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Apple A8X IPad Air 2 Processor Packs Triple-Core CPU, Hefty Graphics Punch
MojoKid writes When Apple debuted its A8 SoC, it proved to be a modest tweak of the original A7. Despite packing double the transistors and an improved GPU, the heart of the A8 SoC is the same dual-core Apple "Cyclone" processor tweaked to run at higher clock speeds and with stronger total GPU performance. Given this, many expected that the Apple A8X would be cut from similar cloth — a higher clock speed, perhaps, and a larger GPU, but not much more than that. It appears those projections were wrong. The Apple A8X chip is a triple-core variant of the A8, with a higher clock speed (1.5GHz vs. 1.4GHz), a larger L2 cache (2MB, up from 1MB) and 2GB of external DDR3. It also uses an internal metal heatspreader, which the Apple A8 eschews. All of this points to slightly higher power consumption for the core, but also to dramatically increased performance. The new A8X is a significant power house in multiple types of workloads; in fact, its the top-performing mobile device on Geekbench by a wide margin. Gaming benchmarks are equally impressive. The iPad Air 2 nudges out Nvidia's Shield in GFXBench's Manhattan offscreen test, at 32.4fps to 31 fps. Onscreen favors the NV solution thanks to its lower-resolution screen, but the Nvidia device does take 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited by a wide margin, clocking in at 30,970 compared to 21,659.
The new Mac Mini is twice as slow as the late 2012 model. So fuck you Apple.
The benchmarks say that the CPU of the entry-level late 2014 Mac Mini is only 3.8% slower than the entry-level late 2012 Mac Mini. However, the TDP is also 57.1% lower (from 35W to 15W).
Nope Apple apologizer. The new Mac Minis are all dual cores compared to the late 2012 for which some were quad core. So basically Apple cut the multi core performance to half. Nice job, Apple.
http://www.primatelabs.com/blog/2014/10/estimating-mac-mini-performance/
http://ark.intel.com/products/83506/Intel-Core-i7-4578U-Processor-4M-Cache-up-to-3_50-GHz
Per the Geekbench 3 CPU benchmark suite, the A8X scores ~4500.
The Surface Pro hybrid laptop's i3 scores 4750.
Apple's base model MacBook Air's i7 scores 5300.
(and for reference, the old Core 2 Quad Q6600 scores 4250.)
Meanwhile, the Intel chips in the Surface Pro and MacBook Air have a 15W TDP, while the A8X should be well south of 5W. Granted, a lot of that goes to the integrated GPUs, but the A8X is no slouch in graphics either. The iPad runs at a higher resolution than 90-plus-percent of PCs today and runs plenty of good-looking 3D games. It's good enough for consumer use, definitely.
Finally, Intel's 'recommended customer price' for their ULV chips is ~$300. Major purchasers like Apple and Microsoft no doubt negotiate a substantial discount, but I doubt it comes close to the ~$20 (plus in-house design costs) Apple pays for the A-series chips.
This may sound like an Apple fanboy post, but it isn't. It's a 'Intel needs to get their shit together' post. A decade ago Intel lost their way with the Pentium 4 and AMD took the lead for a few years. In the end that gave us the vastly improved Core architecture. If Broadwell and Skylake don't put Intel out ahead of ARM designs in a hurry, the next few years could be very interesting.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
An informed individual posted an explanation for this. Apparently, the new Intel chips have different pinout requirements between the dual core and quad core variants - this is assuming you are soldering the CPU directly to the motherboard. Because of this difference Apple can not sell a quad core CPU without designing a new motherboard. So they sell it with the fastest CPUs that operate within the given power constraints and supports the required physical pinout.
In all likelihood, Apple will release a quad core update sooner rather then later. Holding off for 6 months gives them plenty of time to design the new hardware while also giving them the opportunity to make headlines once again in 6 months time.
The Mac Mini is a great little design. If one is in the market and wants to get the fastest one possible, it is probably best to either wait or purchase a quad of the previous model.
Please do not try to inject facts into a haterz rant. It's not as if Apple is better than Android in providing timely updates to all the devices they support. Or force you to wait for your manufacturer to provide the update. Or allow your carriers to screw you over by withholding updates. Oh wait...