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The new iPad Pro debuts as Apple’s first device with an M4 chip, ahead of the M2. How does the latest Apple Silicon improve on its predecessors? Here’s a detailed look at M4 vs. M3 and M2 for CPU, GPU, Neural Engine, and more.

Since there’s no iPad with the M3 and no Mac with the M4, there’s a bit of a dissection to understand the differences and improvements between the three latest Apple Silicon chips.

Check out our detailed comparison of the latest devices and below we’ll take a look at the M4 vs M3 and M2 😁.

M4 vs. M3 and M2: Apple Silicon Comparison

CPU, GPU, Neural Engine specs

The total number of transistors has increased to 28 billion for the M4 chip. This compares to 25 billion for M3 and 20 billion for M2.

That’s impressive 40% increase in just two years.

CPU benchmark results

Apple says that The M4 CPU is up to 50% faster than the M2. However, he did not share a detailed comparison between the M4 and M3 processors.

But when looking at what may be early benchmarks of the M4 iPad Pro, the results show a ~3700 single-core score and a ~14,000 multi-core score.

This compares to an M3 Mac CPU benchmark with ~3100 single score and ~12000 multi-core score.

• If correct, it means an M4 processor up to 18% faster for single-core performance and up to 21% faster for multi-core performance

GPU and media engines

• Apple says that The M4 GPU is 4x faster than the M2. And it is called The M3 GPU is up to 1.8x faster than the M2.

• Based on these numbers from Apple, the M4 is up to ~2x faster than the M3 GPU

In what may be early Metal benchmark results for the M4 iPad Pro, an average score of 53,000 was found.

Compared to M3’s average metal score of 46,571, it is only 13% faster for Metal I calculate.

But Apple’s more impressive numbers may be “up” to speed improvements for various GPU processes.

Like its predecessors, the M4 has dedicated media engines to offer hardware-accelerated support for H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAW. And they feature the same amount of engines as the M3 and M2.

But the M4’s hardware-accelerated support for H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAW now works with 8K video.

A neural engine

As for the upgraded Neural Engine in the M4, Apple says it’s a more powerful neural processing engine in “every AI computer today.”

The M4 Neural Engine can process 38 trillion operations per second. This is more than twice the 18 trillion operations per second of the M3 and nearly 3 times the 15.8 trillion operations per second of the M2 Neural Engine.

External display support

For now, the M4 only supports one external display with the iPad Pro.

But that will likely be different when the first M4 Macs arrive, as even the M3 MacBook Air supports up to 2 (when the lid is closed).

M4 vs M3 and M2 summary

The M4 provides an impressive performance improvement over the M3 and M2. But is it worth upgrading your iPad right now?

For professionals or aspiring professionals who need the latest and greatest from Apple, want a tax write-off, or are just happy to spend the money, buying a new M4 iPad Pro might be worth it.

But for anyone who doesn’t have intensive workflows that demand the fastest performance, switching to the M4 probably makes the most sense for now.

We’ll have to wait to see the M4 appear on the Mac, as well as the arrival of the M4 Pro, Max and Ultra chips.

The M4 iPad Pro is available at Apple, Amazon, soon at Best Buy, and more.

Thanks for reading our M4 vs M3 and M2 guide!