Update: a new MacBook Air M4 benchmark has popped up on Geekbench, showing new results. We've updated this article to reflect the differences.
Waiting for Apple's MacBook Air M4? With its arrival tipped to be only weeks away, it may not be much longer. And the wait is already looking to pay off, as a new benchmark leak shows off its excellent GPU performance gains.
A M4-powered MacBook Air has been spotted on Geekbench (via Wccftech), showing a Metal score of 54,806. Geekbench Metal measures the GPU performance in Macs, and according to this result, it already outshines the MacBook Air M3 — achieving a Metal score of 41,045 on Geekbench.
Recently, another Geekbench score of the same unit has appeared, and it now shows even higher numbers. The same model (Mac16,12) now has a Metal score of 55,516. This brings it even closer to the MacBook Pro M4, and matches the iPad Pro M4's score on Geekbench (around 55,000).
Results can vary each time a benchmark is done, so it isn't surprising to see and updated score offer different numbers. However, it's interesting to see this MacBook Air M4 model increase by this amount, and it shows even further performance gains over the previous M3 chip.
With this update, there's now just less than a 5% difference to the M4 MacBook Pro, as the M4-equipped Pro model achieved a 57,603 Metal score.
Considering the price difference between the MacBook Air (from $1,099 / £1,099) and Pro (from $1,599 / £1,599), this gap in GPU performance is good news for those opting for Apple's laptop for most. It's worth noting that while both units in this benchmark use the same chip, the MacBook Pro model is expected to handle better under pressure, seeing as it sports a fan while the Air comes with its signature fan-less design.
Using the moniker "Mac16,12," the model used in the benchmark comes with four performance cores and six efficiency cores, similar to what we've seen in the M4 chip. Apple's latest silicon offers a 10-core GPU, featuring Dynamic Caching, hardware-accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading. As we've seen in our MacBook Pro M4 review, it still doesn't offer the best gaming performance, but it's an exciting step up from previous models.
This model also comes with 24GB of Unified Memory, which is on the pricier end of MacBook Air configurations (from $1,299 / £1,299). This likely played a part in the boost in GPU performance, but not by an absurd amount. Plus, it's still more affordable than a MacBook Pro, so overall, it's a good sign the MacBook Air M4 will shine once it arrives.
MacBook Air M4 looks to be a solid upgrade
While there's still no official launch date, rumors indicate we'll see a new M4-powered MacBook Air soon, possibly as soon as March since MacBook Air stock is "dwindling at Apple retail stores," as Bloomberg's Mark Gurman suggests.
The MacBook Air M4 is expected to come in familair 13-inch and 15-inch models, sporting an identical design to its Air M3 sibling. The only real difference is expected to be in its internals, with the M4 chip coming with a 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU and a Neural Engine that can hit 38 TOPS (trillions of operations per second). That last spec is set to better handle Apple Intelligence.
We're already big fans of the M4 chip, with the iPad Pro M4 also showing off its power. Will it be a worthwhile upgrade for those that already own an MacBook Air M3 (our current top pick as the best laptop overall)? We'll get a better idea once it arrives, but it's already looking to impress.
