The new iPad mini powers through Pixelmator ML upscaling tasks quicker than an iMac Pro

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All New Ipad Mini
All New Ipad Mini (Image credit: Apple)

What you need to know

  • Apple's new iPad mini packs an A15 Bionic chip that's super fast according to new tests.
  • Pixelmator's ML Super Resolution algorithm is capable of upscaling images and it's blazing fast on the new iPad mini.
  • Tests showed iPad mini was faster at upscaling an image than an iMac Pro.

Apple's brand new iPad mini is already taking all the plaudits for its prowess at just about everything, but it turns out that it's so fast it can do some machine learning tasks faster than an iMac Pro — and the Pixelmator folks have the numbers to prove it.

In numbers shared during a blog post announcing improvements to the ML Super Resolution feature that's already so impressive, the Pixelmator team ran an upscaling task on the new iPad mini to see how it compares to other machines like, say, an iMac Pro.

Turns out that little tablet is now the best iPad for upscaling images and if your other machine is an iMac Pro, it's the best computer for it, period.

Pixelmator Machine Learning Table

Pixelmator Machine Learning Table (Image credit: Pixelmator)

For this test, a 300,000 pixel image was upscaled to three times its original size. The iPad mini was tested on iOS 15.

Of course, the new iPad mini isn't the only machine quicker than the 2017 iMac Pro at this point — the impressive M1 MacBook Air is, too. But it's fascinating that an itty bitty tablet can now do something like this faster than Apple's high-end iMac.

If there's one thing this all tells us, it's that the iMac Pro is very much due a refresh. Here's to hoping we don't have to wait too long for that to happen.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

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.