Apple has not unduly limited the performance of the new iPad Air by downclocking the M1 chip, according to benchmark data. According to Geekbench 5 results, the M1 chip in the fifth-generation iPad Air operates at the same 3.2GHz frequency as the M1 chip in the iPad Pro. As a result, the M1 iPad Air performs very identically to the M1 iPad Pro.
The average single-core and multi-core scores for the M1 iPad Air are roughly 1,700 and 7,200, respectively. These results show that the M1 iPad Air is on par with the M1 iPad Pro in terms of performance, with a 60 per cent to 70 per cent quicker CPU than the fourth-generation iPad Air with the A14 Bionic chip.
The M1 processor, which was first released in November 2020 in the MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini, has an 8-core CPU, an 8-core GPU, and a 16-core Neural Engine. The new iPad Air has access to 8GB of unified memory thanks to the processor.
Given that the A15 Bionic chip in the sixth-generation iPad mini is downclocked to 2.9GHz, compared to 3.2GHz in other devices like the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro Max, Apple’s decision not to downclock the M1 CPU in the iPad Air is remarkable. Because of the downclocked CPU, the iPad mini is around 2% to 8% slower than iPhone 13 versions.
The new iPad Air includes an enhanced 12-megapixel front camera with Center Stage support, 5G connection on cellular variants, a 2x quicker USB-C port for data transfer, and new colour options in addition to the M1 chip. Pre-orders began on March 11 for a March 18 release date, with prices starting at $599 in the US.
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