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A5 vs A5X vs A6 vs A6X

D

DaDalle

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 17, 2011
99
6
Hey there,

How do you guys think these chips will stack up each other?

Will the A6X be much better than A6? This should be comparable to the iPhone 4S vs iPad 3 (A5 vs A5X). Anyone here having both devices and telling if there is a significant difference in performance?

Just so I can imagine the differences between these chips.

Thanks, dalle.
 
Dwalls90

Dwalls90

macrumors 603
Feb 5, 2009
5,428
4,416
DaDalle said:
Hey there,

How do you guys think these chips will stack up each other?

Will the A6X be much better than A6? This should be comparable to the iPhone 4S vs iPad 3 (A5 vs A5X). Anyone here having both devices and telling if there is a significant difference in performance?

Just so I can imagine the differences between these chips.

Thanks, dalle.
Click to expand...

The A6X is basically just the A6 for the retina iPad.

The A5X (iPad 3) mirrors the A5 (iPhone 4S) in performance benchmarks

I would assume the A6X will be in the ballpark of the iPhone 5's A6.
 
Y

yow.

macrumors member
Aug 26, 2012
52
0
From A5X to A6X (iPad 3 to 4), they claim both CPU and GPU performance was doubled.

From A5 to A6 (iPhone 4S to 5), CPU and GPU were also doubled:
- CPU was doubled by increased clock (and a process shrink offsetting the power consumption), and Apple's own home-designed core (which is probably equivalent to ARM's cortex A15).
- GPU was doubled, also be increased clock (and shrink) plus one extra graphics core. It went from dual core A5 to tri-core graphics in A6. An extra 50%.

So, logically, we'd expect the same improvements from A5X to A6X:
- increased clock (and shrink) for both CPU and GPU
- CPU redesign (maybe cortex A15-like)
- GPU increased by 50% - from 4 cores to 6 cores.

But there's a puzzle in that last one: Apple claims quad-core graphics in the A6X, not hex-core. So where is the graphics improvement coming from?
- doubling GPU clock? But that would wreck battery life
- a new GPU design - perhaps the fabled PowerVR Rogue series 6? But that would be more than double. Maybe it's massively downclocked?
- a minor GPU redesign, and overall SoC architecture improvement (e.g. increasing bandwidth). This seems most likely
 
T

ThatsMeRight

macrumors 68020
Sep 12, 2009
2,312
294
DaDalle said:
Hey there,

How do you guys think these chips will stack up each other?

Will the A6X be much better than A6? This should be comparable to the iPhone 4S vs iPad 3 (A5 vs A5X). Anyone here having both devices and telling if there is a significant difference in performance?

Just so I can imagine the differences between these chips.

Thanks, dalle.
Click to expand...

We've got A5 and A6 chips for iPhones and iPod touches.
The -X variants have more powerful GPUs to push the higher resolution displays of the retina iPads and are slightly higher clocked.

Effectively, a retina iPad delivers about the same performance as the retina iPhone.
In raw power, however, the -X variants are about two to four times as fast.
 
R

RobNor

macrumors 6502
May 29, 2010
278
9
Does anyone know if the clock speed on the GPU's have been increased on the iPad 4?
Apple say twice the speed but still only four cores
 
T

tann

macrumors 68000
Apr 15, 2010
1,944
813
UK
RobNor said:
Does anyone know if the clock speed on the GPU's have been increased on the iPad 4?
Apple say twice the speed but still only four cores
Click to expand...

Not confirmed yet, we'll have to wait for reviews/teardowns!
 
GoCubsGo

GoCubsGo

macrumors Nehalem
Feb 19, 2005
35,742
153
Dwalls90 said:
The A6X is basically just the A6 for the retina iPad.

The A5X (iPad 3) mirrors the A5 (iPhone 4S) in performance benchmarks

I would assume the A6X will be in the ballpark of the iPhone 5's A6.
Click to expand...

