Apple has unveiled its new M4 silicon chip with the latest iPad Pro. This new chip is 1.5x times faster than the Apple M2 processor. It also features a 16-core Neural Engine, which, according to Apple, makes the M4 chipset the most powerful AI chipset on any computer. This chipset also introduces hardware-accelerated ray tracing on iPads for the very first time.
Apple M4 Chipset: Everything That You Should Know
The Apple M4 chipset is a ten-core CPU based on the second-generation 3nm technology. It features four performance cores with machine-learning accelerators and six efficiency cores. The chip contains 28 billion transistors, making it the fastest processor ever on an iPad.
The M4 chip also gets an upgraded 10-core GPU. It features Dynamic Caching, a new technology developed by Apple that allocates local memory to increase the average utilization of the GPU. It also brings hardware-accelerated ray tracing support on iPads.
In addition to ray tracing, the GPU on M4 also supports mesh shading, which improves geometric processing. In simple terms, this is designed to deliver more performance in visually complex scenes in games and other graphic-heavy applications. So, for gamers who love to play AAA titles, the new iPad Pro should ensure an even better experience.
Apple says the M4 chip can deliver the same performance as the M2 chip while consuming half the power. This reflects that the new M4 chip is way more energy-efficient than its previous iterations. This could mean improved battery performance for iPad Pro users.
The highlight of the M4 chip is its AI capabilities, which were also highlighted by Apple. This chipset features a 16-core Neural Engine, the most powerful NPU on any AI PC, as per Apple. It can handle 38 trillion operations per second and is 60 times faster than the first neural engine from Apple that was present on the A11 Bionic chip. We will have to wait and see how Apple utilises these ‘AI’ capabilities with iPadOS 18 announcements, which take place next month at WWDC in June.
This neural engine can be utilized by apps on the iPad. Apple mentions that users can remove the background in a 4K video using a simple tap in Final Cut Pro. This has been made possible by the new NPU on the M4 chip. It also gets an upgraded Media Engine with support for AV1 hardware acceleration.
The Apple M4 chip is currently exclusive to the latest iPad Pro. The company has not unveiled any new MacBook with this new chipset. Pricing for the latest iPad Pro with the M4 chip starts at Rs 99,990 for the base 11-inch model.
