4K Apple TV Could Feature A10X Fusion Chip and 3GB of RAM

[ErikGrim]

Well Wii-U has a Radeon RV740 GPU. Wii U has 2GB of RAM Quad-core, 3 GHz IBM PowerPC-based 45 nm CPU called "Espresso". Wii-U is way more powerful than iPhone 7. Radeon 700 Series has 800 stream processing units, 10 SIMD cores composed of 16 shader cores containing 4 FP MADD/DP ALUs and 1 MADD/transcendental ALU. The GPU has GDDR5 memory, which runs at 900 MHz giving an effective transfer rate of 3.6 GHz and memory bandwidth of up to 115 GB/s. So no it is not even close. But one doesnt need to go so high, 12 seems like a good number for now provided its through put is somewhat comparable. The previous one was also 12 core but only merginally good. I personally would design AppleTV 4K with a Maxwell 10x series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell_(microarchitecture) Thats is just an awesome GPU in a small package.

The Wii-U was underpowered when it came out in 2012, slower than the 360 and PS3. There is no way in hell it is in any measure more powerful than an iPhone 7.

Let’s break down your information here:

Wii U has 2GB of RAM
Correct, 1GB for the system, 1GB for games. The iPhone 7 has 2GB, 7 Plus 3Gb. Obviously the OS does not use no where near 1GB, as every phone prior only has 1GB.

Quad-core, 3 GHz IBM PowerPC-based 45 nm CPU called “Espresso"
You got the name right at least. Each of the three cores clock in at 1.243hz. The XBox 360 and PS3 CPUs clock in at 3Ghz. While it is hard to benchmark these custom console CPU we can objectively say that it is slower than both 360 and the PS3. How does the A10 stack up? Well, we know that the A9x is faster than the PS4 or Xbox One and that the A10 is 40% faster than that again. There is really no competition here CPU wise.

Radeon 700 Series has 800 stream processing units, 10 SIMD cores composed of 16 shader cores containing 4 FP MADD/DP ALUs and 1 MADD/transcendental ALU. The GPU has GDDR5 memory, which runs at 900 MHz giving an effective transfer rate of 3.6 GHz and memory bandwidth of up to 115 GB/s
Not even close. The GPU powering Wii U carries the codename 'Latte', and runs at a speed of 549.9MHz. Wii's 'Hollywood' GPU clocked at 243 MHz, and the GameCube, 162 MHz. The Xbox 360 GPU speed is 550 MHz. While your numbers seem impressive, you are taking them from the desktop Radeons - not the custom version Nintendo is using (notably well underclocked) - and even then we are talking about a 2009 grade GPU here. The A10 Fusion GPU has a total of six cores and operates at around 900MHz.

 

[diamond.g]

The Wii-U was underpowered when it came out in 2012, slower than the 360 and PS3. There is no way in hell it is in any measure more powerful than an iPhone 7.

Let’s break down your information here:

Wii U has 2GB of RAM
Correct, 1GB for the system, 1GB for games. The iPhone 7 has 2GB, 7 Plus 3Gb. Obviously the OS does not use no where near 1GB, as every phone prior only has 1GB.

Quad-core, 3 GHz IBM PowerPC-based 45 nm CPU called “Espresso"
You got the name right at least. Each of the three cores clock in at 1.243hz. The XBox 360 and PS3 CPUs clock in at 3Ghz. While it is hard to benchmark these custom console CPU we can objectively say that it is slower than both 360 and the PS3. How does the A10 stack up? Well, we know that the A9x is faster than the PS4 or Xbox One and that the A10 is 40% faster than that again. There is really no competition here CPU wise.

Radeon 700 Series has 800 stream processing units, 10 SIMD cores composed of 16 shader cores containing 4 FP MADD/DP ALUs and 1 MADD/transcendental ALU. The GPU has GDDR5 memory, which runs at 900 MHz giving an effective transfer rate of 3.6 GHz and memory bandwidth of up to 115 GB/s
Not even close. The GPU powering Wii U carries the codename 'Latte', and runs at a speed of 549.9MHz. Wii's 'Hollywood' GPU clocked at 243 MHz, and the GameCube, 162 MHz. The Xbox 360 GPU speed is 550 MHz. While your numbers seem impressive, you are taking them from the desktop Radeons - not the custom version Nintendo is using (notably well underclocked) - and even then we are talking about a 2009 grade GPU here. The A10 Fusion GPU has a total of six cores and operates at around 900MHz.

For gaming, does CPU really matter at relatively low resolutions (make no mistake 1080p is a low resolution, at that level every game better have full MSAA and 16x AF)? Again, with all the GPU power that the AppleTV 4k has, it makes no sense that we don't have games like Fortnite or Dishonored. Don't get me wrong Sky looks pretty, but doesn't seem as complex as the other two.

