Today, AMD unveiled its latest innovation for laptops, the Ryzen AI Max chip, promising significant performance enhancements over its predecessor. The company put its new chip head-to-head with Apple’s M4 lineup in a series of benchmarks. However, they chose not to stack it against Apple’s premier M4 Max variant. With the launch of Apple’s 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, the M4 Max has already made its mark with significant strides in both computing and graphic capabilities.
### AMD’s Strategic Benchmarking Choices: Where’s the M4 Max?
When AMD assessed the potential of the new Ryzen AI Max chip, it opted to showcase its prowess against Apple’s standard M4 and M4 Pro chips while sidestepping the M4 Max. For newcomers, the Ryzen AI Max boasts a 16-core architecture, substantially elevating graphical and AI capabilities. Marketed as a top choice for content creators and gaming enthusiasts seeking unbridled power, AMD threw its chip into the ring against the M4 and M4 Pro in the fresh MacBook Pro lineup.
A curious choice indeed, putting its 16-core adversary up against Apple’s M4 Pro, which runs on a 14-core CPU. AMD claims their chip excels by an impressive 86% in v-ray workload scenarios. Paul Alcorn from Tom’s Guide helps break this down further:
> AMD presented a series of rendering benchmarks, deploying its 16-core heavyweight against the 12-core Apple MacBook M4 Pro, asserting an up to 86% advantage in v-ray performance. The 14-core M4 Pro surely competes more fiercely, yet AMD holds a solid lead in Blender, Corona, and v-ray tasks. That said, the Ryzen AI Max+ didn’t shine in the multi-threaded Cinebench 2024 test, surpassing the 12-core M4 Pro by a mere 2% and trailing behind the 14-core M4 Pro by 3%.
Notably absent from this showdown is Apple’s flagship M4 Max chip. It’s logical to surmise that the M4 Pro stands its ground quite well against the Ryzen AI Max, despite having only 14 CPU cores and 20 GPU cores—compared to the M4’s 12 CPU cores and 10 GPU cores. With the M4 Max boasting the most CPU and GPU cores at Apple’s disposal, there’s little wonder why AMD chose to avoid this particular comparison.
Armed with a 16-core CPU and a powerful 40-core GPU, the M4 Max would likely outperform the Ryzen AI Max easily. AMD’s flagship chip seems to have its hands full with the M4 Pro, and the M4 Max would likely extend its lead even further. To avoid losing face, AMD strategically compared its high-end chip against Apple’s mid-tier option. Still, the Ryzen AI Max excels in certain tests against Apple’s offerings, so we await real-world performance comparisons.
Without question, AMD’s Ryzen AI Max is a beast of a chip, marking a significant evolution from what came before. However, comparing it to Apple’s lineup isn’t a straightforward match-up. Apple’s M4 Ultra chip, anticipated later this year, might raise the stakes even more. On the horizon, Apple’s 2nm technology promises further breakthroughs in performance and efficiency. Do you think AMD’s comparison between the new Ryzen AI Max and Apple’s M4 and M4 Pro chips really paints an accurate picture?
