New iPad Mini Has Downclocked A15 Chip Compared to iPhone 13

[Realityck]

This actually makes me angry. Strongly considering keeping my 11 pro max and use the iPad mini for my portable heavy lifting.

Throttling the CPU in a case that can likely dissipate heat better, and have better sustained performance is frustratingly nonsensical!

Can’t have it overshadow the mighty iPhone I guess!

Is this really throttling any more than one would see slight speed variations with intel based MBP laptops for example? Just the design was tweaked for best performance vs battery given the battery involved with the mini 6 versus the high end iPhones 13's.

 

[Realityck]

Size does matter

I would love to see one up close to see how it compares to the mini 5.

 

[Macalway]

Seems to make no sense. Maybe if people bug Apple enough they will tell us why.

 

[Craptastic]

The complaints about this are so absurd. Something so minuscule the general user will never notice.

how dare Apple make the new iPad mini a fraction of a second slower?! How dare they..HOW DARE THEY.

 

[MyopicPaideia]

Maybe. These good be chips from the bottom tail of the Schmoo plot.

I did think this myself, but they are the full 5 core GPU versions as well. But maybe they have all cores functional but can only get up to 2.9 Ghz? Is that a possible/realistic scenario for binning?

 

[ruka.snow]

Can you explain in what ways binning might take place?

As I understand it, a manufacturer might bin on:
- chip flaws that might disable functionality (for example, a core)
- speed flaws that might not allow the chip to run at certain speeds.

Is that right? Are there other ways?

Cache can be disabled or removed too, or at least has been in the past. This is how you get two lines of the same chip like a Pentium 2 and a Celeron.

 

[gotluck]

I did think this myself, but they are the full 5 core GPU versions as well. But maybe they have all cores functional but can only get up to 2.9 Ghz? Is that a possible/realistic scenario for binning?

yea the downclocked CPU + Premium GPU combo is a bit wild

 

[cmaier]

I did think this myself, but they are the full 5 core GPU versions as well. But maybe they have all cores functional but can only get up to 2.9 Ghz? Is that a possible/realistic scenario for binning?

Yes, that‘s *far* more realistic that the idea that the reason there are 4-core GPU chips is that a core doesn’t work. The chances of 1 GPU core not working but everything else on the chip working are almost zero.

 

[Slartibart]

On the other hand, it may reduce the longevity in terms of the performance required by future iOS versions.

as long as there is iPad - has this ever been something to consider worry about?

EDIT: Apple has always supported their iPad hardware quite long - and due to the fact that the hardware was/is much faster than the competition IMHO it is quite „future proofed“.

 

[jamauai]

Well that’s dumb

 

[prism]

The bottom line is that the new mini has been purposely crippled in terms of ram (at a reasonable price) and display tech. Alas, both counts are dealbreakers to me. It’s just a shame that they have to set prices so as not to cannibalise their other products.

 

[PsykX]

But still.
The iPad Mini is such a huge upgrade, and such a perfect 1st iPad. It almost ended up being the star of the show.

When they put an M1 in iPads, people don’t buy them because they’re too fast, and when they put a downclocked A15, which by the way is still the 2nd best tablet processor on Earth, next to M1, people think it’s too slow? I don’t get it.

 

[cmaier]

The bottom line is that the new mini has been purposely crippled in terms of ram (at a reasonable price) and display tech. Alas, both counts are dealbreakers to me. It’s just a shame that they have to set prices so as not to cannibalise their other products.

That’s an extreme misuse of the word “cripple.”

 

[4jasontv]

The complaints about this are so absurd. Something so minuscule the general user will never notice.

how dare Apple make the new iPad mini a fraction of a second slower?! How dare they..HOW DARE THEY.

8% is a significant fraction.

 

[4jasontv]

That’s an extreme misuse of the word “cripple.”

A tad, but my hope is to be able to pull up five to ten 1 GB books in good reader and switch between them without lag. My worry is that it’s going to have to render the page like the first gen iPad and multiple safari tabs.

 

[gotluck]

8% is a significant fraction.

I'm not going to say it isnt significant. But I'm definitely keeping my order. There is no competition in the smaller tablet market, the new ipad mini completely blows it away. Cant argue it isn't a shame though.

 

[prism]

That’s an extreme misuse of the word “cripple.”

Ok, imagine a mini Pro, with 128gb and ProMotion priced $100 less than the 11” pro. Now that would certainly sell like hot cakes.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

The bottom line is that the new mini has been purposely crippled in terms of ram (at a reasonable price) and display tech. Alas, both counts are dealbreakers to me. It’s just a shame that they have to set prices so as not to cannibalise their other products.

