How Much Faster?

iPad Air 11-inch (M3)

M3, March 2025

Scores

Single-core

No data

Multi-core

No data

GPU (Metal)

No data

Keynote claims, measured

“iPad Air with M3 is nearly 2x faster compared to iPad Air with M1, and up to 3.5x faster than iPad Air with A14 Bionic.”

Compares CPU with the M1 in the iPad Air (5th generation) and the A14 Bionic in the iPad Air (4th generation).

A general performance figure, checked as a CPU claim. Apple compared with production iPad Air (5th generation) units. A general performance figure, checked as a CPU claim. Apple compared with production iPad Air (4th generation) units.

iPad Air (M3) announcement, March 2025, Apple Newsroom, iPad Air (M3) announcement, March 2025

CPU

Claimed nearly 2×

No data

CPU

Claimed up to 3.5×

No data

“Featuring a more powerful 8-core CPU, M3 is up to 35 percent faster for multithreaded CPU workflows than iPad Air with M1.”

Compares CPU multi-core with the M1 in the iPad Air (5th generation).

iPad Air (M3) announcement, March 2025, Apple Newsroom, iPad Air (M3) announcement, March 2025

Multi-core

Claimed up to +35%

No data

“M3 features a 9-core GPU with up to 40 percent faster graphics performance over M1.”

Compares GPU (Metal) with the M1 in the iPad Air (5th generation).

iPad Air (M3) announcement, March 2025, Apple Newsroom, iPad Air (M3) announcement, March 2025

GPU

Claimed up to +40%

No data

Not measurable with Geekbench

  • “For graphics-intensive rendering workflows, iPad Air with M3 offers up to 4x faster performance than iPad Air with M1, enabling more accurate lighting, reflections, shadows, and extremely realistic gaming experiences.”

    Graphics-intensive rendering workflows with hardware ray tracing; Geekbench 6 Metal does not test ray tracing.

    iPad Air (M3) announcement, March 2025, Apple Newsroom, iPad Air (M3) announcement, March 2025

  • “Compared to M1, the Neural Engine in M3 is up to 60 percent faster for AI-based workloads.”

    Neural Engine speed; Geekbench 6 does not measure it.

    iPad Air (M3) announcement, March 2025, Apple Newsroom, iPad Air (M3) announcement, March 2025

iPad Air single-core, by generation

DeviceSingle-coreChange over the previous generation
Air, 2013No dataFirst in this line
Air 2, 2014No data
Air 3rd gen, 2019No data
Air 4th gen, 2020No data
Air M1, 2022No data
Air M2, 2024No data
Air M3, 2025, this deviceNo data
Air M4, 2026No data

Against other devices

The iPad Air 11-inch (M3) has no scores to compare.