The benchmark results for the new iPad Air show that Apple did not downclock the M1 chip to artificially limit the device's performance.
The M1 chip in the fifth-generation iPad Air has the same operating frequency of 3.2 GHz as in the iPad Pro, according to the Geekbench 5 results show. This makes the performance of the M1 iPad Air virtually identical to that of the M1 iPad Pro. The M1 iPad Air has average single-core and multi-core scores of around 1,700 and 7,200 points, respectively. These results confirm that the M1 iPad Air has the same performance as the M1 iPad Pro while being about 60% to 70% faster than the fourth-generation iPad Air with the A14 Bionic chip. Apple itself advertises the whole thing as follows:
The groundbreaking M1 chip in iPad Air delivers a massive performance boost for even the most demanding apps and workflows, with incredible power efficiency and all-day battery life.
iPad Air 5 supports Center Stage, 5G connectivity and more
First introduced in the MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini in November 2020, the M1 chip features an 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, and 16-core Neural Engine. The chip gives the new iPad Air access to 8GB of memory. Apple's decision not to throttle the M1 chip in the iPad Air is notable because the A15 Bionic chip in the sixth-generation iPad mini is downclocked to 2.9GHz while it runs at 3.2GHz in other devices like the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro Max. The downclocked chip results in the iPad mini being about 2 to 8 GHz slower than the iPhone 13 models. In addition to the M1 chip, the key features of the new iPad Air include an improved 12-megapixel front camera with Center Stage support, 5G connectivity on the cellular models, a USB-C port that is up to 2x faster for data transfer, and new color options. (Image: Apple)