 

[MadeTheSwitch]

AirPlay alone is a reason to buy it. There's Chromecast, but it's somehow still a piece of crap after all these years

Interesting comment considering my experience has been the exact opposite, AirPlay gives me lots of problems, my Chromecast rarely does. The problems with Chromecast are almost always either due to content provider or router.

Maybe you meant from a features perspective. But Chromecast was never meant to be a visual platform with lots of apps and games. It was meant just to play streaming media to your TV with your phone acting as the control and it does a fantastic job doing that one function. It also frankly, works better as a music player than an TV with a better playback interface I think.

 

[ErikGrim]

Interesting comment considering my experience has been the exact opposite, AirPlay gives me lots of problems, my Chromecast rarely does. The problems with Chromecast are almost always either due to content provider or router.

Maybe you meant from a features perspective. But Chromecast was never meant to be a visual platform with lots of apps and games. It was meant just to play streaming media to your TV with your phone acting as the control and it does a fantastic job doing that one function. It also frankly, works better as a music player than an TV with a better playback interface I think.

Chromecast is the only product I have returned. Ever. What a POS.

 

[fairuz]

Interesting comment considering my experience has been the exact opposite, AirPlay gives me lots of problems, my Chromecast rarely does. The problems with Chromecast are almost always either due to content provider or router.

Maybe you meant from a features perspective. But Chromecast was never meant to be a visual platform with lots of apps and games. It was meant just to play streaming media to your TV with your phone acting as the control and it does a fantastic job doing that one function. It also frankly, works better as a music player than an TV with a better playback interface I think.

I just want to stream my laptop's screen to my TV, and it can't do that. I thought that was the whole point of the product. It can kinda do that if I install Chrome and multiple third-party extensions, but at that point it's not worth, especially considering I'm not the only one using it. Also has similar limitations on iOS, which is likely not their fault, but whose fault it is doesn't matter to me. The features it does support still aren't very intuitive. Ends up being better to just use an HDMI cable.

 

[MadeTheSwitch]

The features it does support still aren't very intuitive.

I truly don't know how anyone can possibly say that. My husband is totally technologically illiterate and he quickly figured out how to switch Hulu or YouTube videos to the TV just by pressing the little Chromecast button on the app on his phone. Easy as can be.

 

[fairuz]

I truly don't know how anyone can possibly say that. My husband is totally technologically illiterate and he quickly figured out how to switch Hulu or YouTube videos to the TV just by pressing the little Chomecast button on the app on his phone. Easy as can be.

To be honest, I don't remember from the ~2 years ago why it was so annoying, just that I found myself having to Google how to Chromecast certain things. I assume there are apps that do it easily.

 

[pankajdoharey]

The Wii-U was underpowered when it came out in 2012, slower than the 360 and PS3. There is no way in hell it is in any measure more powerful than an iPhone 7.

Let’s break down your information here:

Wii U has 2GB of RAM
Correct, 1GB for the system, 1GB for games. The iPhone 7 has 2GB, 7 Plus 3Gb. Obviously the OS does not use no where near 1GB, as every phone prior only has 1GB.

Quad-core, 3 GHz IBM PowerPC-based 45 nm CPU called “Espresso"
You got the name right at least. Each of the three cores clock in at 1.243hz. The XBox 360 and PS3 CPUs clock in at 3Ghz. While it is hard to benchmark these custom console CPU we can objectively say that it is slower than both 360 and the PS3. How does the A10 stack up? Well, we know that the A9x is faster than the PS4 or Xbox One and that the A10 is 40% faster than that again. There is really no competition here CPU wise.

Radeon 700 Series has 800 stream processing units, 10 SIMD cores composed of 16 shader cores containing 4 FP MADD/DP ALUs and 1 MADD/transcendental ALU. The GPU has GDDR5 memory, which runs at 900 MHz giving an effective transfer rate of 3.6 GHz and memory bandwidth of up to 115 GB/s
Not even close. The GPU powering Wii U carries the codename 'Latte', and runs at a speed of 549.9MHz. Wii's 'Hollywood' GPU clocked at 243 MHz, and the GameCube, 162 MHz. The Xbox 360 GPU speed is 550 MHz. While your numbers seem impressive, you are taking them from the desktop Radeons - not the custom version Nintendo is using (notably well underclocked) - and even then we are talking about a 2009 grade GPU here. The A10 Fusion GPU has a total of six cores and operates at around 900MHz.

I would be happy to concede if i am wrong i would love Apple to give us faster processors. I am not sure if A9x is faster than PS4 or Xbox one. And hence A10X being 40% faster than A9X is irrelevant. Really what i am interested in knowing is if the GPU is faster than consoles, if it is than i am sure the gaming scene on Apple TV should pick up. After all if what you said is true then it would mean that AppleTV is the most powerful game ready streaming device on the market. But the last time i checked the most powerful game ready streaming player is Nvidia Shield. I already own both PS4 slim and Xbox One, and the kind of games i have played on them are not even close to anythinig have played on previous version of Apple TV. In any case it would be nice if you can post some links to validate your claim. Thanks for the detailed analysis.