GeForce RTX 4090 vs Apple M4 Max GPU (32-core)

We performed a head-to-head comparison of the GeForce RTX 4090 24 GB with 128 pipelines and 16384 shaders against the 2 years and 2 months newer Apple M4 Max GPU (32-core) that utilizes 512 pipelines and 4096 shaders. Here you will find complete details about specs, efficiency, performance tests, and more.

Review

General comparison of performance in games, applications, power efficiency, and other metrics
Gaming
Performance in DirectX, OpenCL, and Vulkan games
Workstation
Perf. in 3D modeling, video editing and rendering apps
AI/ML
Capabilities for machine learning and AI-related tasks
Energy Efficiency
Power consumption efficiency in different scenarios
DeviceFacts Final Score
Overall video card score
The "Energy Efficiency" metric has less impact on the DeviceFacts Score for desktop GPU.

Key differences

Key distinctions and advantages of M4 Max GPU (32-core) over RTX 4090
Reasons to consider the GeForce RTX 4090
  • Performs significantly better (up to 3.4x) in 3DMark Steel Nomad Lite
  • 6.4x higher maximum theoretical performance (82.6 vs 12.9 TFLOPS)
  • Achieves 3.1x more points in the GeekBench 6 Compute test (316K vs 100K)
  • Supports Nvidia DLSS 3 technology
  • Has 2.5x higher memory bandwidth: 1010 vs 409.6 GB/s
  • Has 4x more shading units (16384 vs 4096)
Reasons to consider the Apple M4 Max GPU (32-core)
  • Manufactured using a more efficient 3 nm process technology

Gaming Performance

Frame rate comparison across popular AAA titles at different resolutions

Games

FPS Table
Forza Horizon 5
275
199
193
155
-
The Witcher 3
292
268
191
101
-
Counter-Strike 2
339
238
188
90
-
Far Cry 6
203
179
170
104
-
Hogwarts Legacy
200
163
132
74
-
CoD: Modern Warfare III
266
263
219
151
-
Ghost of Tsushima
188
152
137
91
-
Cyberpunk 2077
226
208
143
66
-
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
302
284
222
118
-
Average FPS by Resolution
1080p High 255 -
1080p Ultra 217 -
1440p Ultra 177 -
4K Ultra 106 -
Margin of Error Low High

Benchmarks

Graphics cards’ performance in recent benchmarking apps

3D Mark

Multiplatform graphics benchmark suite that directly correlates with performance in modern games
Steel Nomad Lite Score
RTX 4090 +240%
42169
Time Spy 36299 -
Solar Bay 187525 50957
Port Royal 26127 -
Fire Strike 72432 -
Wild Life Extreme 85218 30044
Night Raid 195813 -
Sources: 3DMark [1], [2]

GeekBench 6 OpenCL

GPU test for computational tasks (image processing, photography, computer vision, and ML)
GB6 Compute Score
RTX 4090 +214%
316301
Background Blur 318.9 img/sec 174.8 img/sec
Face Detection 222.8 img/sec 112 img/sec
Horizon Detection 14.2 Gpixels/sec 4.19 Gpixels/sec
Edge Detection 21 Gpixels/sec 6.3 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian Blur 23.9 Gpixels/sec 4.69 Gpixels/sec
Feature Matching 2.38 Gpixels/sec 0.98 Gpixels/sec
Stereo Matching 1950 Gpixels/sec 352.1 Gpixels/sec
Particle Physics 48090.4 FPS 14254.6 FPS
API OpenCL OpenCL
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]

Cinebench 2024 GPU

Hardware benchmark using Maxon's Cinema 4D rendering engine
Cinebench 2024 GPU

Passmark Graphics

Videocard test that focuses on compute shaders, multi-texturing, tessellation, and other features
G3D Mark Score
G2D Mark 1303 -
DirectX 11 323 FPS -
DirectX 12 151 FPS -
GPU Compute 25991 Ops/s -
Sources: PassMark [5] – 22563 samples

