The tech community's response to Apple's latest M4 Pro and M4 Max announcement reveals an interesting trend: many M1 users are showing remarkable satisfaction with their existing hardware, despite the impressive specifications of the new chips.
The M4 Family's Impressive Specs
Apple's new M4 lineup brings significant improvements, including:
- Up to 16-core CPU in M4 Max with 12 performance cores
- Up to 2.2x faster CPU performance compared to M1 Max
- 2x faster ray-tracing engine
- Support for Thunderbolt 5
- Up to 75% increased unified memory bandwidth
- Enhanced Neural Engine (2x faster than previous generation)
The M1 Satisfaction Phenomenon
Despite these improvements, a significant portion of the tech community expresses continued satisfaction with their M1-based machines. Users report that their M1 devices, particularly the M1 Max, continue to handle demanding workloads without breaking a sweat. Several developers and professionals indicate they've never encountered performance limitations in their daily work, suggesting that the M1's capabilities might have been ahead of their time.
Price-Performance Considerations
While the new models maintain similar pricing structures, some interesting developments have emerged:
- A new M4 Max configuration with 64GB RAM is available for approximately €4,600
- The base models now come with 16GB RAM as standard
- Previous generation models (M2, M3) are expected to see price reductions
Gaming and Professional Workloads
The gaming capabilities of the new chips remain a topic of interest. While the M3 Max has demonstrated ability to run demanding titles like Cyberpunk 2077 on medium/high settings, the M4 family is expected to push these boundaries further. However, for dedicated gaming purposes, discrete GPUs like the RTX 40xx and 50xx series still maintain their advantage in raw graphics performance.
Local AI Processing
One of the most promising aspects of the M4 family is its potential for local AI processing. The enhanced Neural Engine and increased memory capacity (up to 128GB in M4 Max) make it particularly suitable for local LLM inference, potentially allowing for running sophisticated AI models directly on the device.
Upgrade Considerations
For potential buyers, the decision to upgrade appears to depend largely on specific use cases:
- M1 users: Many report no compelling reason to upgrade yet
- Heavy AI/ML users: May benefit from the enhanced Neural Engine and increased memory
- Creative professionals: Could see advantages in the improved GPU and ray-tracing capabilities
- General users: Might find better value in discounted previous-generation models
The community's response suggests that while the M4 family represents impressive technological advancement, Apple's earlier M1 chips may have been so ahead of their time that many users are still finding them more than adequate for their needs.