Apple's M4-equipped MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and 24" iMac lineups are set to debut next week. The M4 family of desktop-class SoCs, which will soon be joined by the M4 Pro and M4 Max, is likely to bring substantial performance improvements to the aforementioned Mac models. If the recently leaked benchmarks are anything to go by, the M4-powered lineup appears poised to outperform Intel's "Lunar Lake" rather comfortably, while bringing the heat to AMD's "Strix Halo" as well as Intel's upcoming "Arrow Lake-H"-powered notebooks.

For those interested in the thin-and-light segment, the MacBook Air has always presented itself as a very decent option. According to recent reports by Mark Gurman, the M4-equipped MacBook Air is scheduled for launch sometime during January to March of 2025, with mass production set to start soon. The Mac Studio, which was supposedly slated to launch alongside the MacBook Air, is now delayed by a few months and will possibly see the light of day during the second quarter of 2025.

According to Geekerwan, Apple's latest M4 silicon has achieved a remarkable milestone by using liquid nitrogen to chill Apple's M4 iPad Pro. This unconventional approach unlocked great single-core performance, surpassing even the M3 Max and M2 Ultra processors in Geekbench v6 benchmark tests. The setup involved cooling the M4 iPad Pro, equipped with a 3+6 core configuration, using a Kingpin Cooling T-Rex Rev 4 CPU LN2 pot filled with liquid nitrogen. This extreme cooling allowed the M4 processor to operate at an astonishing 4.41 GHz during the benchmark run, resulting in a staggering single-core score of 4,001 points. This score represents a 28% increase over the M3 Max found in the 16-inch MacBook Pro and an impressive 44% improvement over the M2 Ultra powering the Mac Studio.

Notably, the M4's single-core performance is capable of reaching scores in the 3,000s. With liquid nitrogen cooling, it suprases the 4,000-point mark, making this achievement all the more remarkable. While the M4's multi-core performance did not match the lofty expectations set by its single-core power, it still managed to achieve a score of 13,595 points, outperforming both the M3 Max and M2 Ultra, which scored 20,957 and 21,330 points, respectively. This was done on the 3+6 core configuration with three P-cores and six E-cores, which is not the top-end M4 configuration. This shows that with adequate cooling, like MacBooks, the upcoming M4 Pro and M4 Max chips could achieve much higher performance than their predecessors.

The Mac Studio is an incredibly compact desktop for its capability, and Sonnet figures a bunch of these can be mounted into rackmount chassis in a production studio. It rolled out a couple of products that can help you do just that. The RackMac Studio is a 3U enclosure that lets you secure up to two Mac Studio units in a rack, and cleanly wire them out, while providing access to their two front type-C ports and card slot. The xMac Studio series does the same, except with room for one Mac Studio unit, with the rest doubling up as a feature-packed storage and connectivity enclosure, taking advantage of the Thunderbolt 4 interface.

The xMac Studio Echo I takes in one Mac Studio unit, and uses its remaining space to provide a PCI-Express x16 riser, with room for a full-length graphics card that's ventilated. The xMac Studio Echo III is similar, but with three PCIe slots—one x16 and two x8, with the expansion slot area being ventilated. The xMac Studio Echo Zero (no module) comes with empty space that you can configure to your needs with custom hardware. Available from October 23, the RackMac Studio is priced at $450. The xMac Studio Echo III is slated for September 25, priced at $1,650, while its sibling, the Echo I, will go for $1,250. The bare Echo (no module), will be up for $550.