Well, it took all of about 10 minutes for someone to do what most everyone expected: Somebody benchmarked Apple’s iPad crammed into a Mac mini case – and even with the Rosetta 2 translation layer running, it beats Microsoft’s native ARM-based Surface Pro X.
Apple’s Developer Transition Kit equipped with an A12Z iPad Pro chip began arriving in the hands of developers this morning to help them get their apps ready for Macs running Apple Silicon, and though forbidden, the first thing some developers did was benchmark the machine.
Multiple Geekbench results have indicated that the Developer Transition Kit, which is a Mac mini with an iPad Pro chip, features average single-core and multi-core scores of 811 and 2,871, respectively.
As developer Steve Troughton-Smith points out, the two-year-old A12Z in the Mac mini outperforms Microsoft’s Arm-based Surface Pro X in Geekbench performance, running x86_64 code in emulation faster than the Surface Pro X can run an Arm version natively.
Averaging seven Geekbench 5 benchmarking results, Microsoft’s Surface Pro X features a single-core score of 726 and a multi-core score of 2,831, meaning the A12Z outperforms the Surface Pro X in single-core testing and is on par or slightly better in multi-core performance.
The Surface Pro X features a Microsoft-designed 3GHz Arm processor based on the Qualcomm SQ1 chip.
MacDailyNews Take: Well, this is Microsoft we’re talking about, so, really, beating whatever they can cobble together isn’t that hard. Wait until Apple begins shipping real Macs with real Apple silicon designed for Macs!
Apple’s Developer Transition Kit is an iPad packed into a Mac mini case, running an Apple A12 variant — not even an A13 — and yet Apple knows it’ll be plenty for developers to “make it so.” They’ll get their apps running well on an A12Z, this glorified iPad stamped with Mac branding, and when the first Macs with Apple’s custom silicon ship to the public by the end of the year, they’ll be packing A14-class SOCs.
We’ll have to bolt ’em down, lest they spontaneously take flight!
I can’t wait to see the benchmarks almost as much as I can’t wait to see the faces of the remaining Wintel boat anchor holdouts when they see the benchmarks!
Yes, this is going to be FUN! And fun, dear friends, is exactly what we need after the start of this wonderful year. — SteveJack, MacDailyNews, June 23, 2020