I currently have a 11” M1 IPad Pro 256GB and had planned on upgrading to the new one for OLED and better performance. After reviewing the spec sheet, however, I see that the M4 model would actually have one less CPU performance core than I currently have. Granted, it does have more GPU cores and I do play Apple Arcade & games such as Resident Evil, Hades, etc. I‘m just wondering if I’ll actually see any/much performance increase. I‘m not sure if the better screen alone warrants a 1k purchase for me. Thanks.
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iPad Pro M1 to M4 actually an upgrade?
- Thread starter mario-64
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The real question is whether those higher specs translate into improved performance for the applications that a give user runs and is that improvement significant enough to warrant a significant outlay of $. For the OP and apps he listed, I don't think that runtime performance will change significantly.
I think the Upgrade is MASSIVE, because Apple could have easily just Upgraded to 1,000nits Tamdem OLED alone and that would have been huge. But they went above and beyond and threw in a new M4 CPU.
I personally went the 1TB option which includes 4 Performance Cores. And 16GB of RAM. So it’s a 3 year investment.
Even the 11” base 256GB model at $999 is a steal with my trade in at $470 of a 128GB base M2 11”
the base M4 with 9 Cores still outclasses even the M2. So less cores but better.
without ignoring the amazing new Upgrades.
He has to decide that
Honestly, OLED is enough for me
The weight and thinness are extremely good to have though not essential
I’ve bought this one
If they release another iPad Pro in 1.5 years, I’ll opt for that as well
To answer the OP
On an iPad, “Not really, no”
Software remains the issue for iPads, not hardware power
On an iPad, “Not really, no”
Software remains the issue for iPads, not hardware power
Chipset performance does matter when you’re playing what is probably the most demanding game available for iOS at the moment. Although for now, Capcom appears to be limiting performance of RE4 for better consistency. It would be nice if they’d allow 60-120 FPS like Genshin.
Mind, comparing M1 iPad Air (8GB RAM) and M1 iPad Pro (16GB RAM), it’s interesting to see that the Air was getting more stutters than the Pro. Gamers already know VRAM is pretty important. It would be interesting to see how that plays out given the shared memory architecture on the M-series chipsets.
The 9-core M4 iPad Pro will be quite faster in single-core performance - which is what you’ll notice most - and a lot faster in gpu - which you’ll also notice. And it will a bit faster in multi-core even with one less performance core (remember that iPads also use efficiency cores in multi-core workloads, and these cores are *not slow*. And M4 has two more of those). So yes, it will be quite a bit faster overall and a big jump.
With that said, M1 Pro is super fast and you won’t really *feel* a big difference in day to day work. You should upgrade for the new screen, new design, new Pencil. Performance alone shouldn’t be a major reason to upgrade from the excellent M1.
The weight and thinness certainly helped me to justify the 13 over the 11 this time around though.
The screen is the real reason to upgrade. M1 to M4 should be more noticeable than M1 to M2 (which I couldn’t really notice much). I had the 12.9” miniLED 120hz M1 and M2 and the display was, - in terms of pixel performance, absolutely awful. Both current MacBook Pro and iPad 120hz miniLED screens have some of the worst pixel response times on the market. Scrolling up and down web pages etc on an OLED iPhone at 120hz is a joy. You can read every word as you scroll. On the MBP or iPad? Horrific. It almost negates the 120hz function entirely it’s so bad. Basically, you get a smooth-scrolling blurry mess. 🤣
Both single-core and multi-core have significantly improved performance over the M1, 50% or more it seems, despite one less performance core. I’d expect you’d see some performance increase in practice.
A 9-core iPad result just showed up on Geekbench not long ago. Post in thread 'M4 Geekbench scores wow…'
It is significantly better than the M1 in this benchmark, but whether or not you’ll notice the additional performance depends on what you do with your iPad obviously.
It is significantly better than the M1 in this benchmark, but whether or not you’ll notice the additional performance depends on what you do with your iPad obviously.