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That’s not really surprising. I was more surprised that Apple was comparing the A15 to the competition instead of the A14 like they normally do.

Thanks for posting this, which includes a calculation I had been wondering about: the 40% increase Apple touted for the A15 mini over the old A12 mini. As I suspected from the vague way they talked about the A15, it seems the A15 is going to have little if any speed boost over the A14.

which, honestly, is fine. I have an A12 device (iPad Air 3), A13 device (iPhone 11, for work), and A14 device (iPhone 12 mini, personal). I don’t know about FPS gaming or whatever, but in everyday use, I cannot distinguish among the speed of the three chips.
 
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Same 5 nm process this year as last. A15 similar performance to A14. This is not a coincidence. "Designing" is not as important as the manufacturing process.
Apple Silicon "magic" comes from TSMC, not Apple's chip team.
The A15 is an enhanced 5nm process over the A14 which allows for greater transistor density. Transistor density is usually a precursor to performance. The A14 has 11 billion transistors versus the A15 at 15 billion transistors, so some of that should translate to performance improvement. For comparison, the A13 was a 7nm chip like the A12 but still gained a 20% performance boost.
 
The A15 is an enhanced 5nm process over the A14 which allows for greater transistor density. Transistor density is usually a precursor to performance. The A14 has 11 billion transistors versus the A15 at 15 billion transistors, so some of that should translate to performance improvement. For comparison, the A13 was a 7nm chip like the A12 but still gained a 20% performance boost.

My point is, if chip design was so important (And even more than the manufacturing process like what a lot of delusional Apple fanatics like to think), why couldn't Apple squeeze out their typical annual performance from their CPU and GPU?

The "design" doesn't matter. The manufacturing process is key. That's my point.
 
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According to Mashable, Recording in Apple ProRes requires at least 256 GB of storage.
According to Apple's website, ProRes is available to all Pro models - it's just that the 128 GB versions can only do 1080p30fps, while the rest can do 4k30fps.
 
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Interesting. I thought that the 12 Pro models needed the extra 2 GB for the camera system, but that seems to be disproven now that the 13 models can record in Dolby Vision at 4K/60 with only 4 GB RAM. Maybe they just give the Pros 6 GB for better multitasking? I would have loved to see 8 GB but I’m not complaining as iOS clearly doesn’t need that much RAM to run smoothly.

Maybe it’s a different feature of the 12 Pro and 13 Pro camera system that requires 6 GB. Apple never increases RAM unless they have to.
 
Thanks for posting this, which includes a calculation I had been wondering about: the 40% increase Apple touted for the A15 mini over the old A12 mini. As I suspected from the vague way they talked about the A15, it seems the A15 is going to have little if any speed boost over the A14.

which, honestly, is fine. I have an A12 device (iPad Air 3), A13 device (iPhone 11, for work), and A14 device (iPhone 12 mini, personal). I don’t know about FPS gaming or whatever, but in everyday use, I cannot distinguish among the speed of the three chips.
Getting to the point where upgraded processing power is not noticeable or utilized with everyday/average type usage.
 
That's why for iPhone with 2 GB or less or RAM, I would personally recommend a Restore (e.g., from scratch) update to the latest iOS version.

Or just don't get the iPhone at all. No one should support companies that push malware onto their own customers.
 
Getting to the point where upgraded processing power is not noticeable or utilized with everyday/average type usage.
It's not that. It's because they're using the same node process as the A14. Manufacturing process determines performance, not "design". Apple can't squeeze out more performance if the manufacturing process doesn't allow it.
Apple Silicon "magic" should be TSMC magic. Apple "design" is mostly worthless PR junk.
 
Not a big surprise, is it? An S year in all but the name.
Is it even?

Why did Apple bother with having a stream about this? They need to accept that not every tiny update is worth talking about - just announce it via a press release and a website update, the same as how a lot of Mac updates are handled.

I've stopped tuning into Apple events. I've come to realize that I'm not going to miss out on the next revolutionary product by skipping them, because it's almost certainly not going to come from an Apple run by Tim Cook.
 