I think this is a pretty good theory. My iPad 3 does seem to perform as well as my iPhone 4s.
 
Reason077

Reason077

macrumors 68040
Aug 14, 2007
3,645
3,722
The "X" versions use classified, military-grade technology recovered from crashed alien spacecraft.
 
B

borgqueenx

macrumors 65816
Jul 16, 2010
1,357
258
PrayForDeath said:
He doesn't. It's all speculation at this point until we see the first benchmarks/teardowns.
Click to expand...

thats what i thought. i think ALOT of those 1gb is used for the retina display, and cant be used for texture cache ect.....My guess is 2gb ram.
 
D

DaDalle

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 17, 2011
99
6
Since both the iPhone 5 and iPad have 1GB ram I guess the iPad 4 will have it too. But 2GB would be really cool!
 
R

Redjericho

macrumors 6502a
Sep 16, 2011
815
0
RobNor said:
Does anyone know if the clock speed on the GPU's have been increased on the iPad 4?
Apple say twice the speed but still only four cores
Click to expand...

Still? The A5X had only a dual-core processor, only the GPU was quad.

----------
borgqueenx said:
2gb because powerful graphics and CPU like the ipad 4 has now, would be to limited with 1gb of ram.
Click to expand...

It will not have 2gb. My jailbroken iPad 3 shows me the available RAM at any given moment, and I can tell you right now, having 2 gigs would only really show improvements in very graphic intensive games and websites. As of right now, nearly any app can run and still manage over 500mb of ram remaining. I have over 750mb when just sitting on the springboard with no apps in the background.
 
S

sehjoon

macrumors newbie
Oct 7, 2012
2
0
Hmm...

DaDalle said:
Since both the iPhone 5 and iPad have 1GB ram I guess the iPad 4 will have it too. But 2GB would be really cool!
Click to expand...

Because apple IOS doesn't requires huge scale of spec, I think it wouldn't be 2gb ram on apple ones...:(
 
WhiteIphone5

WhiteIphone5

macrumors 65816
May 27, 2011
1,182
2
Lima, Peru
DaDalle said:
Hey there,

How do you guys think these chips will stack up each other?

Will the A6X be much better than A6? This should be comparable to the iPhone 4S vs iPad 3 (A5 vs A5X). Anyone here having both devices and telling if there is a significant difference in performance?

Just so I can imagine the differences between these chips.

Thanks, dalle.
Click to expand...

Benchmark
 

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T

TickleMeElmo

macrumors regular
Jun 19, 2012
123
0
yow. said:
From A5X to A6X (iPad 3 to 4), they claim both CPU and GPU performance was doubled.

From A5 to A6 (iPhone 4S to 5), CPU and GPU were also doubled:
- CPU was doubled by increased clock (and a process shrink offsetting the power consumption), and Apple's own home-designed core (which is probably equivalent to ARM's cortex A15).
- GPU was doubled, also be increased clock (and shrink) plus one extra graphics core. It went from dual core A5 to tri-core graphics in A6. An extra 50%.

So, logically, we'd expect the same improvements from A5X to A6X:
- increased clock (and shrink) for both CPU and GPU
- CPU redesign (maybe cortex A15-like)
- GPU increased by 50% - from 4 cores to 6 cores.

But there's a puzzle in that last one: Apple claims quad-core graphics in the A6X, not hex-core. So where is the graphics improvement coming from?
- doubling GPU clock? But that would wreck battery life
- a new GPU design - perhaps the fabled PowerVR Rogue series 6? But that would be more than double. Maybe it's massively downclocked?
- a minor GPU redesign, and overall SoC architecture improvement (e.g. increasing bandwidth). This seems most likely
Click to expand...

A15 is definitely more powerful than then A6 however it was never really meant to be a smartphone processor and is more targetted at server markets. A6 includes some of the instruction sets if A15 but it is markedly slower in terms of processing power.

I member reading that the GPU increase was due to the use of a better core and higher clock rates enabled by the move to a smaller lithography.
 
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