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The week of Mac announcements chugs along, as Apple introduces the latest addition to its line of first-party silicon. The new M4 is debuting as an upgradeable option for the just-announced palm-size Mac Mini.
The Pro follows the May release of the original M4. That chip bucked the standard Apple Silicon cycle by debuting on the new iPad Pro prior to its addition to the Mac line.
The new chip is the first bit of Apple Silicon to support Thunderbolt 5, which more than doubles data transfer speed over its predecessor from 120 GB/s to 273 GB/s. This mean that the M4 Pro has five Thunderbolt 5 ports, whereas the M4 model is still Thunderbolt 4.
The M4 Pro is built around second-gen 3-nanometer tech. It sports up to 14-core CPU, including 10 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores. The GPU tops out at 20 cores and the Neural Engine at 16. The base M4, meanwhile, goes up to a 10-core CPU, with 4 performance and 6 efficiency, up to a 10-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine
Apple claims the CPU tops single-threaded performance tests. The GPU, meanwhile, doubles the speed of the system’s ray-tracing engine. That’s the latest in Apple’s efforts to turn the Mac into a formidable gaming machine.
Apple claims the improved Neural Engine is up to twice as fast as the previous generation. That’s going to become increasingly central to the Mac experience, as the first wave of Apple Intelligence features hit general availability on Monday.
Notably, the M4 Pro is available at a sizable premium. The new Mac Mini M4 starts at $599. Upgrading the desktop to Pro puts that at $1,399. Those are both up for preorder Tuesday and will ship November 8.
Brian Heater is the Hardware Editor at TechCrunch. He worked for a number of leading tech publications, including Engadget, PCMag, Laptop, and Tech Times, where he served as the Managing Editor. His writing has appeared in Spin, Wired, Playboy, Entertainment Weekly, The Onion, Boing Boing, Publishers Weekly, The Daily Beast and various other publications. He hosts the weekly Boing Boing interview podcast RiYL, has appeared as a regular NPR contributor and shares his Queens apartment with a rabbit named Juniper.
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