New iPad Pro Has Comparable Performance to 2018 15" MacBook Pro in Benchmarks

[MacBH928]

Some of the ports, as I recall, retained the Win GUI design and looked horrible on a Mac.

The iPad Pro is the real question mark in this scenario. If enough companies start developing ARM based versions of their Intel programs to run on powerful iPad Pros, Apple could have an existing base of programs to support a rollout of ARM based Macs that would only need to be recompiled with minor changes to run on an ARM based OS X. That scenario is different from previous processor switches since those did not have an Apple OS already running on the new processor and thus no installed base of programs.

Yes this could work, where the Twitter, YouTube, Safari, Firefox app on iOS could just be ported over and it becomes seamless but as a user of MacOS and iOS I can easily tell you the iOS apps are far less capable so not sure if we can have like a full Office on ARM MacOS or will we get an iphone app running on a laptop.

That being said, why would Apple want to turn to ARM? I know it saves battery but it does that by limiting applications. I do not think ARM was built in mind with having multiple Apps running and stuff like full 3D render application. I can be wrong, but thats what I understood, ARM was made for portables with limited apps.

 

[smulji]

Yes this could work, where the Twitter, YouTube, Safari, Firefox app on iOS could just be ported over and it becomes seamless but as a user of MacOS and iOS I can easily tell you the iOS apps are far less capable so not sure if we can have like a full Office on ARM MacOS or will we get an iphone app running on a laptop.

That being said, why would Apple want to turn to ARM? I know it saves battery but it does that by limiting applications. I do not think ARM was built in mind with having multiple Apps running and stuff like full 3D render application. I can be wrong, but thats what I understood, ARM was made for portables with limited apps.

ARM is just an instruction set that Apple licenses. From there it customizes to its heart's content depending on the device they're designing for.

 

[Altis]

This is exactly the reason why Apple is still investing heavily into the Mac. But iPads do feel like the future and I expect modern technological solutions, workflows, etc. will solve people’s needs. We’ll have to adapt a bit, modern computers will have to adapt a lot, we’ll meet somewhere in the middle - but it’s still the future, even if it’s not too near. But it is coming faster than I expected - for my work, I wouldn’t be surprised if I move to an iPad for the majority of it in a few years.

Computers are tools for us. We don't have to adapt to the tools we make, we make the tools that we need.

It will be a long while before any of the engineering software that I use is even available on iOS. But even then, what makes you think I want a device that's incredibly locked down, that gets possibly forced and irreversible updates that often breaks older software, etc?

And that's not speaking of all the ergonomic issues. Why would I want a small display that I have to hold? Basically they'd have to change it to the point where it becomes a laptop for me to be interested (ie. docking to multiple displays, mouse support, window control, etc).

More likely IMO is that it will exist, as it does, as one tool of several. Choose the right tool for you and your purposes. There is no one "future" device.

Most problems are solved by not doing it the old way. The best way to adapt to change is to avoid trying to turn the old thing into the new.

I believe the iPad can and will become the general purpose computer for the masses. And I salute Apple’s attempts at bringing about this new world order on their own terms.

"New world order," over an iPad? "on their own terms"...? Holy smokes. It's a big iPod. It does some things well, and it's terrible at many other things that people need to do. It's a solution to some tasks, while being less suitable for others.

 

[Tech198]

May make people use iPad more since performance is comparable, if not better. But tablet still lacks functionality... to laptop... no true file system

 

[Emanuel Rodriguez]

I'm looking forward to the day when they have their own chips in the 15" MacBook Pro. Hopefully they make that transition before my 2015 model needs replacing.

I got the 2018 model. I figure, the full transition will probably begin in 2020 based on what we've been hearing, and it'll take at least a couple years to really calm down. By then, I'll be due for another update.

I would also like to point out to people that the beginning of the ARM transition has already begun, just quietly. The T2 chip is a full-fledged ARM processor, it just isn't doing much. I assume this is how Apple will do the rollout. Eventually, everything will be running off of that T2 chip, or whatever it'll be called (perhaps the T3 or T4).

May make people use iPad more since performance is comparable, if not better. But tablet still lacks functionality... to laptop... no true file system

The iPad has a full-featured filesystem known as APFS. We can't access it as freely as on macOS, Windows (which uses NTFS, primarly), or GNU/Linux (primarily ext4), but it's there.

 

[Ethosik]

this line is fundamentally incorrect.

Windows is still the largest bulk of the computer use around the globe. Sounds like you bought into Tim Cooks misleading facts at the keynote, hook line and sinker.

I do not agree. If it wasn't for gaming, I would not be using Windows at all anymore. What is exclusive to Windows that is not available on macOS? Office is just as good. Visual Studio exists on macOS now. Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer have much better performance that Adobe's products on macOS (but Photoshop and Illustrator do exist on macOS). Most companies these days build their websites for Chrome instead of IE only now.