"Crippled" is a strong adjective. When I was on here a few years ago, people used to passionately argue that iOS is so optimized, 99.9% don't need more than whatever level of (seemingly always too little) RAM Apple provided then. Now they are "crippling" it with 4GB?

I'm still using iPad Mini 2 with 1GB or RAM. When the 6 arrives, I'm going to mostly be using the exact same apps I use now, visit the same websites I visit now, etc. Mini 2 still seems to work quite well with what must be "severely, severely, severely crippled" RAM. I wouldn't even upgrade now except Apple has fully left 2 behind with iOS updates and a few of those apps seem to "want" a more updated OS.

So I respect your opinion but can't possibly see 4X more RAM as "crippled" based on my own uses of this old 2. Instead, I anticipate it feeling like I have more RAM than I actually need for at least a while.

Similarly, display of this 6 is probably going to be night & day vs. my 2. It may not be the best possible display Apple could have used but I'm sure it will dazzle my own eyes. Once upon a time, we were all sold on an idea of the original "Retina" being a screen in which our eyes cannot discern individual pixels. Then came Retina HD, Super, Liquid, etc which are apparently all overkill unless Jobs lied to us about the original Retina... or our eyes have had an evolutionary leap in only- what- 8 or 10 years or so.

I appreciate your disappointment here. I'm disappointed that they didn't leave the 3.5mm headphone jack, which presses me to have to add my first dongle 🤮 "tail" to this new Mini. I hate useful functionality being jettisoned to dongles (which no, is not arguing for SCSI and floppy drives) when there actually IS plenty of space in this device for such a jack AND I would much prefer to use the terrific Apple DAC built inside than some third party DAC outside.

BUT, decisions are made in product dev. If we like those decisions, we buy. If we don't, we don't buy. Depending on our choices as a group, Apple learns something.

 

[dampfnudel]

Do we really think this is a design choice rather, rather than just a supply issue where Apple is using subpar chips due to the chip shortage?

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we see the iPad mini with full speed A15 chips in a year or two when production yields/supply issues improve.

I don’t think Apple would take the chance of risking a class action lawsuit and will probably keep them downclocked even if they no longer have to. You know if the iPad mini 6 suddenly gets a “better” A15 a year from now, we’ll all find out here and on other sites. Maybe Apple will upgrade it instead with a binned A16. Those binned processors have to go somewhere.

 

[raybo]

How can a much larger chassis (utilising a similar passive cooling method) have a processor running at lower clocks? Is it maybe to save battery power?

Probably to save power for the bigger display.

 

[Fred Zed]

Imagine if it had full cellular capabilities like an iPhone 🤣

Pink one ordered.

 

[cnnyy20p]

It’s all now makes sense.

A15’s cores provide the same performance as A14’s core. But I’m unsure about efficiency since Apple just added more battery into iPhone 13 series to improve battery life. Might be from the new encoder and decoder too.

iPhone 13/Pro now have almost identical geekbench score as M1 device. But that is because the clock speed is now 3.22 Ghz rather than 2.8 Ghz on A14. And M1 is basically A14 boosted up to 3.2 Ghz.

iPad Mini clocked at 2.9Ghz has almost the same score as A14 performance. Apple claimed 40% better CPU performance from the last gen which was A12. Apple also claimed that iPad Air got 40% better CPU performance from last gen which was also A12.

The reason and attention are remain unclear.

 

[cmaier]

Ok, imagine a mini Pro, with 128gb and ProMotion priced $100 less than the 11” pro. Now that would certainly sell like hot cakes.

What does that have to do with whether the product, as is, is “crippled?”

 

[turbineseaplane]

They may have downclocked the CPU, but they upclocked the base price by 25%

nice..


Bean counter loves him some more beans

 

[prism]

Similarly, display of this 6 is probably going to be night & day vs. my 2. It may not be the best possible display Apple could have used but I'm sure it will dazzle my own eyes. Once upon a time, we were all sold on an idea of the original "Retina" being a screen in which our eyes cannot discern individual pixels. Then came Retina HD, Super, Liquid, etc which are apparently all overkill unless Jobs lied to us about the original Retina... or our eyes have had an evolutionary leap in only- what- 8 or 10 years or so.

I understand that from where you are coming from, this is clearly an upgrade. In my case my 4 y.o. iPad Pro has a superior display (ProMotion and 600 nits) so this is a downgrade for me. They are clearly cutting corners when they jack up prices and skimp on the display which is, arguably, one of the most important elements of such a device.