M4 MacBook Air Benchmark Suggests GPU on Par With M4 iPad Pro

Graphics benchmarks for Apple's yet-to-be announced MacBook Air models with M4 processors have popped up on Geekbench, giving us an idea of how much faster the GPU component of Apple's second-generation 3-nanometer chips are compared to the existing M3 models.

macbook air blue image
A Geekbench 6 result listing for a "Mac16,12" was recorded on February 23 whose specs include a 10-core chip and 24GB of RAM. Notably, the machine is running a special 24C2101 build of macOS Sequoia 15.2 – the same version that Apple accidentally released back in December that originally confirmed the existence of next-generation 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air models. This strongly suggests the benchmark is legit.

As for the result, the machine recorded a Metal score of 55,516. Scores for the existing 13-inch M4 iPad Pro are in the same ballpark, which we would expect. For added context, the existing M3 MacBook Air averages a Metal score of around 48-49,000.

Both the MacBook Air and iPad Pro lack fans for thermal management, so it makes sense that there would be little if any difference between the chips' graphics performance. For comparison, an M4 MacBook Pro with fans can average around ~57,000 on the same benchmark.

According to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman's latest report, Apple is preparing its marketing, sales, and retail teams for a March launch of new 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air models. Gurman has previously said the new models will be released "within weeks." Apart from the new M4 chip, no other significant revisions are expected.

Related Roundup: MacBook Air
Related Forum: MacBook Air

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Top Rated Comments

macbookj0e Avatar
19 weeks ago
Is a shame it’s taken Apple so long to get these to the airs seeing as they were in the wild coming up to a year ago.

I’m tempted by a new air but don’t like the idea the tech is already so old!
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
thefrost Avatar
19 weeks ago
Release the damn M4 Macbook Air already Apple!
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Yimbaz Avatar
19 weeks ago
Well... yeah?
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
turbineseaplane Avatar
19 weeks ago
"GPU on Par With M4 iPad Pro"

Is that good?


"Apple is preparing its marketing, sales, and retail teams for a March launch of new 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air models."

[S]M3[/S]
M4

"Ok .. we are ready ... release 'em!"
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mysticmanix Avatar
19 weeks ago

There were no M4 MacBooks Airs in the wild a year ago. That was the M3.
He's saying it's already been almost a year since they debuted in the M4 ipad pro, thus the chip already almost being old tech
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
paulvee Avatar
19 weeks ago

why do you need 24GB ram? do you do 3D games?
There are many reasons why people might want to get 24GB of RAM - and lots more - such as large Photoshop projects, same with audio or even a large book in InDesign that has hundreds of large image files. Or video. Or serious rendering or compiling. It may not fit YOUR usage scenarios, but 16GB is not enough for many people who create things.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)