid ol’ benchmarks to show you really nan bigger numbers are better, I asked our readers what they wanted to see. And mostly, they wanted 3 things: photograph editing, video editing, and gaming. So I handed disconnected our M4 Pro reappraisal information to 1 of our video producers to usage successful his editing workflow for The Verge’s videos connected YouTube and TikTok. I took nan M4 Max to a wedding and backmost to proceedings photograph editing. And I played a bunch of games connected nan way.

The high-end MacBook Pros are very overmuch designed for existent pros. The 16-inch M4 Pro and M4 Max models commencement astatine $2,499 and $3,499, respectively — and our reappraisal units are a whopping $3,349 and $6,149, upgraded to spot 48GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD connected nan M4 Pro and 128GB and a 4TB SSD connected nan M4 Max.

They’re mostly nan aforesaid laptops arsenic past year, carrying complete nan aforesaid sleek design, jumbo-size haptic touchpads, fantabulous speakers, and agleam Mini LED displays pinch notch cutouts. Everything that was bully and bully to usage connected nan erstwhile exemplary is still bully coming connected nan M4 generation. And this year, each MacBook Pro models now recreation pinch a caller higher-resolution Center Stage webcam that crops and pans to support you centered successful nan frame, and each laptop tin beryllium optioned pinch a nano-texture show for $150 to trim glare.

Those were bully improvements connected nan 14-inch M4, and they’re invited additions for nan M4 Pro and M4 Max here. In summation to those across-the-board upgrades, this year, nan M4 Pro and M4 Max models too personification faster Thunderbolt 5 ports and higher practice bandwidth (273Gbps connected nan M4 Pro — overmuch than double nan M4 — and up to 546Gbps connected nan 16-inch M4 Max). It’s a bully addition, but astatine this constituent is still mostly for futureproofing.

How overmuch faster are they?

If you’re paying apical dollar for a laptop, it’s because you want top-flight performance. And connected numbers alone, these machines deliver: nan M4 Max is astir 20 to 28 percent faster than past year’s M3 Max crossed astir CPU and GPU benchmarks, and moreover nan 14-core M4 Pro edged retired nan 16-core M3 Max successful multicore CPU tests by up to 5 percent. Compared to nan caller entry-level 14-inch pinch nan 10-core M4 chip, nan M4 Pro scored astir 74 percent higher successful Cinebench multicore CPU tests and 133 percent higher successful GPU tests.

The machines don’t afloat outclass nan 14-inch M4 exemplary erstwhile it comes to single-core CPU performance, though, because they’re mostly nan aforesaid cores (the M4 Pro and M4 Max conscionable personification overmuch of them). The M4 exemplary is incorrect 6 percent of nan M4 Pro and M4 Max successful Cinebench and Geekbench single-core benchmarks. Since nan only value betwixt nan CPU cores successful nan M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max chips is really galore location are (and nan divided betwixt capacity and ratio cores and nan practice bandwidth), nan somewhat higher single-core scores successful nan 16-inch MacBook Pro models are apt owed to amended thermals from overmuch beingness space.

The existent delta betwixt nan M4 family is successful multicore CPU and GPU scores. The M4 processor successful nan guidelines MacBook Pro 14 has 10 CPU cores (four capacity and six efficiency) and 10 GPU cores, which is nan spec I tested successful my reappraisal past month. The M4 Pro tested coming has 14 CPU and 20 GPU cores, and nan M4 Max we personification is configured pinch 16 CPU and 40 GPU cores. The different cores are a ample information of what you’re paying for pinch these premium chips.

The M4 Pro is 84 percent faster than nan M4 successful nan PugetBench Premiere Pro video benchmarks, and nan M4 Max is an different 39 percent faster connected apical of that. (Of course, nan ample magnitude of RAM successful our proceedings units is too pulling different weight pinch video and photograph work.)

If you’re jumping from an older MacBook Pro to nan M4 Max, you whitethorn spot moreover bigger numbers. Compared to nan M2 Max pinch 12 CPU cores and 38 GPU cores, which we reviewed small than 2 years agone and rebenchmarked past year, we saw astir doubly nan multicore CPU capacity and 177 percent higher GPU scores according to Cinebench. That sounds for illustration a immense difference, but support successful mind that, erstwhile it comes to real-world usage, it doesn’t ever consciousness that way. When we exported our accustomed five-and-a-half-minute, 1.7GB 4K video sample proceedings successful Premiere Pro, nan M4 Max’s export clip was conscionable 21 seconds faster than nan M2 Max — not precisely a terribly longer wait.

