Apple M4 Chip with Advanced AI Capabilities, Improved Performance Announced at ‘Let Loose’ Event

Apple has announced its latest innovation, the M4 chip, which powers the new iPad Pro models with the OLED displays. The unveiling came during today's Apple 'Let Loose' event. Here's a look at the M4-powered iPad Pro 2024 and the iPad Air 2024.

One of the highlights of the new M4 chip is its advanced AI capabilities. It includes a new neural engine described as "an outrageously powerful chip for AI," capable of handling 38 trillion operations per second (TOPS).

Apple M4 Performance Gains

The M4 chip employs second-generation 3nm technology, boasting a 10-core CPU with a mix of four performance cores and six efficiency cores. This configuration renders it 50% more powerful than the M2 chip found in the previous iPad Pro iteration.

Additionally, the M4 features a 10-core GPU supporting advanced graphics technologies, including dynamic caching, mesh shading, and ray tracing, alongside a new display engine that quadruples the rendering speed relative to the M2. M4 can also deliver the same performance as M2 using just half the power.

Historically, Apple's M-series chips, except for the M1 and M2 Ultra, have maintained a 16-core NPU count since the M1's debut. However, the NPU's TOPS have seen incremental increases with each generation, indicating enhanced calculation performance capabilities.

While Apple's presentation extensively covered the M4's AI and performance improvements, details regarding the NPU core count were notably absent. However, Apple says it can handle 38 TOPS, which is a major leap over the A11 Bionic chip, but still short of the Snapdragon X Elite's 45 TOPS.

Apple M4 Efficiency Gains

Apple also says the second-generation 3nm technology further advances the power efficiency of Apple silicon. In its blog post, Apple notes, "The power-efficient performance of M4 helps the all-new iPad Pro meet Apple's high standards for energy efficiency and deliver all-day battery life."

M4 also introduces the cutting-edge Media Engine, marking a significant leap forward for iPad technology. Alongside support for prevalent video codecs such as H.264, HEVC, and ProRes, it debuts hardware acceleration for AV1 on iPad, a groundbreaking advancement.

The announcement of the M4 chip comes just ahead of Microsoft's special Windows and Surface AI event scheduled for May 20. Apple is set to reveal more information about its upcoming AI integration plans and new hardware at WWDC 2024 on June 10.