Apple’s latest ARM-based chip, the M4, has showcased its exceptional capabilities by setting new records in performance. Debuting on the 2024 iPad Pro tablets, the M4 chip has surpassed its predecessors and rivaled high-end desktop processors in terms of raw performance.
The M4 chip’s impressive performance has been further enhanced through an unconventional cooling method – liquid nitrogen. In an experiment conducted by Geekerwan, a Kingpin Cooling T-Rex Rev 4 CPU LN2 pot was attached to the back of the iPad Pro, subjecting the M4 chip to extreme cooling. As a result, the chip managed to break the 4000-point barrier in Geekbench 6’s single-core benchmark. This achievement places the M4 chip ahead of some of the most powerful chips available, including Apple’s own M3 Max and M2 Ultra.
It’s noteworthy that the M4 chip comes in two variations: a 10-core configuration found in the 1TB and 2TB models with 16GB of unified memory, and a 9-core configuration in the 256GB and 512GB models with 8GB of unified memory. Despite the M4’s performance cores already operating at a robust 4.40GHz, the liquid nitrogen overclocking only increased the performance cores by an additional 10MHz, boosting them to 4.41GHz. However, this slight boost proved sufficient to surpass the 4000-point milestone in Geekbench 6.
Liquid nitrogen, commonly employed in extreme overclocking scenarios, can significantly lower a CPU’s temperature. This extreme cooling minimizes thermal throttling and allows the chip to maintain higher clock speeds without overheating, thereby unlocking its full performance potential. Although the liquid nitrogen cooling setup is impractical for everyday use, the benchmark result provides a glimpse into the M4 chip’s capabilities. Users can anticipate exceptional performance from the upcoming iPad Pro, making it an ideal choice for demanding applications, including professional-grade software and high-end gaming.
