The A17 Pro is a solid performer, as demonstrated by its gaming prowess when powering last year’s iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. Apple certainly caught us by surprise when it unveiled its updated iPad mini 7 with the same chipset but with one notable downgrade in which the SoC ships with a 5-core GPU instead of a 6-core one. Fortunately, this change has not deterred the tablet’s gaming capabilities, as demonstrated in two titles, with the compact slate maintaining just a fraction below 60FPS.
The iPad mini 7 breezes past Honor of Kings and Genshin Impact, with its highest power draw reaching just 6.1W, with incredible thermals
A larger device means that the A17 Pro has more breathing room, not to mention the extra space for effectively dissipating heat. According to the tests conducted by S. White Review, each game was run at the highest graphics settings for 20 minutes, with the device’s brightness at 350nits and Wi-Fi running in the background. We are pleased to inform you that the iPad mini 7 maintains almost 60FPS in Honor of Kings and Genshin Impact. Coming to the first game, for those that are unfamiliar, is a massive multiplayer online battle arena, but is less graphically intensive than Genshin Impact.
As you can see in the image below, the frametime graph is buttery smooth, with the iPad mini 7 maintaining an average framerate of 59.5FPS, with just a 5W power draw and thermals well within the recommended threshold of 39.8 degrees Celsius. As for Genshin Impact, it forces the iPad mini 7 to work a little harder, but the tablet manages to obtain 58.9FPS. This time, the frametime graph shows that the gameplay was filled with several micro-stutters. Regardless, the power draw increased slightly to 6.1W, which, as a consequence, increased the temperature to 42.7 degrees Celsius.
Both gaming tests show that the iPad mini 7 is more than capable of delivering a healthy performance dose, but it will still be interesting to see how it handles AAA titles that were previously run on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. Thankfully, Apple does not charge an arm and a leg for its latest slate, as the 128GB and Wi-Fi-only version is currently listed on Amazon for $499.99.
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