Apple's New A6X iPad Chip Adopts PowerVR SGX 554MP4 Graphics

gto55 · Nov 5, 2012

http://barefeats.com/ipad402.html
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]SHOOTOUT: iPad 4th Generation versus
iPad mini, iPad 3rd Gen, iPhone 5, etc.

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ANALYSIS
The 4th Gen iPad delivers what speed junkies crave, coming in fastest overall. The iPhone 5 comes in second and the 3rd Gen iPad comes in third.
The iPad mini with its 7.9" screen is cute and draws a crowd when we whip it out. We prefer the larger 9.7" Retina screen of the iPad 3 and 4. If cost is your concern, consider a Apple Certified Refurbished iPad 3.
The iPhone 5 is our kind of "mini" with great speed and a Retina display.
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gnasher729 · Nov 5, 2012

gto55 said:
http://barefeats.com/ipad402.html

The Linpack numbers are quite interesting. Jack Dongarra, who has been running the biannual "Top 500 Supercomputer" list, got about 700 Mflops out of an iPad 2, which put it at the same speed level as a four processor Cray (top of the supercomputer list in 1984), but then he spend a bit of time optimizing the code. To quote:

"To date, the researchers have run the test on only one of the iPad microprocessors two processing cores. When they finish their project, though, Dr. Dongarra estimates that the iPad 2 will have a Linpack benchmark of between 1.5 and 1.65 gigaflops (billions of floating-point, or mathematical, operations per second). That would have insured that the iPad 2 could have stayed on the list of the worlds fastest supercomputers through 1994."

iPad 4 should be considerably ahead of that.

jouster · Nov 5, 2012

Aluminum213 said:
iPad 3 owners tears coming in 3...2...

Not from this one. Retina/non-Retina is the killer for me, not this measurebatin'...

I suppose if there were some app or functionality that was critical to me and that was unusable without an A6 then it'd be another story. Until then, I hope they release a new model _every_ six months.

devinci99 · Nov 5, 2012

I remember when it was an achievement you proudly show off when you can break the GFLOP barrier.

Now a days, even cell phones' GPU are doing that.

holmesf · Nov 5, 2012

iSunrise said:
Yes, it does. However, in real world usage scenarios (not theoretical benchmarks that all the review sites throw around) it´s not that much better than an iPad 3. It´s clearly a much more future-proof design performance wise, but it´s not at all like "WOW, this blows the iPad 3 out of the water."

Make no mistake, the iPad 3 still is pretty darn good, even if it only has an A5X.

iPad 4 vs. iPad 3 Speed Test
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMijuc5qX7M

To be quite frank, I was a bit shocked about these results, too. It´s not worth it at all to upgrade your iPad 3. Now, if you still have an iPad 1 or iPad 2, you may consider it. But as iChrist has pointed out, it seems like the iPad 3 even has better color accuracy than an iPad 4. We have to wait for some results from Displaymate to verify this, but everyone who thinks about upgrading an iPad 3 to an iPad 4 may find himself to be disappointed.

A worthy upgrade from my POV would need Apple to do the following at least:

1) Better iSight camera (yes, I was surprised myself how useful it is, I almost use it daily)
2) Thinner and lighter design (not a must, but a welcome change, it matters a lot for a Pad)
3) A display at least of the same quality (color accuracy, gamut and black level) than an iPad 3

Well yes, if your real-world usage scenarios are Temple Run and Facebook then an e-machines desktop from 2002 would show the same thing. That doesn't mean the iPad 4 isn't a worthy upgrade, just that your "real world" benchmarks suck. It has a 2x more powerful CPU, 2x more powerful GPU, better camera, and the battery lasts longer. I don't really know what more you could ask for.

GorgonPhone · Nov 5, 2012

holmesf said:
That's totally false. The CPU literally yields 2x the performance.

i own a ipad3 and i played with the ipad4 for an hour and it loads apps and does all UI operations are exactly the same speed but the 3D performance is much better thats all.. and since no games are optimized yet even that performance difference is marginal..

----------

holmesf said:
Well yes, if your real-world usage scenarios are Temple Run and Facebook then an e-machines desktop from 2002 would show the same thing. That doesn't mean the iPad 4 isn't a worthy upgrade, just that your "real world" benchmarks suck. It has a 2x more powerful CPU, 2x more powerful GPU, better camera, and the battery lasts longer. I don't really know what more you could ask for.

all of the ipad4 power increase is aimed at power the needs or the retina screen when rendering high frame rate complex 3D games.. it has the same ram amount and same speed same so loading times are not much different.. maybe in the future IOS versions will optimize for ipad4 but as is not you cant tell the difference..

iSunrise · Nov 5, 2012

holmesf said:
Well yes, if your real-world usage scenarios are Temple Run and Facebook then an e-machines desktop from 2002 would show the same thing. That doesn't mean the iPad 4 isn't a worthy upgrade, just that your "real world" benchmarks suck. It has a 2x more powerful CPU, 2x more powerful GPU, better camera, and the battery lasts longer. I don't really know what more you could ask for.

Have you actually tried one out? Did you actually do a comparison between both? I don´t think so. Theoretical raw performance doesn´t mean anything if you´re not able to show it with a broad range of applications. 3D games are a bit faster, that´s about it.

Better front camera? Who cares, most of us don´t even do facetime calls. More battery life is maybe the only thing that I find positive about it. Not worth it at all for any iPad 3 owner, IMHO.

holmesf · Nov 5, 2012

iSunrise said:
Have you actually tried one out? Did you actually do a comparison between both? I don´t think so. Theoretical raw performance doesn´t mean anything if you´re not able to show it with a broad range of applications. 3D games are a bit faster, that´s about it.

Better front camera? Who cares, most of us don´t even do facetime calls. More battery life is maybe the only thing that I find positive about it. Not worth it at all for any iPad 3 owner, IMHO.

I work as a professional iOS developer and I own every generation of iPad. So yes, I did actually do these things. And the performance figures aren't just theoretical.

iSunrise · Nov 5, 2012

holmesf said:
I work as a professional iOS developer and I own every generation of iPad. So yes, I did actually do these things. And the performance figures aren't just theoretical.

I am not saying that they are just theoretical. I am talking about the actual user experience with current apps and the current iOS. As a developer you can use all the horsepower the iPad 4 has for your new apps, but that doesn´t mean that an iPad 4 is worth it for any other normal user out there that isn´t a developer. You are still bound to the iOS ecosystem, you cannot change it´s underlying code. Even you are bound to iOS and it´s optimizations, even as a developer.

Like GorgonPhone already wrote he also couldn´t see any differences to write home about, except with 3D applications in current apps. In the Youtube video I posted, there also wasn´t any differences to write home about and that guy used iOS 6.0.1 to compare both.

Which means that there are not enough reasons to upgrade an iPad 3 to an iPad 4.

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