A month ago, Apple revealed the iPad Air 11 (2024) and iPad Air 13 (2024), which have one major improvement over the 2022 Air: the Apple M2 chipset has replaced the M1 chipset. It turns out, though, that M2 is not precisely what Apple first claimed and what we first believed.

Although the press release from May 7 states that the iPad Air's “M2 chip brings another big boost in performance to iPad Air, featuring a faster 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU,” the specifications page on apple.com mentions a 9-core GPU.

The iPad Air 2024 receives a score of 6.2K on GFXBench Wild Life Extreme Unlimited, and the MacBook Air with an M2 processor receives a score of either 5.7K or 6.8K, depending on the specific M2 version.

The M2-powered MacBook Air has an 8-core or a 10-core GPU (the latter being an optional $100 upgrade), in case you missed it. This explains the two different scores.

And take note that, at least up until recently, there was no 9-core option. It appears that the iPad Air has a 9-core GPU rather than an error on the specs page because its scores are exactly in the center of those of the 8 and 10-core MacBooks. Naturally, there are differences between iPadOS and macOS, but it seems that the initial press release misrepresented the differences.

In any case, we don't believe that performance will be significantly impacted by this. Even with the 9-core GPU, the new Airs' 11" and 13" screens only operate at 60Hz, which may limit their useful life. Nevertheless, Apple needs to clarify matters and solve the situation.

The two Airs and the 2024 iPad Pros were revealed on the same day. You will receive an Apple M4 with a 9-core CPU (note: CPU, not GPU) if you purchase a Pro with 256GB or 512GB. However, an M4 with a 10-core CPU (and twice as much RAM) is included if you purchase a 1TB or 2TB slate.

With the Airs, this isn't the case; whatsoever storage capacity you choose, you always get the same M2 chip. Nonetheless, it's noteworthy that TSMC and Apple still need to use binning—even for a design this outdated (the M2 was released in 2022 utilizing the TSMC N5P node).