The M4 Pro goes to Verge video land

That’s really these machines execute successful theory. How do they fare successful nan hands of personification utilizing them for existent work? To find out, my workfellow Owen Grove spent a week editing and producing video connected nan $3,349 M4 Pro MacBook Pro pinch 14 CPU cores, 20 GPU cores, and 48GB RAM alternatively of his work-issued 16-inch exemplary pinch an M1 Pro containing 10 CPU cores, 16 GPU cores, and 16GB of RAM. 

Owen usually shoots connected Sony FX3 cameras successful 4K astatine 100Mbps bitrate successful MP4 format. His workflow mostly involves Adobe Premiere Pro, Media Encoder, After Effects, and erstwhile it’s needed, nan Supertone Clear sound suppression plug-in (which really bogs things down erstwhile applied to a bunch of clips). He too sometimes edits videos connected his location Windows desktop PC, which has an Intel Core i9 12900K CPU, Nvidia RTX 3090TI GPU, and 64GB of RAM.

The M4 Pro offered Owen smoother capacity while scrubbing done timelines and an wide faster experience. “The M4 was going really smoothly,” Owen said. “A batch smoother than nan M1.” He worked connected various in-progress video projects to get a consciousness for nan caller laptop done colour grading, editing, and immoderate graphics work, and nan M4 Pro solved nan sluggishness he would spot erstwhile Supertone Clear was utilized connected galore clips successful his timeline, allowing him to scrub done footage without things getting crunchy and a mini slow for illustration his M1 Pro aliases Windows machine. 

One of nan biggest benefits of nan M4 Pro for Owen was really overmuch faster it tin make proxies (lower-resolution copies that are easier to activity connected earlier you decorativeness your edits pinch nan original guidelines footage). The M4 Pro took 1 hour, 38 minutes to make a batch of proxies for 1 of Owen’s projects. That task took astir 2 hours, 22 minutes connected his M1 Pro and 2 hours, 48 minutes connected his desktop. That’s a ton of clip to save, and it’s nan benignant of constituent wherever you tin spot a engaged maestro reasoning a newer aliases pricier laptop could beryllium worthy it.

The M4 Max crashes a wedding

Those mini clip savings were peculiarly useful during my caller stint photographing a wedding. The main photographer’s workflow for his same-day edits involves manually culling thousands of photos from him and his 2nd photographer (that’s me) successful Lightroom Classic — consecutive disconnected nan SD cards — down to astir 100 to 120 keepers to usage successful a slideshow. Then, he applies a baseline color-correction level scheme utilizing AfterShoot AI, which is trained connected his ain Lightroom catalog to lucifer his signature style. Finally, he goes backmost to Lightroom Classic for nan time-consuming fine-tuned edits of each individual image.

His SD cards were filled pinch 50-megapixel raws from 2 Sony A1 cameras, and excavation had 24- and 33-megapixel raws from my Sony A9 III and A7 IV. Once his culling and editing were done, he exported them each arsenic full-resolution JPG files, AirDropped them to his iPad Pro, and group up slideshows of nan vanished images connected immoderate nan laptop and iPad to show successful nan reception hall. As you tin imagine, group emotion getting this early preview of nan day’s photos while they’re partying — and nan sooner it’s ready, nan better.

The M4 Max’s CPU and GPU prowess, connected pinch nan ridiculous 128GB of RAM, helped support it snappy while scrolling done each those high-resolution photos. The instrumentality didn’t slow down aliases stutter erstwhile applying heavier, per-image edits for illustration radial gradients, selective vulnerability adjustments, aliases moreover erstwhile utilizing Lightroom’s taxable find to make automated changes for illustration darkening a sky. This saved precious seconds astatine each step, going a agelong measurement toward cutting down nan wide editing time.

After that business was done, I imported complete 2,600 24-megapixel raws from an SD insubstantial into my ain Lightroom Classic catalog connected nan M4 Max. It took astir 4 minutes, 15 seconds, pinch different 5 minutes to build Smart Previews for easier editing later. This aforesaid insubstantial took astir 15 minutes, 31 seconds to import connected my individual M2 Pro Mac Mini and overmuch than 15 minutes overmuch to build those Smart Previews.

That’s noticeably faster, but for me, arsenic personification who only moonlights arsenic a pro photographer — and isn’t usually dealing pinch those tight clip constraints — there’s nary measurement I tin warrant $3,500 (let unsocial complete $6,000) for an M4 Max. I’ll woody pinch nan waiting. My colleague, connected nan different hand, seemed entranced. He told maine editing connected nan M4 Max felt arsenic accelerated arsenic utilizing his M1 Ultra Mac Studio backmost home. The thought of getting that capacity connected nan spell had him pondering nan upgrade, but he still hesitated astatine nan price.

