Apple’s 2024 iPad Air ships with a binned M2 chip featuring a 9-core GPU. The company’s original announcement claimed it packs a 10-core GPU.
The Cupertino giant silently updated the iPad Air’s tech specs page to reflect this change.
M2 iPad Air has a slower GPU than what Apple initially claimed
When Apple announced the 2024 iPad Air at its “Let Loose” event on May 7th, it only mentioned that it shipped with an M2 chip. The press release and tech specs page later revealed that it packed a 10-core GPU. However, it appears there was some confusion inside Apple, as the new Air packs a 9-core GPU.
As spotted by Michael Burkhardt, Apple silently updated the iPad Air’s tech specs page to reflect this change. The original press release and support page still mentions the device shipping with a 10-core GPU.
The lack of an additional GPU core will not significantly impact the M2 iPad Air’s performance. You may see a 10% slower performance in some tasks in rare workloads, but that’s about it. Given how powerful the M2 chip is, this hit won’t be noticeable. Still, a company like Apple should not have made such an error in the first place.
The slower GPU does not make the 2024 iPad Air a bad purchase
Given the 9-core GPU configuration, Apple is likely using a binned version of the M2’s 10-core variant. This is the company’s first time doing so, as the M2 MacBook Air shipped with an 8-core or 10-core GPU variant.
If you have already purchased the M2 iPad Air, this revelation won’t suddenly make it worse. It will still run all your favorite iPadOS apps and games as smoothly as before. Unless you have specific ‘pro’ needs, the M2 iPad Air is still a better buy than the iPad Pro.
