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Apple Doesn't Deliberately Slow Down Older Devices According To Benchmark Analysis (macrumors.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the long-running-speculation dept.

According to software company Futuremark, Apple doesn't intentionally slow down older iPhones when it releases new software updates as a way to encourage its customers to buy new devices. MacRumors reports: Starting in 2016, Futuremark collected over 100,000 benchmark results for seven different iPhone models across three versions of iOS, using that data to create performance comparison charts to determine whether there have been performance drops in iOS 9, iOS 10, and iOS 11. The first device tested was the iPhone 5s, as it's the oldest device capable of running iOS 11. iPhone 5s, released in 2013, was the first iPhone to get a 64-bit A7 chip, and iOS 11 is limited to 64-bit devices. Futuremark used the 3DMark Sling Shot Extreme Graphics test and calculated all benchmark scores from the iPhone 5s across a given month to make its comparison. The higher the bar, the better the performance, and based on the testing, GPU performance on the iPhone 5s has remained constant from iOS 9 to iOS 11 with just minor variations that Futuremark says "fall well within normal levels." iPhone 5s CPU performance over time was measured using the 3DMark Sling Shot Extreme Physics test, and again, results were largely consistent. CPU performance across those three devices has dropped slightly, something Futuremark attributes to "minor iOS updates or other factors."

5 of 163 comments (clear)

  1. They just don't optimise newer software for older by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    hardware.

    Same difference at the end of the day.

  2. Sofa King Stupid by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Nobody claimed that they were inserting nops. The claim is that they load the phone up with stuff the old specs can't handle, and then actual application performance (not CPU benchmarks!) suffers.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    1. Re:Sofa King Stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Every single OS release is slower, to the point of being unusable, on older hardware.

      No. iOS 11 runs fine on the iPhone 5S.

      But no, apple's app store requires developers to use a certain Xcode version, which requires them to them to use a certain macOS version, which requires them to own a certain expensive and recent MacBook.

      No. XCode 9 requires High Sierra, which will run on any MacBook released since 2010, and MBPs released in 2009.

       

    2. Re:Sofa King Stupid by Khyber · · Score: 4, Informative

      My husband's 4S is almost entirely unusable because of the ungodly slow response times of the UI. As in it takes twenty seconds to bring up Apple's own internal map program when it used to take just a couple of seconds before on iOS 7.

      But hey, don't let the reality of those that actually time this shit with a stopwatch and eyeballs interfere with your synthetic benchmarks.

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  3. Win10 runs slow on my 486 by Gabest · · Score: 4, Funny

    Actually, I am still waiting for the installer to load.