# Apple M4

21 Hacker News commenters recommended Apple M4 and 5 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 9 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Recommended for strong single-core speed and power efficiency, and many consider Apple's CPU design among the best. Critics say it trails rivals on vector math and AI inference.

## Why people recommend it

- Strong single-core performance (5 comments): "There is no non Apple desktop/server cpu with faster single core than apple m5 or even m4" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46935898)) "M4 is 42% faster in ST and M5 is 50% faster based on Geekbench 6 ST." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46511118)) "their single core perf is just much better than anyone else" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49940334))
- Apple known for excellent CPU design (4 comments): "If Apple can create one of the best CPUs in the world" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49941608)) "Apple is actually exceptionally good at making CPUs." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46012055)) "Apple has some of the best CPUs in the world." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49941596))
- Efficient power use (2 comments): "Very efficient idle TDP, efficient all core boost, efficient all core TDP, and efficient mid-high performance tier accelerator (GPU, NPU) TDP." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49940519)) "M4 achieves 25% of the Geekbench scores of GPUs that pull >10x more power. That's definitely efficient." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46278803))
- Fast local model inference (2 comments): "Then why does my M4 run models at TOK/s that similar priced GPUs cannot?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47224573)) "run models at TOK/s that similar priced GPUs cannot" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47223308))

## What people warn about

- Weak for AI inference (3 comments): "Apple would claim 2x more ANE TOPS than it can really does" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47228813)) "M4 was notoriously slow at this compared to DGX etc." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47233496)) "it's not anything special for inference" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47229610))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Apple M5](https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-m5-chip.md): 48 recommend
- [AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395](https://hackerapproved.com/p/amd-ryzen-ai-max-plus-395.md): 44 recommend
- [AMD Ryzen](https://hackerapproved.com/p/amd-ryzen.md): 25 recommend
- [Intel N150](https://hackerapproved.com/p/intel-n150.md): 21 recommend
- [Intel N100](https://hackerapproved.com/p/intel-n100.md): 18 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Apple M4", https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-m4-chip/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).