Apple launched its new 7th generation iPad mini but it could have limited its processor
A few days ago, Apple presented its new 7th generation iPad mini with the powerful A17 Pro processor as one of its big hardware innovations. So far, the A17 Pro chip It was only present on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. But its arrival on the iPad mini is proving to be somewhat controversial…
Apparently, the A17 Pro chip equipped in the iPad mini 7 is capped or limited compared to the A17 Pro processor in the flagships of the iPhone 15 line.
It is unclear what the reason for this Apple limitation was. in the processors of its new generation of iPad mini. Maybe the tablet doesn’t need such a powerful A17 Pro chip to deliver the same performance, maybe they used leftover A17 Pro chips, maybe had a problem in their development or just to reduce costs.
iPad mini 7’s A17 Pro chip is capped
The A17 Pro chip features a 16-core neural engine
Apple introduced the A17 Pro chip in its iPad mini as one of the main differences between the iPad mini 6 and iPad mini 7. In fact, the generational leap is astonishing. The compact tablet from the Californian firm went from 4 GB of RAM to 8 GB of RAM with the latest generation.
A17 Pro chip implementation arrives driven by artificial intelligence. Thanks to this processor, the 7th generation iPad mini will be compatible with Apple Intelligence. But why is its A17 Pro chip limited?
While the A17 Pro processor in the iPhone 15 Pro models was equipped with a 6-core CPU and a 6-core GPU, The A17 Pro chip in the iPad mini 7 has had its cores reduced. Specifically, it has a 6-core CPU and a 5-core GPU.. The same configuration as an A16 Bionic chip. However, the A16 Bionic chip comes with 6GB of RAM and the A17 Pro chip in the iPad mini comes with 8GB of RAM.
| A17 Pro chip | |
|---|---|
| Processor | 6 hearts |
| GPU | 5 hearts |
| Neural engine | 16 hearts |
| Operations | Up to 35 trillion operations per second |
| Memory | 8 GB |
| Transistors | 19 billion transistors |
| Manufacturing process | 3 nanometers |
Apple may have used remaining units of your A17 Pro chip after the development of the iPhone 15 line processors. Instead of throwing away the chips that did not reach maximum performance, they could have been used for the development of the iPad mini 7.
However, this wouldn’t make much sense as this is one of the few hardware updates the iPad mini 7 has received and its launch has been significantly delayed compared to other iPad models with more powerful chips like the iPad Air and iPad Pro. 2024. If these were leftover A17 Pro chips, their launch would have happened much earlier.
The 7th generation iPad mini with A17 Pro chip is now available for pre-order starting at 599 dollars and its official in-store launch will take place the same day October 23, 2024. We will have to wait for its arrival to find out more about its A17 Pro chip and its performance.
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