Apple Introduces New iPad Pro Tablets Powered by M4 Chip

During its iPad event, Apple unveiled its latest iPad Pro tablets that are equipped with the new M4 chips, representing the fourth generation of Apple's custom SoCs.

The M4 chips boast a new display engine, as well as updated CPU and GPU cores. The base M4 chips offer up to 10 CPU and 10 GPU cores, with a distribution of four performance cores and six efficiency cores among the CPU cores.

According to Apple, the new CPU in the M4 chips is 50% faster than the M2 chips that powered the previous generation of iPad Pros, and the GPU delivers a fourfold increase in rendering performance, all while maintaining the same performance per Watt as the M3. Apple highlighted improvements such as dynamic caching, hardware-accelerated mesh shading, and ray tracing in the new GPU architecture, marking a first for the iPad.

In addition, Apple emphasized the enhanced neural engine in the M4 chips, which can perform up to 38 trillion operations per second. The company also mentioned enhanced ML accelerators in the new CPU cores.

Johny Srouji, Apple's senior vice president of Hardware Technologies, described the new iPad Pro with M4 as a prime example of leveraging custom silicon to create groundbreaking products. The M4's power-efficient performance and new display engine enable the sleek design and innovative display of the iPad Pro, while enhancements to the CPU, GPU, Neural Engine, and memory system make the M4 ideal for applications leveraging AI.

Apple initially introduced the 3-nanometer M3 series last October, which comprised the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max variants with varying core configurations.

Instead of following its usual pattern of debuting new chips in Pro laptops first, Apple is launching the M4 in the iPad Pro, possibly in response to advancements in Arm-based Snapdragon chips for PCs. This strategic move aligns with the competitive landscape as Microsoft continues to develop Windows on Arm.