Apple announced the new iPad Air with an M2 chip at its May event. However, the GPU’s specs have changed on Apple’s website.
Apple has silently downgraded the M2 iPad Air’s specifications from a 10-core to a 9-core GPU. The technical specifications on Apple’s website now list both 13-inch and 11-inch iPad Airs with a 9-core GPU.
While Apple has not revealed the reason behind the change, the original press release still states, “The M2 chip brings another big boost in performance to iPad Air, featuring a faster 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU.”
Apple’s support page for the iPad Air also claims the tablet has a 10-core GPU. Meanwhile, Amazon listings have not been updated with the new technical specifications.
The correction, first spotted by 9to5mac, was made on May 22. One of the reasons behind this change could be that Apple erroneously listed the tablet as having a 10-core GPU at launch.
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This theory can be proved by looking at the benchmark performance. The Geekbench’s Metal benchmark testing shows a score of 41,095, compared to the M2 iPad Pro’s 10-core GPU, which scored a total of 45,195.
The difference of 10% in scores suggests that the M2 iPad Air has a 9-core GPU instead of a 10-core. Apple may have used the same SoC but has turned off one GPU core, for reasons unknown.
Moreover, this is the first time Apple has sold a device with an M2 chipset in this configuration. The MacBook Air, powered by an M2 chipset, also has a 10-core GPU.
That said, there has been no change in the retail price of the iPad Air. Currently, it’s still available at a starting price of $599.