Blender

Rendering performance test for 3D modeling
Blender GPU
RTX 4090 +163%
11681.51
Sources: Blender [9], [10] – 8966 & 206 samples

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
GeForce RTX 4090
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-10-06 (Devansh)Geekbench 6 OpenCL394674
📘 2026-10-06 (Devansh)Geekbench 7 OpenCL338129
📘 2026-04-03 (afroman420IU)Cinebench 202432578
Apple M4 Max GPU (32-core)
No benchmark results yet

Artificial Intelligence Tests

Performance in machine learning and artificial intelligence tasks

GeekBench 6 ML

Tests throughput of AI operations in single, half, and quantized precision
GB6 ML Single Precision
RTX 4090 +118%
42962
GB6 ML Half Precision
RTX 4090 +171%
59636
GB6 ML Quantized
RTX 4090 +56%
31670
Image Classification (SP) 15600 8624
Image Segmentation (HP) 36657 20392
Image Super Resolution (Q) 48114 21752
Face Detection (HP) 78111 34099
Pose Estimation (Q) 289639 77846
Text Classification (SP) 4074 2993
Machine Translation (HP) 6349 5658
Object Detection (SP) 21186 7933
Depth Estimation (Q) 75599 37622
Style Transfer (SP) 601428 173882
Framework ONNX Core ML
Backend DirectML GPU
Sources: Geekbench [9], [10]
Results were compared using different ML frameworks

Specifications

Technical specifications of GeForce RTX 4090 and Apple M4 Max GPU (32-core)

General

Vendor Nvidia Apple
Build Discrete Integrated
Released September 20, 2022 October 30, 2024
Launch price (MSRP) $1599 -
Case Desktop Laptop
Purpose Gaming Professional
Segment High-end Mid-range
Architecture Ada Lovelace Apple M GPU
GPU Codename AD102 Custom
Rival Equivalent - - GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop
Successor - GeForce RTX 5090 - Apple M5 Max GPU (32-core)
Recommended CPU - Intel Core i9 14900K or above - Apple M4 Max (14-Core) or above
Used in CPUs - - Apple M4 Max (14-Core)
Desktop GPU rating (#3rd place)
Laptop GPU ranking (#19th place)

Graphics Processing Unit

Base Clock 2235 MHz 500 MHz
Boost Clock 2520 MHz 1578 MHz
Shading Units 16384 4096
Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) 512 256
Render Output Units (ROPs) 176 128
Compute Units (Pipelines) 128 512
Tensor Cores 512 -
Ray-tracing Cores 128 -
L1 Cache 128KB per cluster -
L2 Cache 72MB shared -
Instructions Per Cycle 2 IPC 2 IPC

Raw Performance

Pixel Fill Rate 444 GPixel/s 202 GPixel/s
Texture Fill Rate 1290 GTexel/s 404 GTexel/s
FLOPS (FP32)
RTX 4090 +540%
82.6 TFLOPS
12.9 TFLOPS

Physical

Interface PCIe 4.0 x16 Custom
TGP 450 W 51 W
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Fabrication Process 5 nm 3 nm
Die Size 609 mm² -
Transistor Count 76.3 billion -
Transistor Density 125.29 MTr/mm² -
Max. Temperature - 100°C

Memory

Memory Type GDDR6X System Shared
Memory Size 24 GB -
Memory Clock 2625 MHz 8533 MHz
Effective Memory Speed 21000 Mbps -
Bus 384-bit 384-bit
ECC No No
Memory Bandwidth
RTX 4090 +147%
1010 GB/s

API

DirectX 12 -
Vulkan 1.3 -
OpenGL 4.6 -
OpenCL 3.0 -
CUDA 8.9 -
Ray Tracing Yes Yes
DLSS DLSS 3 No
DisplayPort 1.4a -

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Total votes: 6

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