Apple recently made a rare slip by mistakenly promoting the latest 2024 iPad Air M2 with false information. The press release boasted that the new iPad Air’s M2 chip features a 10-core GPU. However, several reports revealed that Apple discreetly changed the tech specs page for the mentioned model, and it now says that the new iPad Air comes with a 9-core GPU.
Although Apple mistakenly listed the iPad Air as having a 10-core GPU, the company’s spokesperson contacted 9to5Mac to clear the air. Apple clarified that the performance claims made during the iPad Air launch were always based on a 9-core GPU.
Apple Says Performance Claims for M2 iPad Air Are Accurate
“We are updating Apple.com to correct the core count for the M2 iPad Air. All performance claims for the M2 iPad Air are accurate and based on a 9-core GPU,” an Apple spokesperson told 9to5Mac.
That said, the other specifications for the iPad Air with M2 remain unchanged. It features an 8-core CPU with four performance cores and four efficiency cores, along with 8GB RAM and a 16-core Neural Engine.
As I mentioned previously, most M2 iPad Air users might not even notice any difference — like performance drops — between a 9-core GPU and a 10-core GPU. Yet, it’s nice to hear that Apple has confirmed that there will be no performance differences, and the device will run as promised. To recall, Apple had said that the M2 chip is “nearly 50 percent faster than the previous generation [M1]”.
Regardless, it doesn’t solve all the problems. As folks at MacRumors note some people might have mistakenly purchased the device “believing it had a 10-core GPU” but now the “two week return period has expired” especially for those who bought the new iPads as soon as they were launched during the “Let Loose”.