While Apple's iPad Mini 3 is about a year old, the rumor mill is busy churning out new stories every day about the possible features of an upcoming iPad Mini 4, which may be launched by Apple by the end of 2015.

The iPad Mini 3 is equipped with the Cupertino-based tech titan's previous generation A7 chipset - the processor that also powers the iPhone 5s, iPad Air, and iPad Mini 2. The iPad Mini 3 was launched together with the iPad Air 2, which is equipped with the impressive A8X processor. All said and done, it seems that the company has little intention of closing the performance gap between the iPad Mini 2 and iPad Mini 3.

Christian Today reports that the rumor mill says the upcoming iPad Mini 4 will be running with Apple's A8 chipset - the processor that is present in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Besides, Apple Inc.'s next-gen tablet may also be equipped with an 802.11 AC wireless adapter, offering superior Wi-Fi speeds, provided all other conditions are favorable.

In fact, iPad Mini 2 and iPad Mini 3 are almost identical, barring the fact that the latter comes with a Touch ID finger print scanner alongside an improved OS running 'out of the box' plus a $399 price tag.

In terms of internal specs of these two devices, there are no other differences. Provided the iPad Mini 4 incorporates the A8 chipset, it will be able to offer superior performance as well as energy efficiency, posing stiff competition to Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 and Samsung's Exynos 7420. Latest bench-marking reports state that the A8 chip is itself sufficiently competent in a variety of tests, although it sometimes still gets beaten by the Qualcomm and Samsung chipsets.

All said and done, Apple fans will have to be patient as the iPad Mini 4 has yet to be announced, but there's a chance that's going to happen by October, 2015.