Today, AMD rolled out its latest innovation for laptops: the Ryzen AI Max chip. This new addition is touted for delivering impressive performance boosts compared to its predecessors. In a bid to demonstrate its capabilities, AMD pitted the Ryzen AI Max against Apple’s renowned M4 series in multiple benchmarks. However, interestingly enough, they opted not to include Apple’s top model in the assessment. Apple’s M4 Max, unveiled alongside the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, boasts significant enhancements in both computational and graphical power.
### AMD’s Curious Exclusion of M4 Max in Benchmark Comparisons
It’s notable that AMD chose to benchmark its Ryzen AI Max chip against Apple’s standard M4 and M4 Pro chips while leaving out the M4 Max. For context, the Ryzen AI Max offers 16 cores, prioritizing graphic capabilities and AI performance. Marketed toward content creators and gamers seeking sheer power, AMD highlighted its prowess by comparing it to the M4 and M4 Pro chips in Apple’s recent MacBook Pro models.
One peculiar aspect of the demonstration was AMD’s choice to compare its 16-core chip against Apple’s M4 Pro, which features a 14-core CPU. AMD proclaimed that their flagship enjoys an 86% advantage in v-ray workload. As Paul Alcorn from Tom’s Guide noted, AMD provided several rendering benchmarks showcasing its 16-core model’s edge over Apple’s 12-core MacBook M4 Pro, boasting up to 86% superiority in v-ray tasks. Although the 14-core M4 Pro showed more competitiveness, AMD maintained a distinct lead in Blender, Corona, and v-ray benchmarks. Contrastingly, in the multi-threaded Cinebench 2024 test, the Ryzen AI Max+ slightly edged out the 12-core M4 Pro by just 2% and fell short of the 14-core M4 Pro by 3%.
What stands out in this analysis is the absence of Apple’s M4 Max in the comparisons. It’s reasonable to infer that the M4 Pro poses a significant challenge to the Ryzen AI Max with its 14 CPU cores and 20 GPU cores. Meanwhile, Apple’s M4 chip sports a 12-core CPU and a 10-core GPU. The M4 Max, equipped with the highest CPU and GPU core count in Apple’s new lineup, was likely omitted for a reason.
Had the 16-core CPU and up to 40-core GPU of the M4 Max been included, it would have likely outperformed the Ryzen AI Max across these benchmarks. The difficulty AMD faces in surpassing the M4 Pro suggests that the M4 Max would easily take the lead in relevant benchmarks. To avoid unfavorable comparisons, AMD focused on Apple’s mid-range offering. Despite this, the Ryzen AI Max does show superior performance in specific tests when matched against Apple’s chips, but the real-world impact remains to be observed.
There’s no denying that AMD’s Ryzen AI Max chip is a formidable advancement over previous models. Nonetheless, these comparisons are a bit like comparing apples to oranges (no pun intended!). In the backdrop, Apple is preparing to release its M4 Ultra chip, anticipated to set new standards. Moreover, Apple’s future 2nm chips promise further strides in performance and efficiency. Do you believe AMD’s comparison of its Ryzen AI Max chip against the M4 and M4 Pro chips was equitable?
