AMD introduced the new Ryzen AI Max chip today for laptops, which brings enormous performance gains to the table compared to the previous generation. The company compared the new Ryzen AI Max chip with Apple's M4 line in various benchmarks but failed to compare it to the company's top-of-the-line variant. Apple introduced the M4 Max variant of the chip with the launch of the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, which brought major improvements in computational and graphical output.
AMD omitted the M4 Max chip comparison against the Ryzen AI Max chip, and there is a good reason why
AMD compared its new Ryzen AI Max chip to Apple's standard M4 and M4 Pro chips but left out the M4 Max from the benchmarks. If you are not familiar, the Ryzen AI Max is a 16-core chip with a significant focus on graphical performance and AI. The chip is also being marketed as the perfect top-tier option for content creators and gamers who need raw power. To show off what the new chip is capable of, AMD compared it to Apple's M4 and M4 Pro chips in the new MacBook Pro models.
The weird bit in this entire presentation is that the company compared its 16-core chip to Apple's M4 Pro chip, which has a 14-core CPU. AMD also claimed that their flagship chip has an 86 percent advantage in a v-ray workload. Here's how Paul Alcorn from Tom's Guide describes it:
AMD also included numerous rendering benchmarks of its 16-core flagship against the 12-core Apple MacBook M4 Pro, claiming an up to 86% advantage in a v-ray workload. Naturally, the 14-core M4 Pro, also included in the benchmarks, is more competitive, but AMD still holds a stout lead in the Blender, Corona, and v-ray selection of benchmarks. However, the Ryzen AI Max+ isn’t as performant in the multi-threaded Cinebench 2024 test, beating the 12-core M4 Pro by a scant 2%, and trailing the 14-core M4 Pro by 3%.
One important thing missing from the entire comparison is Apple's flagship M4 Max chip. We can safely presume that the M4 Pro is quite competitive against the Ryzen AI Max chip, and it only has up to 14 CPU cores and 20 GPU cores. The M4 chip, on the flip side, features a 12-core CPU and a 10-core GPU. The M4 Max has the highest number of CPU and GPU cores in the new MacBook line, and there is a reason why AMD did not compare its flagship chip to it.
With the 16-core CPU and up to 40-core GPU, the M4 Max would have easily surpassed the benchmarks against the Ryzen AI Max. This is because AMD's chip struggles to beat the M4 Pro, and the M4 Max would easily beat it in any relevant benchmark. Since the company did not want to look bad in front of the audience, it compared its flagship chip to Apple's mid-ranger. Note that the Ryzen AI Max performs significantly better in some tests against Apple's chips, and the real-world difference remains to be seen.
AMD's Ryzen AI Max chip is undoubtedly a powerhouse and a major step up from its previous chips, but we are comparing apples to oranges in this regard (pun, yes!). Even though the comparison is not fair, Apple has yet to release its M4 Ultra chip later this year, which would blow the competition out of the water. Furthermore, the company's 2nm chips are also on the way, which would further improve the performance and efficiency front. Do you think AMD made a fair comparison of its new Ryzen AI Max chip against the M4 and M4 Pro chips?
