The iPad Pro (2024) tablets with more storage have a faster chipset, double the RAM

Apple introduced the new M4 chip yesterday and if you read the fine print, you will see that there are actually two binned versions of that chip. Not too unusual, except that for the first time both bins are available on the same device.

First, the chip. The CPU inside the Apple M4 has 4 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores, except on some iPad Pro (2024) models, one of the performance cores is disabled. For those unfamiliar with binning, it’s the oldest trick in the book – you can increase yields by picking chips with a non-fatal defect and selling them as a lower tier.

The Apple M4 has 10 CPU cores (4+6), unless it’s missing one performance core

Take the vanilla iPhone 13 as an example – it had an A15 chipset with 4 GPU cores, while the iPhone 13 Pro had an A15 with 5 GPU cores. Then, the vanilla iPhone 14 came a year later with an A15 chipset, this time with all 5 cores enabled. But that was a mild upgrade over two different generations – with the new iPad Pros, it’s an upgrade in the same generation, one that is tied to how much storage you buy.

The Apple iPad Pro 11 (2024) and iPad Pro 13 (2024) come with 256GB, 512GB, 1TB or 2TB storage. The two lower capacities get 8GB of RAM and the two higher ones get 16GB. This was the case with the 2022 Pros as well, but this time the two lower tiers also lose one of their performance CPU cores.

You’ll find the prices of the 2024 Pro iPads below and let’s just say that the jump from 512GB to 1TB is a big one – and it should be pretty clear why.

Whether or not you actually feel a difference in performance is another matter. First, both versions of the M4 chip have 10-core GPUs. Also, both deliver 38 TOPS of AI compute power. Finally – and somewhat strangely – the iPads have 120GB/s memory bandwidth regardless of whether you have an 8GB or a 16GB model.

And for better or for worse, iPadOS just isn’t macOS – did the previous Pro models ever push the M1 and M2 to their full potential? Now the M4 claims to have 1.5x higher CPU performance than the M2 and even if that multiplier is a bit lower for the 9-core version, will you notice? You should notice the improved power efficiency, though.

By the way, the M4 is fabbed on a new TSMC N3E node, while the M3 series was on an N3B node. This switch, along with the number of iPad Pros that Apple expects to sell, may be what made the binning necessary (as we said, it’s a way to boost yields).

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