Agreed, the A12X is not adequate in performance for tomorrow's needs and won't be good enough for the developers.
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A12Z Chip in iPad Pro Confirmed to Be Same As A12X, But With Extra GPU Core Enabled
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Agreed, the A12X is not adequate in performance for tomorrow's needs and won't be good enough for the developers.
It is not a big deal because the people are not buying it to use AR Application. The wearable AR is what Apple needs to be focused on.
But it wasn’t two years between the Nov 2018 and March 2020 models. It was a year and 4 months, exactly on-cycle. If Apple had waited until the two year mark (Nov 2020), it would have had an A14X—but devs wouldn’t have had a LiDAR model to work on during the preceding 8 months.
Let’s be clear about the hardware upgrades, and what iPad buyers now get instead of what they would have gotten a few weeks ago:
- A12Z: Just a small GPU upgrade; meh, but sure why not...
- better thermals
- 64—>128GB base storage (so price decreases at all capacities)
- 4GB—>6GB RAM (on the most common models by far, 128/256/512GB)
- single—>dual camera
- new LiDAR scanner
- five higher-quality microphones
- WiFi 6
That’s awesome, sure, but those are two of the features that arguably were least in need of updating last month. And neither are ready yet.
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No. They did not entirely confirm whether or not those are the same chip on early 2020 IPP.
In the early days of iPads and iPhone they lacked the power to run anything but basic apps (not to mention the storage to put them!) now iPhones and iPads are so powerful that developers aren’t creating apps that utilize anywhere near the potential that the silicon has to offer. In my mind what’s the point of making a CPU/GPU significantly more powerful when there are only a handful of apps in the store that even can scratch the surface of what it can do?
That's a false statement, the developers are not developing any newer application due to inadequate performance by RAM and GPU.
Yup.
And imagine if they had updated the CPU, to the A13X. It would've still been underwhelming compared to the late-2018 release, because that was an unusually massive upgrade.
I wish I could buy a 2018 iPad pro at reduced prices... but they are really hard to come by in the UK. So is the latest iPad air for that matter.
Yeah, at least the A14X will be worth doing an X variant (presumably). And if it isn’t, I can’t even imagine how disappointing an A13X would have been.
But with the smallish-for-the-most-part 4th gen upgrades + A14X + mini-LED backlighting + 5G (if you want it)—plus whatever other upgrades are in the 5th gen—it’ll be a decent upgrade from a 2018.
(A smaller overall bezel due to shrinkage in notch components is a possibility, but maybe it’s a little early for a change in dimensions.)
Presumably they don't even necessarily need to have improved the yield - they could have a store of processors with 8 working cores that they've been saving up.
nope. sued for not telling people that they kept the iPhone running even when a battery was bad, but didn't tell people. and now a 7-core GPU was advertised and what you got. What you are failing to understand is that the GPU may not have been active because the thermals were not right, the article is simply speculation that it was a bad core, it may have been as simple as they couldn't get the 8 GPU cores to function properly with the heat build-up. and then advertised a 7-core GPU and delivered. but haterbois gotta have somethin
Realistically, it is long overdue for such an announcement from Apple and the developer should be receiving a prototype for compiling its app.
oh no an incremental upgrade all they gave us was wifi 6, more ram LIDAR, more storage.....where is the holographic display, where is the tricorder function?
I continue to think another upgrade this year is part wishful thinking. It wouldn't be unprecedented, but best to set low expectations.
As for 5G, I think they might make that a differentiator for the Pro, because with the $329 iPad supporting older Smart Keyboards, they need to bring new high-end features to the Pro. Or maybe reduce cellular from $150 to $100, and then do $200 for 5G. Since other companies make 5G an Apple, I suppose Apple might as well do the same.
Lastly, the notch… I guess technically, the APIs have prepared for changing notch dimensions ("safe areas" and all). But I would be shocked if there aren't apps that have hardcoded the current notch dimensions, so Apple might still be afraid of changing it too often.
That RAM won't mean anything unless its specific use cases. Generally daily use it won't mean a thing. Yeah I guess the camera, even though in reality NO ONE but Apple cares about the iPad camera. And yes on WiFi 6, but that's if and only if you have a Wifi 6 router and service that supports it, which the majority of people do not.
No I did not.
I want 5G. Also, I am stuck at home right now so I don’t need a new iPad Pro at the moment.
In my experience, RAM is almost always the primary determinant of the long term usability of an iDevice. For this reason I always try not to purchase the last iteration of a RAM tier in an iPhone or iPad, unless the price is very cheap.
Considering that the 2020 entry level iPad Pro has 50% more RAM and twice the storage of the 2018, if I were buying new in spring 2020, I would not even consider the 2018 unless it was say over $300 cheaper. (128 GB is the sweet spot for me.)
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For real! This is kind of crazy that we have the hardware, but it's hindered via software (if I'm reading this correctly!)
Seeing how close the 2020 model is makes me appreciate my 2018 12.9".
It's my understanding that the 2018 processor didn't have all 8 cores working. So they sold it as a 7-core chip.
It's a process called "binning"
So it's not that they artificially deactivated that 8th core... it's that it wasn't there at all.