A12Z Chip in iPad Pro Confirmed to Be Same As A12X, But With Extra GPU Core Enabled

[kittycat40]

As I always say, a single generation upgrade is almost never worth it. The 2020 ipad pro is not for people who already have a 2018.

Think of the 2020 iPad Pro kinda of like an "S" type upgrade over the 2018 iPad Pro

for example difference between

iPhone 4s vs iPhone 4
iPhone 4: A4 chip, 5 MP rear camera, 720P HD video recording, 0.3 MP face-time camera, Bluetooth 2.1, 3G up to 7.2 MB speeds

iPhone 4S: A5 chip, 8 MP rear camera,1080P HD video recording, 0.3 MP face-time camera, Bluetooth 4.0, 3G up to 14.4 MB speeds, and SIRI

Using those 2 iPhone models as an example.

 

[ian87w]

Apple refreshes and rebrands on a better binning and it's a huge controversy. AMD, NVIDIA, Intel have been doing it for decades. Some Radeon RX 5700 cards can be turned into XTs with a bios flash. Sometimes people could unlock disabled cores on a Core i3 or Celeron.

Because Apple?
Like you said, better binning is old news for companies like intel and AMD. In the past, even nVidia kept releasing the "same" thing over and over (and simply renaming the product).

 

[iStorm]

As I said it this morning, the only thing that worries me me about buying a new 11” are those rumors of a new one coming this fall, I was one of those iPad 3 owners and would hate to see the history repeating.

I'm in the same boat. Had an iPad 3, currently have an iPad Air 2 and planning to upgrade to the 11" iPad Pro. Here are some things to consider...

• All the rumors I've seen about a new iPad Pro coming this fall only mentioned the 12.9" model (which seems odd). Have you seen anything that mentions the 11" model too? Even if a new one does come out this fall with a new display type, it'll be a "1st-gen", and I generally like to stay away from those. I doubt it will be such a drastic difference that I just HAVE to have it, at least for my use.
• The iPad 3 situation was made worse due to it's slow performance right off the bat, or soon after. The 2020 (and 2018) iPad Pro is a beast, and as far as I know, there aren't any/many apps that can push the iPad Pro to its full potential. The 2018/2020 iPad Pro will last for many years to come, unlike the iPad 3.

 

[efktd]

This makes me very happy to have enjoyed my 2018 11” iPad Pro ever since its release. Kinda like the Skylake iMac. It took somewhere around 2 years before Apple release a new version. Although, my Skylake iMac s*cked ginormous balls, and Apple took care of me by upgrading me to the Kaby Lake iMac.

 

[whiteboytrash]

It was probably to get the lidar hardware into the hands of developers so they have some experience with it so when the iPhone 12 comes out with lidar sensor, there will be apps out there for it at the start.

Agreed. WWDC will likely focus on AR also coupled with LiDAR.

 

[dapa0s]

Well, I switched from the 2018 ipad pro to the 2020 model, but only because I went from the 11 inch to the 12.9.

The cpu is already so strong, that I really didn't need anything stronger. The 2020 is an amazing device, definitely recommend it, but not necessarily as an upgrade from the 2018 (unless you got money to burn).

 

[dtrj787]

Why does this matter? They didn’t try to pass it as a new chip. Its the same number with a different variable on the end, meaning a different variation of the same chip. Why is every site posting an article on this, when the name clearly states what it is?

 

[GuruZac]

Why does this matter? They didn’t try to pass it as a new chip. Its the same number with a different variable on the end, meaning a different variation of the same chip. Why is every site posting an article on this, when the name clearly states what it is?

This is fair. I think there were many reasons for Apple not using an A13X variant, but at the end of the day, as others have stated, the A12X was a significant achievement in power, and there’s simply no reason to upgrade performance. I think what Apple did was great. Boost in RAM, boost in base storage for the same price, upgraded and added cameras. A nice, albeit very small upgrade to 2018 owners, and a great upgrade for anyone else.

