M2 iPad Pro solidly outperforms M1, blows older iPads away

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The highlight of the 2022 iPad Pro is the Apple M2 processor.
The Apple M2 chip in the just-launched iPad Pro (2022) really delivers.
Screenshot: Apple

Apple put its latest processor in the 2022 iPad Pro and it gave the tablet a significant performance boost. The M2 chip make it almost 20% faster than its predecessor.

And it’s almost 80% faster than the 2018 iPad Pro.

M2 makes 2022 iPad Pro Apple’s fastest tablet

Sheer processor speed isn’t the sole criteria to judge any computer by. A tablet that’s 20% faster than another isn’t automatically 20% better. But iPadOS 16.2 will let users display eight applications simultaneously when an external display is connected, so there’s some justification for wanting an iPad with plenty of power under the hood.

And the M2 in the 2022 iPad Pro delivers. In a Cult of Mac test, the 12.9-inch version scored 8466 in Primate Labs Geekbench 5 multi-core test. The M1-powered version from 2021 scores 7207. That give the new model a 17.6% performance advantage.

The iPad Air from early 2022 also includes an M1 chip, and it scores 7140 on the multi-core test. That makes Apple’s latest 18.6% faster.

Those with an older tablet will see a truly substantial performance increase. The 12.9-inch iPad Pro from 2018 pulls in a 4763 in the Geekbench 5 test, making the M2 Pro 77.7% quicker, for example.

More about Apple M2

Apple promised the M2’s 8-core CPU is up to 15% faster than M1, so the processor is actually beating that promise.

Its GPU has 10 cores, two more than the M1. Apple says it delivers up to 35% faster graphics performance.

The chip also features 100 GBps of unified memory bandwidth — 50% more than M1 – making the new tablet even better than its predecessor at multitasking.

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