Not All M4 Chips Are Created Equal

Although Apple showed off its M4 chip as a 10-core performance beast in the iPad Pro, the reality is more nuanced as there are actually two versions of the chip.

Like the nano-texture glass option, you’ll only get the “best” M4 if you buy a 1TB or 2TB iPad Pro. The lower-capacity 256GB and 512GB versions come with an M4 chip that lacks one CPU performance core — a “9-core CPU with 3 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores.”

This is undoubtedly the result of chip binning, where Apple uses M4 chips that didn’t quite make the 10-core cut in its lower-end models. It’s not the first time we’ve seen Apple do this, but it is a first for CPU cores.

The A12X chip used in the 2018 iPad Pro turned out to be a GPU-reduced binned version of the A12Z that came along in the 2020 model, and Apple has also been using a chip with one fewer GPU core in its lowest-end MacBook Air models since the M1 was introduced. However, all M4 iPad Pro models have the same 10-core GPU — it’s the CPU that’s losing a core this time.

We’ll have to wait for some benchmarks to see how much of a difference that makes in real-world performance. We don’t expect it will be anything most users need to worry about, but if you want the best the M4 chip has to offer, you’ll need to spring for at least a 1TB iPad Pro to get it.