New test results for Apple’s upcoming MacBook Air with the M4 chip have appeared on Geekbench, hinting at how much faster its graphics are compared to the current M3 models. These scores give us a sneak peek at the power of Apple’s latest 3-nanometer chip design.
One test entry, labeled “Mac16,12,” was logged on February 23. It shows a device with a 10-core chip and 24GB of memory. This machine was running a unique version of macOS Sequoia 15.2, which Apple briefly released in December. That slip-up had already hinted at new 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Airs, so this benchmark looks like the real deal.
The MacBook Air scored 55,516 in the Metal graphics test. That’s very close to what the 13-inch M4 iPad Pro gets, which makes sense since both devices rely on the same chip and don’t use fans to stay cool. For comparison, the current M3 MacBook Air usually hits around 48,000 to 49,000 on the same test. Meanwhile, the M4 MacBook Pro, which has fans, scores a bit higher at about 57,000.
Since neither the MacBook Air nor the iPad Pro has fans, their graphics performance stays pretty similar. The MacBook Pro’s cooling gives it a slight edge, but the gap isn’t huge. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman recently shared that Apple is gearing up its sales, marketing, and store teams for a March release of the new 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Airs.
He’s said before that they’re just weeks away. Beyond the M4 chip upgrade, no big changes are expected for these models. This suggests Apple fans can look forward to a solid boost in graphics power soon, wrapped in the sleek, fan-free design MacBook Air users love.
