Apple took to the stage on Tuesday this week to present to the world its new line of iPad Air and iPad Pro tablets which hadn’t seen a new upgrade since October 2022. So, it must have been an exciting time for users of the tablets.
As expected both lines were unveiled with big spec bumps from the lines launched in 2022. The iPad Air has seen some upgrades in processors packing the M2 chip. The iPad Pro, on the other hand, saw the biggest upgrade coming in with the M4 chip, a brand-new chipset that will be making its debut this year.
There are interesting performance enhancements that this new chip is set to bring to the iPad Pro and other upcoming devices soon. So what are they?
10-Core CPU
Overall performance is set to see a huge jump with the M4 thanks to the new up-to-10-core CPU it has. This will see the iPad Pro and any other device with the chip deliver faster performance on demanding apps like music, design and video editing.
The company says the CPU will be up to 1.5 times faster than the M2.
GPU
The new 10-core CPU is set to build upon the “next-generation graphics architecture of the M3 family of chips.”
One of the features coming with it is Dynamic Caching, which Apple says will allocate local memory in hardware and in real-time to increase the average utilisation of the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit).
This will see a jump in performance levels when it comes to graphic-heavy games and demanding apps. With this, the iPad Pro will now be able to feature ray tracing in games for the first time. This makes games showcase advanced graphic features like shadows and reflections meant to make the experience more realistic and immersive.
According to Apple, the M4 will be able to do all this while providing the most ideal power levels. So the chip can deliver the same performance as the M2 using just half the power.
AI Acceleration
The M4 processor is also said to be Apple’s most powerful neural engine ever. The chip has an IP block that is dedicated to the acceleration of AI workloads, being able to execute up to 38 trillion operations every second.
This means the various apps that use AI to execute commands will be able to do it at a much faster rate with this chip. The iPad Pro, for instance, can now isolate a subject from its background throughout a 4K video with just a tap while automatically creating a musical notation in real time on another application.
Apple states that all these operations will be done efficiently while minimising the impact on app memory.
Advanced Media Engine
The chipset will also support the most popular video codes like H.264, HEVC, and ProRes and bring hardware acceleration for AV1 to iPad for the first time.
This is designed to provide more power-efficient playback of high-resolution video experiences from streaming services.
