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iPadDad

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 8, 2014
313
156
Will Apple make the iPad Air 2 twice as fast as the iPad Air?

I ask because this seems to be the trend between the iPad 3 vs the iPad 4 and iPad 4 vs the iPad Air, they all seem to be twice as fast as the predecessors.

What do you think?
 

Menel

Suspended
Aug 4, 2011
6,351
1,356
No. Go watch the keynote that showed yesterday. You can find it at apple.com/live

A7 to A8 upgrade was announced yesterday as a 25% improvement.
 

Shadowbech

macrumors G3
Oct 18, 2011
9,038
5,894
It will likely have the A8 chip on the next gen ipad so as above mentioned it's just 25% improvement.
 

richardbb85

macrumors 6502a
Dec 9, 2009
658
26
the air is not slow/lagging, why would u care if the next gen is faster. u should hope we get more ram instead
 

whitesand

macrumors regular
Oct 10, 2011
196
17
It could be more than 25% faster as it could come with an A8X variant of the chip as they have done before with the IPad.
 

iPadDad

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 8, 2014
313
156
It could be more than 25% faster as it could come with an A8X variant of the chip as they have done before with the IPad.

This would make more sense to me, for a few reasons;

1.) Apps these days are requiring more and more power, especially in business.
2.) If you consider how fast the industry is evolving in terms of software demands (Apps), I am sure Apple forsee more performance as a clever way to keep customer satisfaction high in such a demanding and evolving market.
3.) I believe Apple have lacked in the high end gaming area with in iOS for some time now, and that now they are pushing in a big way for developers to bring consol type games to the ipad, hence the introduction of Metal and now Bioshock.

Significantly better performance must be the road forward, surely? that's my opinion anyway...
 
Last edited:

iMacmatician

macrumors 601
Jul 20, 2008
4,249
55
There have been some (sketchy?) rumors of considerably thinner iPads this year. I'm sure that thickness improvements can be made from many different areas, but if these rumors have any grain of truth to them I doubt that the A8(X?) in the iPad Air 2 will be considerably more powerful than the A7 in the iPad Air. My current guess is a similar situation with the A7 devices. No A8X (at least for the iPad mini and Air), the iPhone 6, 6+, and iPad mini 3 will have the same or essentially the same chip specs, and the iPad Air's chip will be slightly faster.
 

iPadDad

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 8, 2014
313
156
There have been some (sketchy?) rumors of considerably thinner iPads this year. I'm sure that thickness improvements can be made from many different areas, but if these rumors have any grain of truth to them I doubt that the A8(X?) in the iPad Air 2 will be considerably more powerful than the A7 in the iPad Air. My current guess is a similar situation with the A7 devices. No A8X (at least for the iPad mini and Air), the iPhone 6, 6+, and iPad mini 3 will have the same or essentially the same chip specs, and the iPad Air's chip will be slightly faster.

That makes good sence,
 

Outrun1986

macrumors 6502
Jun 27, 2010
299
3
This would make more sense to me, for a few reasons;

1.) Apps these days are requiring more and more power, especially in business.
2.) If you consider how fast the industry is evolving in terms of software demands (Apps), I am sure Apple forsee more performance as a clever way to keep customer satisfaction high in such a demanding and evolving market.
3.) I believe Apple have lacked in the high end gaming area with in iOS for some time now, and that now they are pushing in a big way for developers to bring consol type games to the ipad, hence the introduction of Metal and now Bioshock.

Significantly better performance must be the road forward, surely? that's my opinion anyway...


The new skylanders game is also coming to tablets complete with it's own controller, it comes out in october so console gaming is happening on tablets and it's coming soon.
 

Newtons Apple

Suspended
Mar 12, 2014
22,757
15,253
Jacksonville, Florida
Will Apple make the iPad Air 2 twice as fast as the iPad Air?

I ask because this seems to be the trend between the iPad 3 vs the iPad 4 and iPad 4 vs the iPad Air, they all seem to be twice as fast as the predecessors.

What do you think?

Even if the processor was twice as fast you would not get twice the speed. I have bought every iPad they made the the upgrade is slight when it comes to speed. What you do get is smoother operation and some increase in speed.
 

s2mikey

Suspended
Sep 23, 2013
2,490
4,255
Upstate, NY
Even if the processor was twice as fast you would not get twice the speed. I have bought every iPad they made the the upgrade is slight when it comes to speed. What you do get is smoother operation and some increase in speed.

I believe the performance increase is more dramatic for those of us that have only bought every second or third version though. I came from and iPad 2 and the Air felt quite a bit faster, IMO. Coming from a 4 though probably wouldn't have had the same result.
 

Ledgem

macrumors 68020
Jan 18, 2008
2,034
924
Hawaii, USA
the air is not slow/lagging, why would u care if the next gen is faster. u should hope we get more ram instead
I use my iPad for work purposes. It's not unusual that I'll open a PDF textbook spanning hundreds to thousands of pages and search for something. The search speeds have been improving very nicely with each successive processor jump (and with improvements to the app's programming), but I'd still like it to be faster. Actually, considering that the iPad is a part of my workflow, I'd like all load, lag, and general wait periods to be eliminated. Those delays aren't perceptible when I'm using it at home and am not in a rush, but when you only have minutes to seconds to get something done, you feel it.
 

Outrun1986

macrumors 6502
Jun 27, 2010
299
3
Yeah I still have the iPad 2,4 and it works fine for my family and I since we only use the most popular apps on it, mostly Facebook.
 

cababah

macrumors 68000
Jun 11, 2009
1,891
504
SF Bay Area, CA
I think we are at the point of seeing diminishing returns for CPU speed increases as seen in the latest keynote where the A8 is "up to 25% faster" than the A7. The limitation is battery technology at this point hence the trend in making the CPU more efficient in power consumption.
 

KeepCalmPeople

macrumors 65816
Sep 5, 2012
1,457
659
Los Angeles, California
As the A7 is barely breaking a sweat (even the A6/A6X aren't slow) with current apps, I think it would be appropriate for Apple to focus on reducing energy consumption and possibly increasing the pixel density of new iPads with an A8 variant.
 

TommyA6

macrumors 65816
May 15, 2013
1,056
516
As the A7 is barely breaking a sweat (even the A6/A6X aren't slow) with current apps, I think it would be appropriate for Apple to focus on reducing energy consumption and possibly increasing the pixel density of new iPads with an A8 variant.

A big, big NO NO, to increasing pixel density on new iPads. iPad Air and mini retina aren't running as smooth as iPhone 5s (or even 5) on iOS 7.1, so increasing resolution even more would do the same for the new iPads.
 

Ledgem

macrumors 68020
Jan 18, 2008
2,034
924
Hawaii, USA
iPad Air and mini retina aren't running as smooth as iPhone 5s (or even 5) on iOS 7.1, so increasing resolution even more would do the same for the new iPads.
I don't notice a difference between my 5S and my iPad mini retina... what issues are you noticing?
 

TommyA6

macrumors 65816
May 15, 2013
1,056
516
I don't notice a difference between my 5S and my iPad mini retina... what issues are you noticing?

Screen rotation in the App store isn't smooth, screen rotation with keyboard on screen isn't smooth, Siri activation isn't smooth (the blurring effect stutters) etc.
 

sanke1

macrumors 65816
Nov 9, 2010
1,067
436
iPads will have A8X

Rough predictions:

Slightly higher CPU clock speed compared to A8
Extra GPU cores with higher clock speeds.
 
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