Windows definitely has lost most if not all of its importance.

Windows is still used more due to the ability to get a $350 OptiPlex for your business. And most businesses have deals with Dell or other manufacturers when they buy in bulk. Plus, try doing a platform shift when you have thousands of Windows XP/7 computers in existence at your business. Upgrading to Windows 10 is much better than moving it all to macOS. Most business have special built software that prevent even some businesses or divisions of businesses from upgrading past Windows XP still. I guarantee you there will still be so many companies running Windows 7 after 2020 when support ends due to special software.
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Most of the world's back ends are still Windows and linux. that breakdown hasn't changed much.

Active Directory federation services are one of the most prolific in the world.

now, consumer attention to windows might be dwindling, but windows use in the world isn't. People are just paying less attention

using Windows Mobiles failure as some evidence is asanine. All you do on your iPhone and iPads are likely powered in the backend by windows/linux combinations. All those emails. messages. all go through windows in some form or another will touch in some point a windows server somewhere, either from authentication, or even outright as the mail / Database server that powers it

I think in a few years back end stuff will be utilizing Azure instead of most companies having their own servers. There will still be companies that will use servers mostly. But the last two businesses I worked for started to use Azure AD instead of an on-premise AD. Office 365 for email instead of on-premise Exchange. OneDrive instead of on-premise NAS/file server. Really the only thing we had was a print server.

 

[ipponrg]

I think in a few years back end stuff will be utilizing Azure instead of most companies having their own servers. There will still be companies that will use servers mostly. But the last two businesses I worked for started to use Azure AD instead of an on-premise AD. Office 365 for email instead of on-premise Exchange. OneDrive instead of on-premise NAS/file server. Really the only thing we had was a print server.

Yeah that makes sense

No reason to pay specialized IT admins maintaining physical hardware and software when many engineers can already double up and do the same thing. AWS effectively pivoted a lot of IT infrastructure such that IT admins need to transition to a DevOps role in order to continue to be competitive in the market.

There are plenty of places that I have worked at that have 350,000 employees worldwide who are still today on Windows desktop serviced by Windows/Linux (some virtualized) servers. Regardless of what the back ends will be, the Windows desktop however will still be here for decades as IT transitions slowly to pure cloud based solutions for front and back end.

 

[chucker23n1]

Visual Studio exists on macOS now.

VS feature parity is years off. It’s more of a lite version.

 

[thunng8]

Some reviews are out:

https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/new-ipad-pro-2018-129-inch

Performance is amazing in video encoding and Lightroom photo export, easily besting core i5 and core i7 quad core portables including the latest 13’ MacBook Pro

 

[blkjedi954]

Arm architecture is all i have to say. RISC vs CISC. Reduced instruction set vs complex instruction set. Apples vs Oranges but it does look good on paper. But it’s a fantasy to compare the two platforms

 

[cmaier]

Arm architecture is all i have to say. RISC vs CISC. Reduced instruction set vs complex instruction set. Apples vs Oranges but it does look good on paper. But it’s a fantasy to compare the two platforms

Dec Alpha, UltraSparc, RS/6000, ... RISC is much better than CISC for serious computing.

 

[fourthtunz]

I bet 95% of users are not going to notice any performance increase from the previous Pro models.

Speed is no longer a factor in why the average user upgrades in my opinion, until Apple release IOS 14 where the 10.5 Pro is running dog slow and you are forced to upgrade.

For me, I can't see any benefit to upgrading from the 10.5 Pro. Sure, the screen looks a little better but I honestly couldn't give a hoot about the Face ID thing, the fingerprint is just as quick for me.

95% might be a safe bet..More Ram, more storage and a processor that is at least 2 x faster than the 10.5 pro will make me think about upgrading to the 11". I run a qsc touch mix app on my iPad air2, gig book, and some synths at a gig, I think for $300 more the 11" looks like quite a deal over the 10.5". I guess it depends what apps you are running though.
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Some reviews are out:

https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/new-ipad-pro-2018-129-inch

Performance is amazing in video encoding and Lightroom photo export, easily besting core i5 and core i7 quad core portables including the latest 13’ MacBook Pro

Thanks for that! I'd say that is real work! This thing just came out..more programs will be written that can use this power..I already have some stuff to throw at it! You can have your mac and and IPAD Pro! woo hoo!

 

[thunng8]

Gfxbench 5 results are now out for the iPad Pro

https://gfxbench.com/device.jsp?ben...X GPU&did=69121294&D=Apple iPad Pro (11-inch)

A quick comparison shows for this benchmark, performance matches the high end Radeon 560X in the 15’ MacBook Pro

https://gfxbench.com/device.jsp?ben...n Pro 560X&did=64998974&D=AMD Radeon Pro 560X

Smashes the 13’ MacBook Pro ( 2x faster)

https://gfxbench.com/device.jsp?ben...id=65142191&D=Intel(R) Iris Plus Graphics 655

Comparison to the new air is embarrassing for intel as it is close to 4x faster.

https://gfxbench.com/device.jsp?ben... 617&did=65620111&D=Intel(R) UHD Graphics 617

 

[spacemnspiff]

Do you know why they're not giving a ****? Other than potentially looking tos ee what inovations are coming?