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I did think it was odd for them not to compare it to last years A14. Will be interested to see what the bench marks show when it's released.
First time they've ever done that, which means we're actually hitting a ceiling on Y-o-Y performance. That's not good.
 
Not a big surprise, is it? An S year in all but the name.
It’s really quite a shame that the “S” model hasn’t gotten such a bad reputation. Ironically, the iPhone 3GS was the most substantial improvement in the performance of iPhones ever. Up to 100% faster, and this at a time when loading a web page could easily take 60 seconds. Cutting that by 30 s made such a difference. Nowadays you’ll rarely even notice an improvement.
 
First time they've ever done that, which means we're actually hitting a ceiling on Y-o-Y performance. That's not good.

It's because they're using the same manufacturing process as the A14. Apple "design" has almost nothing to do with performance (Or anything substantial at all). It all comes down to how fast TSMC can improve their manufacturing process. The same situation happened to Intel for almost a decade when they were stuck on 14nm. The 3rd gen i-processors had very similar performance as their 8th gen i-processors, because all those processors used the same 14nm process with very incremental improvements YoY.

I blame Apple shouting from the rooftops about how they "custom designed" everything. Their propaganda made a lot of people delusional about how much influence Apple is having on tech development when it's really the manufacturers who were pushing tech. Apple just uses whichever manufacturer has the best tech and pretends that they developed everything from scratch. It's like the bully who makes his classmates do all the work and then takes all the credit.
 
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Not a big surprise, is it? An S year in all but the name.

3gs, 6s, Xs all increases Ram

Names don’t matter

it’s a new generation iPhone and apple runs a tight BoM to profit margin

bigger upgrade over previous year than some S years or numbered years have been; at the very least “equal” upgrade

It’s really quite a shame that the “S” model hasn’t gotten such a bad reputation. Ironically, the iPhone 3GS was the most substantial improvement in the performance of iPhones ever. Up to 100% faster, and this at a time when loading a web page could easily take 60 seconds. Cutting that by 30 s made such a difference. Nowadays you’ll rarely even notice an improvement.

iPhone 6s was probably the most substantial year on year improvement

diminishing returns now. A15 is a solid improvement over A14 which was solid over A13. Nothing crazy because it’s just reiteration on existing architecture and it’s mature now

Incremental release year in general, no major improvements worth upgrading to from 12 Pro

Same as last year. 5G and new chassis aside, 12 series was just as underwhelming (check out the threads from last year)

That’s just the name of the game. 99% of people are not upgrading every year.
 
I’m the first to complain about Apple’s proposed spyware, but I’ve never ran into any problem with my 12 Pro Max’s 6GB RAM. 🤷‍♂️
 
I’m the first to complain about Apple’s proposed spyware, but I’ve never ran into any problem with my 12 Pro Max’s 6GB RAM. 🤷‍♂️

The update *cough* malware *cough* that will slow down your device to 2010 android level is coming soon. Hope you like 2 hour battery life and stutter every time you move the screen.
 
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As said by me and many others, there's really nothing special from the event, except maybe Prp-motion, that's it.
Cinematic video mode is cool, too bad its gimped and only does 1080 30p. Useless for anything serious.
 
Well S years are usually the time Apple has more of a focus on internal specs and not design change. So could be considered a disappointment for some. I’d care more about RAM in an iPad though.

Will be interesting to see how well it sells. Just like a car, if Apple doesn’t put a new fender on the design no one seems to be as interested.
Seems like longer battery life, three new camera lenses, larger sensor, a 120Hz display, ProRes option, updated chip, and max capacity of 1TB makes it arguably a significant update. I'll be jumping from an 11Pro, so I guess it's bigger for me.
 
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Cinematic video mode is cool, too bad its gimped and only does 1080 30p. Useless for anything serious.

1080p @ 30fps this year..
1080p @ 60 fps next year..
4k @ 24/30 fps following year.. and so forth..

Timmy's gotta milk it ;)
 
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Incremental release year in general, no major improvements worth upgrading to from 12 Pro

Disagree. Apple crippled the battery on the 12 Pro so they could fix it with the 13 Pro. Trade in your 12 Pro now and upgrade or its value will drop like a stone.
 
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