Apple downclocked the A5X on iOS 6

[chrismarle]

After playing around, exploring and benchmarking iOS 6, I noticed that the A5X in my iPad 3,3 is now clocked at 882Mhz instead of 1Ghz like it used to be. However, performances are absolutely identical if not better and on Geekbench, I'm getting the same score I used to get on iOS 5 clocked at 1Ghz. Also, battery life has improved in iOS 6, in my opinion.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60339931@N05/7571891936

Thoughts?

 

[lunarworks]

It's probably downclocked in low-use mode to preserve battery. I imagine it clocks up when demand goes up.

 

[Dima470]

Hmm interesting... I do hope they re-overclock it by GM. It would give the new iPad the boost it really needs for apps like nova 3... Or maybe that app you used isn't IOS 6 supported and is giving you crap...

 

[Intell]

iOS 6 probably now dynamically give the CPU's clock speed to iOS apps instead of stating the max it can run at. The variable clock speed is nothing new with the iPad 2 and 3.

 

[chrismarle]

Hmm interesting... I do hope they re-overclock it by GM. It would give the new iPad the boost it really needs for apps like nova 3... Or maybe that app you used isn't IOS 6 supported and is giving you crap...

Since the benchmark I used was Geekbench, I do think that it is not giving me crap because they are working on CPU analyzing and benchmarking for a while and they are well trusted in the industry.

 

[Intell]

Since the benchmark I used was Geekbench, I do think that it is not giving me crap because they are working on CPU analyzing and benchmarking for a while and they are well trusted in the industry.

CPU benckmarking and analyzing on iOS devices from an App Store app is still new and hard to predict accurately.

 

[utahman130]

Think about this......... Why would Apple underclock their devices in iOS 6 more than iOS 5? How does that make sense?

 

[JS82712]

Think about this......... Why would Apple underclock their devices in iOS 6 more than iOS 5? How does that make sense?

My guess is that this 'underlocking' occurs during normal usage, and that the clock speed increases during more demanding task (similar to the GPU switching mechanism found in MBP) ; this will probably solve the heat 'issue' that some complain about.

 

[faroZ06]

It's probably downclocked in low-use mode to preserve battery. I imagine it clocks up when demand goes up.

If this is true, then that's great. Maybe they were sick of the iPad losing charge while it was plugged in and in use? Try going to the Apple Store, and leave an iPad recording video for a minute. It'll lose charge even though it's plugged in.

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Think about this......... Why would Apple underclock their devices in iOS 6 more than iOS 5? How does that make sense?

Because they decided that underclocking would be an improvement? Same reason they did everything they did in iOS 6.

 

[pk7]

iOS 6 probably now dynamically give the CPU's clock speed to iOS apps instead of stating the max it can run at. The variable clock speed is nothing new with the iPad 2 and 3.

Do you know if the iPhone 4S also dynamically adjusts CPU and/or GPU clock speed depending on the current activity?

 

[Intell]

Do you knows the iPhone 4S also dynamically adjusts CPU and/or GPU clock speed depending on the current activity?

It may, but so far Apple has only stated that the iPad 2/3 do that.

 

[blackhand1001]

It may, but so far Apple has only stated that the iPad 2/3 do that.

It most likely does. Almost every mobile device in the past 10 years does this.

 

[Fruit Cake]

I ran a spider benchmark on ios6 and it's actually faster under ios6 then 5, 1400ms vs 1650ms

This is with new iPad, I suspect ipad2 is same.

 

[Fruit Cake]

It may, but so far Apple has only stated that the iPad 2/3 do that.

I'd say the iPhone does it, and more aggressive then iPad, can you imagine battery life If it didn't?

 

[MythicFrost]

After playing around, exploring and benchmarking iOS 6, I noticed that the A5X in my iPad 3,3 is now clocked at 882Mhz instead of 1Ghz like it used to be. However, performances are absolutely identical if not better and on Geekbench, I'm getting the same score I used to get on iOS 5 clocked at 1Ghz. Also, battery life has improved in iOS 6, in my opinion.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60339931@N05/7571891936

Thoughts?

They've not downclocked anything. Firstly you're running an app designed for iOS 5 on iOS 6, so there's always the possibility of problems. Secondly and more to the point, the iPad 3's CPU is dynamically scaled depending on the task, and the same is true of the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S. When you're opening GeekBench it's not really stressing it so it's running at a lower clock speed.

Exit the app. Bring up the app switcher and force quit GeekBench and then open it again, you'll see several different scores. I've had 888MHz, 895MHz, and ~865MHz, as well as a couple of others. That same frequency it notes initially is then saved with your score, it's not updated when the benchmark finishes running.