Athlon Gold 20 vs Apple M4 Max (16 cores)
Contents
Primary details
Comparing processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.
| Place in the ranking | 250 | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Market segment | Laptop | Laptop |
| Series | Apple M4 | no data |
| Power efficiency | 11.75 | no data |
| Designer | Apple | AMD |
| Manufacturer | no data | TSMC |
| Architecture codename | no data | Mendocino (2025) |
| Release date | 30 October 2024 (1 year ago) | 1 October 2025 (less than a year ago) |
Detailed specifications
M4 Max (16 cores) and Athlon Gold 20 basic parameters such as number of cores, number of threads, base frequency and turbo boost clock, lithography, cache size and multiplier lock state. These parameters indirectly say of CPU speed, though for more precise assessment you have to consider their test results.
| Physical cores | 16 (Hexadeca-Core) | 2 (Dual-core) |
| Threads | 16 | 4 |
| Base clock speed | no data | 2.4 GHz |
| Boost clock speed | 4.51 GHz | 3.7 GHz |
| L1 cache | no data | 64 KB (per core) |
| L2 cache | no data | 512 KB (per core) |
| L3 cache | no data | 4 MB (shared) |
| Chip lithography | 3 nm | 6 nm |
| Die size | no data | 100 mm2 |
| 64 bit support | + | + |
Compatibility
Information on M4 Max (16 cores) and Athlon Gold 20 compatibility with other computer components: motherboard (look for socket type), power supply unit (look for power consumption) etc. Useful when planning a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. Note that power consumption of some processors can well exceed their nominal TDP, even without overclocking. Some can even double their declared thermals given that the motherboard allows to tune the CPU power parameters.
| Number of CPUs in a configuration | no data | 1 |
| Socket | no data | FT6 |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 90 Watt | 15 Watt |
Technologies and extensions
Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by M4 Max (16 cores) and Athlon Gold 20. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.
| AES-NI | - | + |
| AVX | - | + |
Virtualization technologies
Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by M4 Max (16 cores) and Athlon Gold 20 are enumerated here.
| AMD-V | - | + |
Memory specs
Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by M4 Max (16 cores) and Athlon Gold 20. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.
| Supported memory types | no data | LPDDR5 |
Graphics specifications
General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.
| Integrated graphics card | Apple M4 40-core GPU | AMD Radeon 610M |
Peripherals
Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by M4 Max (16 cores) and Athlon Gold 20.
| PCIe version | no data | 3.0 |
| PCI Express lanes | no data | 4 |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 30 October 2024 | 1 October 2025 |
| Physical cores | 16 | 2 |
| Threads | 16 | 4 |
| Chip lithography | 3 nm | 6 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 90 Watt | 15 Watt |
Apple M4 Max (16 cores) has 700% more physical cores and 300% more threads, and a 100% more advanced lithography process.
Athlon Gold 20, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 11 months, and 500% lower power consumption.
We couldn't decide between Apple M4 Max (16 cores) and AMD Athlon Gold 20. We've got no test results to judge.
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