 

[Bandaman]

This does seem like an unexpected interim release. I wonder if the new contract with Qualcomm prevented Apple from releasing a 5G version with the current chipset.


50% more RAM, double the base storage, new camera, WiFi 6, etc.

Which isn't worth the price tag for an upgrade. And "the 2018 is powerful enough" does not justify them not using a newer chip. That's Apple apologetics at its finest.

 

[iStorm]

Why does this matter? They didn’t try to pass it as a new chip. Its the same number with a different variable on the end, meaning a different variation of the same chip. Why is every site posting an article on this, when the name clearly states what it is?

Exactly! I haven't quite understood why so many are clamoring for a newer/faster CPU in the new iPad Pro. I just don't see Apple investing resources into this when there's really nothing out there today that can push the current iPad Pro to its limits. Yes, a new/faster CPU is always nice...if you can notice the improvements. Or maybe some want a new CPU for its improved efficiency? Knowing Apple, they would just make the battery smaller to compensate for the energy gains! 😅

 

[Bandaman]

Exactly! I haven't quite understood why so many are clamoring for a newer/faster CPU in the new iPad Pro.

Because it's the iPad Pro ... and it's expensive as **** ... and it should be upgraded accordingly. People would flip their **** if the iPhone had the same chip two years in a row.

I just don't see Apple investing resources into this when there's really nothing out there today that can push the current iPad Pro to its limits. Yes, a new/faster CPU is always nice...if you can notice the improvements. Or maybe some want a new CPU for its improved efficiency? Knowing Apple, they would just make the battery smaller to compensate for the energy gains! 😅

Of course there are. There are tons of productivity apps that push the iPad Pro to its limits. Just because you use the Pro to play Angry Birds doesn't mean that other people don't need the power.

 

[theheadguy]

No, this is nothing like that. A lot of processors have disabled cores or features due to binning.

Wow, nothing like that? Can you give a more substantive response?
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Exactly! I haven't quite understood why so many are clamoring for a newer/faster CPU in the new iPad Pro. I just don't see Apple investing resources into this when there's really nothing out there today that can push the current iPad Pro to its limits. Yes, a new/faster CPU is always nice...if you can notice the improvements. Or maybe some want a new CPU for its improved efficiency? Knowing Apple, they would just make the battery smaller to compensate for the energy gains! 😅

Why would a developer make software for a CPU that has yet to exist?

 

[joeblow7777]

in the early iPad days it seemed like every new generation was leaps and bounds better. I miss those days...

Mobile technology has matured. We can't expect massive leaps and advancements every year or two.

 

[Herrpod]

As upgrades go, this one is awful. But if it’s your first iPad Pro...buy a much cheaper 2018 model.

 

[ssgbryan]

Folks around here are quite delusional to think the A Series is going to keep churning out major improvements. This dog is on its last legs. The next design will have to try and license technologies from AMD in the area of chiplet designs, and I doubt AMD will do that.

A-Series will have less dramatic improvements as is, and Intel is going to get blitzkrieg'd in September by Zen 3. Apple needs to move to AMD for significant performance improvements to increase Mac sales, period.

AMD will sell to anyone that will pay for it.

Everyone will move to chiplet type designs - it allows a much higher return rate.

The thing to remember about the Ryzen series - everything other than the 16 core 3950X are the lowest binned chiplets.

 

[PickUrPoison]

So, in other words, the A12Z is what the A12X should have been?

Not at all. It could have been that the A12X was originally planned to be a 6-core GPU, but yields were better than expected and they decided they could go to seven without throwing away too many chips/wafers. Who knows? It could have been that only 20% or less had 8 good GPU cores.

It’s a well known yield maximization strategy. Chip companies have been binning since at least the 70s. I worked at a burn-in and test lab in 1980/81 and a common task (assuming it passed functional testing) was 70°C binning of 16k DRAM chips for maximum access time, 300, 250 or 200ns for example.

