The newly launched 2012 edition of the iPad appears to be running a little hotter than its predecessor, that’s according to a GLBenchmark test conducted by Tweakers.net. The study was conducted using an infrared camera and the third generation Apple tablet clocked in at 33.6 degrees Celsius compared to the iPad 2 at 28.3 degrees Celsius. The 20% increase in temperature is still well within Apple’s acceptable operating parameters however.
The website suspects that the reason for the extra heat is down to the new graphics processor. Apple introduced their new custom A5X dual-core CPU with a quad-core PowerVR SGX543MP4 GPU. Tech analysts have also conducted benchmarks of the iPad’s A5X chip and have found it to produce four times the graphics horsepower of its comparative Nivida rival the Tegra 3. However consumers in the market for a new iPad need not concern themselves about experiencing blistering hands or burned laps. The increase in temperature is only quite marginal and will have no impact on overall system performance.
