At its “Let Loose” event, Apple unveiled the new iPad Air and iPad Pro models. Notably, Apple introduced its latest iPad Pro powered by the M4 chip, boasting twice the power of the M2 chip. Apple describes the new M4 chip as “an outrageously powerful chip for AI.”
Built on the 2nd generation 3nm chip fabrication process, the M4 chip features a new display engine to support the new iPad Pro’s Tandem OLED Display. It comprises four performance cores and six efficiency cores, all equipped with ML accelerators. The M4’s GPU is a 10-core unit with ray-tracing capabilities, promising up to 4x faster performance in GPU-intensive tasks compared to its predecessor.
Apple’s latest M4 chip is specifically designed for AI tasks, featuring a 16-core neural engine along with ML accelerators. This setup allows it to deliver up to 1.5 times faster CPU performance compared to the M2 chip in the predecessor.
The M4 chip introduces several new features to the iPad lineup, including Dynamic Caching, hardware-accelerated mesh shading, and ray tracing. These features enhance the overall performance and capabilities of the iPad, particularly in graphics-intensive tasks.
During the presentation, Apple highlighted that professional rendering applications like Octane will benefit from the M4’s higher unified memory bandwidth. Additionally, the M4 chip boasts industry-leading performance per watt, ensuring both faster performance and higher efficiency for iPad users.
AI Features in M4 Chip
During its presentation, Apple emphasized the AI capabilities of the M4 chip, marking the first time the company dedicated significant stage time to this aspect. Apple highlighted that the M4 chip features its most powerful Neural Engine ever, capable of computing 38 trillion operations per second. This makes it 60 times faster as compared to the A11 Bionic chip. Demonstrating the AI prowess of the M4 chip, Apple showcased how the new iPad Pro can effortlessly perform AI-powered tasks such as subject-background separation in Final Cut Pro.
To support the M4 chip, iPadOS will enable developers to leverage Core ML and offer AI features in their apps. This means that the M4 chip, when paired with iPadOS, will be capable of running generative AI models, cloud-based solutions, and demanding AI applications like Microsoft Copilot and Adobe Firefly.
The new iPad Pro with the M4 chip starts at $999 for the 11-inch model and $1299 for the 13-inch model.
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