Similar to the A12X/Z parts, a 64k part could be sold as 16k if it had one, two or three bad units, by blowing on-chip links (fuses).

 

[ssgbryan]

Exactly! I haven't quite understood why so many are clamoring for a newer/faster CPU in the new iPad Pro. I just don't see Apple investing resources into this when there's really nothing out there today that can push the current iPad Pro to its limits. Yes, a new/faster CPU is always nice...if you can notice the improvements. Or maybe some want a new CPU for its improved efficiency? Knowing Apple, they would just make the battery smaller to compensate for the energy gains! 😅

So, 640k should be enough for everybody.?

It isn't what you need today, it is what you will need tomorrow, unless of course, you upgrade every time a new product comes out. People hang on to their iPads longer than their phones.

 

[ipedro]

So based on this information, if you have the 2018 iPad pro, this upgrade is pretty unimpressive.

I've had the iPad Pro 2018 since launch and it's just an incredible beast. I use it professionally as my main computer, editing RAW files in Lightroom and making adjustments in Photoshop for iPadOS and it's never ever slowed down. I didn't expect to have to upgrade for several years and I don't think Apple is anywhere near pushing it. Releasing an update with a better GPU yield now that the manufacturing process has been mastered makes perfect sense.

 

[Internet Enzyme]

So.. the thing that I bought last year has a GPU core purposefully disabled? Isnt that kind of like the battery thing they were sued for?

The advertised it as a 7-core GPU, so no foul play. This is actually a very common, standard industry practice with chip fabrication. In fact, this is practice of binning chips is why certain skus even exist. This is a good thread explaining it:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1243356754554961920

 

[Nugget]

So based on this information, if you have the 2018 iPad pro, this upgrade is pretty unimpressive.

I've got a 2018 iPad Pro. I like it a lot. I can count exactly zero times that I've thought -- while using it -- that it didn't have enough GPU horsepower. I can't imagine I would even notice an extra GPU core.

 

[magbarn]

in the early iPad days it seemed like every new generation was leaps and bounds better. I miss those days...

I think Apple/TSMC have hit a wall. I hope A12/13 isn't Apple's Skylake (All Intel CPU's except the recently released 10th gen, are all based on the 14nm Skylake, hence why PC's single core performance have stagnated for half a decade except when just adding more cores...)

 

[cmaier]

I think Apple/TSMC have hit a wall. I hope A12/13 isn't Apple's Skylake (All Intel CPU's except the recently released 10th gen, are all based on the 14nm Skylake, hence why PC's single core performance have stagnated for half a decade except when just adding more cores...)

Nope. There’s a new chip coming, with the first major internal rev number in quite awhile, suitable for both MacBook and ipad pro. Coming soon.

 

[0924487]

So.. the thing that I bought last year has a GPU core purposefully disabled? Isnt that kind of like the battery thing they were sued for?

no, because it is disabled on the launch, that is, that was never a part of the deal. It is most likely due to yield issue or 2018 iPad Pro thermal and power delivery design couldn't handle all 8 GPU cores running simultaneously.

 

[Abazigal]

I think Apple/TSMC have hit a wall. I hope A12/13 isn't Apple's Skylake (All Intel CPU's except the recently released 10th gen, are all based on the 14nm Skylake, hence why PC's single core performance have stagnated for half a decade except when just adding more cores...)

I suspect it’s more that Apple is still working on the A14x (if rumours of another ipad refresh at the end of the year are true), and they just don’t have anything better to put in the current 2020 ipad at the moment, because the mythical A13X doesn’t exist.

So as of the moment, A12X is technically still the best that Apple has to offer. They will have something better down the road, just not right now.

 

[scupking]

It will be interesting to see what upgrades the mini, normal iPad, pros and air get at the end of the year. Will the mini and air get a normal A13, iPad 8 get the A12 and pros get A14x.