But tin it game? (I liking you cognize nan answer)

Several commenters asked america to proceedings nan M4 Max’s gaming performance. I cognize I’m not nan only 1 who wishes a $4,000 workstation Mac could play games arsenic bully arsenic a $1,000 gaming machine. But while things are slow getting amended acknowledgment to Apple’s Game Porting Toolkit and nan occasional AAA crippled making its measurement to Macs, astir developers and publishers conscionable don’t prioritize porting their games. There are immoderate awesome examples of autochthonal Mac games connected Steam, for illustration Hades II and Baldur’s Gate 3, but they’re still less and acold between.

It’s a shame, because nan M4 Max shows mini glimpses of conscionable really awesome Mac gaming tin be. I tested Baldur’s Gate 3 connected nan M4 Max, and it looked and played great. At maxed-out ultra settings, it often maintained astir 80fps and moreover topped retired supra 120fps (depending connected nan area). The image really popped connected nan nano-texture show — though moving astatine these settings killed nan artillery from 100 percent to level successful conscionable nether 90 minutes, truthful staying plugged successful is necessary.

I too tried emulating PC games utilizing third-party package for illustration Whisky and CrossOver. It’s been years since I built myself a Hackintosh, and boy did I hide what a denotation successful nan ass this benignant of worldly tin be. Downloading and mounting up Whisky and CrossOver isn’t terribly difficult, but it’s evidently overmuch overmuch activity than conscionable installing Steam and moving autochthonal games.

Each crippled you effort to play opens up a caller tin of worms arsenic to really bully it runs, whether location are immoderate game-breaking compatibility issues, and really overmuch tinkering it requires to get it running. Elden Ring took different steps successful Steam settings (and a hunt done Reddit to troubleshoot it) to get my controller working. Even erstwhile it was up and running, I couldn’t look to get overmuch higher than 40fps moreover astatine debased resolutions and graphical settings. It looked bully astatine max settings, but it often dipped from nan 30fps scope into nan 20s erstwhile location was excessively overmuch action aliases on-screen effects. This is simply a crippled that runs connected a 10-year-old PlayStation 4. But moreover if you don’t mind conscionable hardly getting by connected your $6,000-plus Mac, you can’t play online aliases get in-game messages adjacent by different players while playing done emulation. You’re getting inconsistent capacity and missing retired connected 1 of nan signature features of Soulsborne-style games. Ouch.

Windblown seemed promising astatine first but fell level erstwhile I tried to emulate it. The caller indie title from Dead Cells developer Motion Twin is simply a lush and colorful 3D isometric roguelike crippled pinch accelerated action. It tin tally bully connected a Steam Deck astatine 720p, but connected nan M4 Max, it’s beautiful overmuch unplayable astatine immoderate solution because it slows to a crawl erstwhile enemies usage abilities pinch flashy particle effects — guaranteeing you’re going to get deed aliases die.

If you’re fortunate tin that each your favourite games personification autochthonal Mac versions, past perchance you tin personification your barroom and eat it, too. But for arsenic galore times arsenic I’ve heard “Apple is getting superior astir gaming,” moreover nan astir powerful Macs still can’t lucifer a money gaming laptop successful astir games. That’s a shame.

Are nan M4 Pro aliases M4 Max worthy it?

Frankly, these laptops are exceptional. They’re what we expect from MacBooks designed for imaginative professionals, but truthful were each of their nonstop predecessors — and conscionable for illustration their M1, M2, and M3 forebears, they get alternatively expensive. The guidelines M4 MacBook Pro starting astatine $1,599 is nan Pro of nan people. But an M4 Pro is nan logical premier for overmuch demanding professionals — peculiarly since it’s wherever nan 16-inch aboveground comes successful for those who for illustration larger displays. The guidelines 24GB / 512GB M4 Pro, astatine $1,999 for a 14-inch aliases $2,499 for a 16-inch, is going to beryllium bully for a ample swath of creators, peculiarly since nan 16-inch nets you a 14-core CPU for illustration nan 1 we’ve tested here. 

If you strategy to usage your laptop for intensive activity and dream it lasts for bully complete 5 years, I impulse configuring nan M4 Pro pinch arsenic overmuch RAM and nan highest number of cores arsenic your money tin accommodate. If you personification a very graphically aggravated workload for illustration 3D rendering aliases tons of precocious ocular effects for video postproduction and you petition each 2nd you tin claw backmost from rendering and exporting, past nan M4 Max, pinch its different GPU cores and higher practice bandwidth, whitethorn beryllium your bag. But if you’re considering immoderate of these computers for work, you’re nan champion judge of whether immoderate of these machines is worthy nan price.

Many group are going to beryllium conscionable bully pinch their existent computers that return somewhat longer to do dense tasks and require a mini waiting around. But if you’re nan type that makes their surviving doing imaginative work, and redeeming clip successful your edits and workflows will noticeably usage your business, your craft, aliases your sanity, past an M4 Pro aliases M4 Max laptop is worthy it.