Some supposed early 2020 iPad Pro benchmarks are disappointingly average

iPad Pro Hero (Image credit: Karen Freeman/iMore)

What you need to know

The new iPad Pro isn't shipping yet.
But we're all wondering how that new A12Z chip is going to fare.
A new benchmark suggests it won't set the world alight.

Apple's newly refreshed iPad Pro isn't in the hands of those who ordered just yet, but a lucky few very likely have one right now. And it seems that at least one of them has run a benchmark, giving us our first glimpse at how speedy that new Apple A12Z processor is.

As it turns out, it's not all that impressive.

Assuming the AnTuTu scores for an iPad8,10, posted by MySmartPrice, are above board, the new chip is around the same speed as the Apple A12X that's already powering the 2018 iPad Pro.

The Apple iPad Pro 2020 has scored 7,12,218 points for the overall performance. While everyone was expecting it to outrun the iPad Pro (2019) by a huge margin, that, unfortunately, isn't the case. The iPad Pro 2019 is just slightly behind the new iPad Pro 2020 with a score of 7,05,585 points.

I'm assuming that the "2019" is a typo there – the last iPad Pro refresh happened in 2018.

Antutu Ipad Pro Benchmark (Image credit: MySmartPrice)

Things do improve in the graphics department, although not in a huge way. Things went very much south in the memory stakes, too. But that's likely a case of the software not being optimized properly. At least, that's the hope.

The iPad Pro 2020, however, has a significant leap over its predecessor in terms of GPU performance, as it has scored 3,73,781 points in the GPU test as compared to the score of 3,45,016 points that the iPad Pro 2019 has managed to achieve. Surprisingly, the iPad Pro 2020 is significantly slower than iPad Pro 2019 in terms of memory (RAM) performance, as the former has scored 74,998 points in the RAM test and the latter has achieved 95,118 points.

I'll be reserving judgement until I see a YouTube video of a test being run on a live device. Preferably running Geekbench. But for now, this is all we have.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.