Benchmarks for Apple’s new fourth generation iPad Air have appeared online, indicating the A14 Bionic expected to be used in the “iPhone 12” range offers more performance than the high-powered A13 Bionic and the iPad Pro’s A12Z Bionic.
Malcolm Owen for AppleInsider:
In benchmarks spotted by Twitter user “Ice Universe” offers what could be the first benchmark for the tablet, and a first glimpse of what could be powering the 2020 iPhone models.
A14's first Geekbench 5 results appeared, single-core 1583, multi-core 4198, still the king. pic.twitter.com/HXMgEfjSuW
— ICE UNIVERSE (@UniverseIce) October 3, 2020
The benchmark lists the chip as 6-core model with a base frequency of 2.99GHz and 3.66GB of memory. The tablet scored 1,583 points for single-core tests, while for multi-core it achieved 4,198 points, under Geekbench 5.2.3.
Comparing the results against Geekbench’s list of iOS and iPadOS devices, the single-core performance is higher than the 1,327 observed in the iPhone 11 Pro, which uses the A13 Bionic at 2.7Ghz. On the multi-core side, the A14 also outpaces the 3,300 the A13 Bionic achieves in the same test, but is still beaten by the A12Z Bionic used in the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, which scored 4,644 points.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple describes the A14 Bionic thusly, “Using breakthrough 5-nanometer process technology, A14 Bionic is packed with 11.8 billion transistors for increased performance and power efficiency in nearly every part of the chip. This latest-generation A-series chip features a new 6-core design for a 40 percent boost in CPU performance, and a new 4-core graphics architecture for a 30 percent improvement in graphics. To deliver breakthrough machine learning capabilities, A14 Bionic includes a new 16-core Neural Engine that is twice as fast, and capable of performing up to 11 trillion operations per second, taking machine learning apps to a whole new level. A14 Bionic also includes second-generation machine learning accelerators in the CPU for 10 times faster machine learning calculations. This combination of the new Neural Engine, CPU machine learning accelerators, and high-performance GPU enables powerful on-device experiences for image recognition, natural language learning, analyzing motion, and more.”
Of course it is awesome that Apple is ahead of other tablets and portable devices. But what I am wondering is can Apple match Intel on high end Mac Pro? Can Apple produce a chip that is faster than THAT machine? Or will the pro model languish for years as the last one did?
Even if Apple could, would they?
Tim has a policy of letting pro users suck hind teat.
Hind teat? On an owl? Is that a Teat Owl? For drying the dishes?
Single core performance is always more important than multicore.
Depends on the software…
What processes can’t be multithreaded well? I know that video editing responds well to multiple processors, as do large databases and 3D rendering. What if you had a mac that was basically 8 iPad circuit boards with their CPUs and graphics cards networked together? How fast would that be?
I hope you get an answer to this because I have often wondered myself. I fear however the answer won’t be as positive as we might hope for one reason or another but interesting to ask anyway.
In most Youtube smartphone speed tests, it’s not as though the iPhone is crushing SD865 Android smartphones. It only turns out a winner by a few seconds over the entire run and sometimes it doesn’t do as well because most of the Android smartphones are sporting 8GB to 12GB of RAM while Apple cuts corners with 4GB, so apps are dumped from RAM memory and have to be relaunched which uses up “precious” time. Most of those tests aren’t typical real world use, so the iPhone does have certain advantages. I’m just making an observation and not a criticism as most flagship smartphones are more than fast enough for most users. I’m the type of smartphone user who would rather have extra battery life than run the fastest processor. I like tech, but I’m not a tech snob who’s always harping about how some device is the best at this or that. There aren’t any huge gaps in the tech industry and most high-end devices are fairly close to one another in ability.
I’m more interested in what Apple Silicon can bring to Mac laptops and desktops and if Apple can actually build some powerful processors that aren’t being restrained by thermal headroom. One thing for certain, Apple will have no match for GPUs like the RTX 3090 which is about as an excessive a component ever for a non-professional user. 350W for a single video card? That’s just nuts.
It’s pretty hard to make an accurate benchmark of these processors since they include GPU and Neutral/AI Processing as well. It’s a multidimensional performance that depends highly on your usage. That said its probably plenty fast for anybody 🙂