Are there still differences in M4 Pro and Max display handling capabilities?

[laxu]

While Apple lists that the M4 Max can support more displays at once, are there any differences between Pro/Max for running single very high res displays, or a couple of very high res ones?

I use the Samsung 57" G95NC 7680x2160 superultrawide and run it in Picture by Picture mode as a 5120x2160 + 2560x2160 @ 120 Hz displays over USB-C -> DP adapter and HDMI 2.1 port. This is so I can have proper HiDPI scaling levels since otherwise MacOS maxes out at "looks like 3840x1080".

I currently use a M2 Max MBP 16" and everything works fine, but need to change my work machine to a newer one due to leasing deals.

From Apple's specs:

Chip	# external displays	max capabilities	max capabilities 2	max capabilities 3
M4 Pro	2	Up to 2 displays with up to 6K @ 60Hz over TB	1 display with up to 6K @ 60Hz over TB and 1 display with up to 4K @ 144Hz over HDMI	1 display @ 8K @ 60Hz or 1 display @ 4K @ 240Hz over HDMI
M4 Max	4	Up to 4 external displays: Up to 3 with 6K @ 60Hz over TB and 1 with up to 4K @ 144Hz over HDMI	Up to 3 external displays: Up to 2 displays with 6K @ 60Hz over TB and 1 with up to 8K @ 60Hz or 1 with 4K @ 240Hz over HDMI
M2 Max	4	Up to 4 external displays: Up to 3 external displays with 6K @ 60Hz over TB and 1 with up to 4K @ 144Hz over HDMI	Up to 3 external displays: Up to 2 with 6K @ 60Hz over TB and 1 with up to 8K @ 60Hz or 1 with 4K @ 240Hz over HDMI

So M2 Max vs M4 Max seems identical in display support.

So what I'd like to know is if I would be ok going with a M4 Pro, or if I should still try to get a M4 Max just to be safe? I'll likely have to compromise on other specs for Max to stay within my company's price limits.

[waydabber]

I think the specs matter so if according to specs your display setup is served by any of these Macs, then there is not difference. M4 (all variants) might have stricter limitations on framebuffer sizes (thus max HiDPI resolution) on some configurations.

[laxu]

Yeah it's just difficult to gauge because ultrawides, high refresh rate displays etc are outside what Apple describes for display support. Their descriptions are just very vague.

5120x2160 @ 120 Hz has similar bandwidth requirements to 6K @ 60 Hz.
7680x2160 @ 120 Hz has much higher but with Display Stream Compression can be gotten to 6K @ 60 Hz bandwidth.

While technically TB5 is supposed to support DP 2.1, I don't think I've seen it in action on any Mac with any DP 2.1 capable display. Technically 7680x2160 @ 240 Hz should be possible this way, but with Apple it's always just unknown what refresh rates it will actually support.

Then there's all the HiDPI scaling shenanigans where specific 5Kx2K monitors don't allow HiDPI 3840x1620 scaling but others do.