Because Apple will not compete in the same space. Unless Apple will release their CPU's for 3rd party sales, Neither Intel nor Qualcomm need to worry.

I wasn't talking about competing in the same space for profits/marketshare, but purely from a 'standing in the CPU maker category' point of view, Qualcomm and Intel are far falling behind Apple and that is what should be a cause for concern. And they also have a disadvantage of not being able to offer hardware efficiencies that Apple happily exploits.

 

[DeepIn2U]

Always sounds good until you remember there are no apps that let you do anything the MacBook Pro does for the iPad so benchmarks are pretty much pointless.

I have a feeling when you setup the iPad or better yet the updated 2018 Mac Mini as a server and with a full fledged VNC app much more powerful than Minuet (that ipad mirroring app for home use as a second LCD) then we'll have something really compelling.

Heck most applications are cloud based now: Google Services (for Enterprise/K12), Microsoft Office 365, etc. Most people still use the desktop apps like Outlook due to powerful sorting, PST files and permissions to other mailboxes and sending as another mailbox (shared/full delegate rights) seems more seemless to use vs doing so in a browser implementation; yet there is no functionality restriction (other than PST files) in the Outlook case.
- no need to worry about a crashing interface,
- no end user caused UI changes like folder views (keyboard shortcut changed accidentally),
- Mistakenly moved sub-folders into another hierarchy of folders that's accidentally,
- etc.

Now I'd LOVE for AutoCAD to have a full app for the desktop as they always do, yet a secure VPN/VNC like connection into an iOS app UI (via a much cleaner app that gets FULL functionality and optional backup to the Mac & to iCloud and iCloud now becomes a shared file hosting platform to implement this.
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Why does the iPad need to become a Mac? Especially if Apple is working on their own CPUs for the Mac? At the event this week Intel wasn’t mentioned on stage once. It seems very clear Apple is looking to eventually be free of Intel.

I could ask ... 'why does Apple need to make their own cpu's for the Mac?'
- sales still haven't compared and would the economies of scale save Apple money fabricating their cpu design's for Mac's?
^would such production ramps yield enough A16 CPU's for Mac's without affecting iPad, iPhone, and of course AppleTV or other market chipsets?!

Moore's Law had it's day and it's done for a while. Intel is struggling to leap out of this incremental bottlenecks their facing; seemingly similar to IBM has had since a few months after their Power 6 lineup.

Pro's will still get their machines but the laptops may eventually be replaced if mindset's change about workflows in what they use.

Logic can go to the iPad now ... NativeInstruments, CuBase, and a few other competitors already have iPad specific apps, and with instruments like Roli Seaboard's and Touch sensitive pressure like pads (recall the old school Korg's) ... yeah times are changing.

And this all started with that 80's dream: The Navigator.
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That's the point of having an ARM-based Macintosh. This shows they are ready to take control of their CPU path for the Mac product line, instead of having to wait for Intel.

Intel could be their partner in high yield's for their ARM-based Macintosh computer lineup.
- Apple could, when times get tough again (if godly ever), license that ARM-based desktop/laptop lineup and make a side profit. who knows.

 

[DeepIn2U]

I still struggle to get why people think that the iPad can’t compete with a laptop because it doesn’t have mouse support. I’ve always found the pencil to be way quicker, more accurate, and more versatile than a mouse.

Can the pencil on iOS bring up a contextual menu natively or with RDP into a Windows/MacOS system?
Hmm.
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Can I have a mouse now, while we're highlighting how great it is next to a computer?

I'll overpay for one. Yeah, I just signed up for that. Just make sure it has 2 buttons. Knowing them, we'll go back in time to the old single-button Mac classic mouse... keep that for 2-3 years, then release an updated 2-button mouse. Let's just skip to the end here...

That's really hilarious if not the most ancient joke in computing history.

And yet modern trackpads since 2008 when Apple brought back the single click with multi-touch has revolutionized EVERY manufacturer on the marketing copying Apple; poorly at that.

 

[sup123a]

No matter how fast it is, in next few years Apple will sabotage it with new bloat un-optimized (or may be intention?) iOS update. So that you will buy new device from it.

 

[cmaier]

No matter how fast it is, in next few years Apple will sabotage it with new bloat un-optimized (or may be intention?) iOS update. So that you will buy new device from it.

Any other cliches you’ve seen in Samsung ads that you’d like to add? Perhaps maybe that the apple sheep will still buy it? That’s always a good one.