Possible Benchmark for A12 Processor From 2018 iPhone Surfaces Featuring 10% Faster Speeds, 4GB RAM

[nordique]

Yeah it’s just I don’t think there’s ever been a upgrade with such a low incremental speed bump.

The Original iPhone to the 3G was even less than this

The A8 was to date the smallest increase year to year otherwise and in some tests was as little as 7-12% CPU gains over A7

Personally, I doubt the validity of this. These early geekbench scores seem to release like clockwork around this time. Remember the early A9 or A11 geekbench leaks? Only for the actual A9 and A11 to be much faster

 

[EdT]

We are loading our pc's with tb's of ram. Why is it so hard/challenging for phones to go up even a gig or two?

I’m not an electrical engineer but I’m willing to bet both decisions are battery trade offs. Androids have not been able to match Apple’s CPU speed. Apple’s extra speed probably comes at a higher CPU energy cost. Android can make up some of the performance difference by having more memory. Apple can stay competitive in battery life by having less memory.

 

[Drogba11]

Why just can't apple adopt OLED screens to all their phones? it's 2018 cmon, and we still see cheap LCD screens on 700$+ smartphones, even cheap phones from china come with OLED. My wife's 8 plus screen looks like sh*t compared to my ipX.

Except your screen has a big ugly notch on it

 

[mmomega]

My iPhone X scored practically the exact same score, this was iOS12 DP1 about a month ago.




then DP2 iPhone X

 

[ROGmaster]

If I'm correct, I don't think this will remain speculation, I think THE focus

I don't see any reason why you would be correct.
Apple A series chips were hardly affected by Meltdown and Specter anyway, you are confusing them with Intel CPUs.

The more logical deduction if those scores are true would be that Apple spent more time on optimizing the A12 for better efficiency, better sustained performance(less throttling) and reduced area(basically the new Chip should be much smaller on 7nm than the A11 is on 10nm and that would alow Apple to save money on manufacturing costs).
Also it doesn't make sense for Apple to simply port the A11 on 7nm. That would cost a lot of money for a chip that is just meant to be be used in a cheaper model. 7nm is currently the bleeding edge in silicone manufacturing processes so it's also more expensive and would have worse yields than 10nm.

 

[Naraxus]

10% speed bump, 50% price mark-up

 

[Superhappytree]

We are loading our pc's with tb's of ram. Why is it so hard/challenging for phones to go up even a gig or two?

Battery life I presume which isn’t as much of an issue on pc’s/macs. Then again Android can load their phones up with 8 gigs and still have great battery life so I’m not entirely sure. Apple has always on skimped on RAM but their software doesn’t resolve it as much as they say.

 

[Radon87000]

I seem to remember certain members on this forum calling Android a pig for needing 4GB of ram and now the iPhone has caught up. Now crickets from those guys.

 

[droog]

I'm not sure if these gains will be adequate to keep my podcasts playing.

 

[Superhappytree]

I seem to remember certain members on this forum calling Android a pig for needing 4GB of ram and now the iPhone has caught up. Now crickets from those guys.

Well it’s still similar today. Android now has phones that have up to double that with 8GB of RAM which many on here would say is unnecessary. 4GB is most welcome though because it’s at a good number that will make the phone last longer down the line similar to the 6S’s longevity.

 

[Wetware.]

128KB L1 instruction cache
128KB L1 data cache

4x the 32KB / 32KB in the A11.

wow
[doublepost=1530564529][/doublepost]

Why? Because it’s 10%? I have an X and not once have I ever thought the phone was slow.
[doublepost=1530553140][/doublepost]
Does more RAM cause a drain on the battery? If not I don’t get why Apple stayed with 1 and 2 GB for so long. More RAM makes a huge difference.

They actually mentioned this at WWDC. Greater RAM usage requires more processing and so greater power drain.

 

[Rocko99991]

A 10% speed bump is a bit disappointing honestly.

But I’m here for 4gb of ram

On par with the current innovations.

 

[marty11]

A discounted 2017 iphone X is going to be the best value out there once the new phones drop.

If the iphone X.2 is $900 and the 6.1 LCD is $6-700, the 2017 X will likely be about $700 new.

 

[TallManNY]

A mobile CPU can only get so fast while size, heat, and battery life must be taken into consideration. The fact that the A12 outperforms the Core i7 CPU in my 2012 15" Retina MacBook Pro while using a fraction of the power is very impressive.

The fact that it performs basically at the the same level as the current $2,500 Macbook Pro laptop being sold by Apple is both impressive and sad.

MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2017)
Intel Core i7-7920HQ @ 3.1 GHz (4 cores)
4624
[doublepost=1530566742][/doublepost]

Battery life I presume which isn’t as much of an issue on pc’s/macs. Then again Android can load their phones up with 8 gigs and still have great battery life so I’m not entirely sure. Apple has always on skimped on RAM but their software doesn’t resolve it as much as they say.

Android phones seem to always solve the battery life issue just by including a bigger battery.

 

[Rogifan]

We are loading our pc's with tb's of ram. Why is it so hard/challenging for phones to go up even a gig or two?

What PC ships with terabytes of RAM?

 

[twistedpixel8]

Why? Because it’s 10%? I have an X and not once have I ever thought the phone was slow.
[doublepost=1530553140][/doublepost]
Does more RAM cause a drain on the battery? If not I don’t get why Apple stayed with 1 and 2 GB for so long. More RAM makes a huge difference.

Because they’re penny-pinching scumbags. Every other manufacturer gives enough RAM to keep the phone going through many software updates. This is one of the ways Apple slows down older phones without slowing them down.

Bring the hate, people, I couldn’t care less at this point. It’s clear as day for anyone who knows how hardware and software integrate.

 

[deckard666]

I hate to think what words you may use for people who are actually doing you harm rather than selling you a luxury product.

 

[mike2q]

Because they’re penny-pinching scumbags. Every other manufacturer gives enough RAM to keep the phone going through many software updates. This is one of the ways Apple slows down older phones without slowing them down.

Bring the hate, people, I couldn’t care less at this point. It’s clear as day for anyone who knows how hardware and software integrate.

You the nail on the head. Apple doesn't skimp on RAM because it uses more power or because it costs too much. They skimp on RAM because it ensures even with software updates your phone will need replaced sooner than it's processing power would have required.

 

[Bacillus]

It makes me wonder what the new features will be. Almost nothing has leaked (other than the new sizes).

Man - your memojies will run sooooo much smoother that you don't recognize yourself anymore (Tim's commercial appliance of VR)
[doublepost=1530568117][/doublepost]

You the nail on the head. Apple doesn't skimp on RAM because it uses more power or because it costs too much. They skimp on RAM because it ensures even with software updates your phone will need replaced sooner than it's processing power would have required.

Which happened with the iPhone 6.
If it would have had 2Gb, nobody would have even been considering an iPhone 6s

 

[redheeler]

The fact that it performs basically at the the same level as the current $2,500 Macbook Pro laptop being sold by Apple is both impressive and sad.

MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2017)
Intel Core i7-7920HQ @ 3.1 GHz (4 cores)
4624

That's true for single-core performance when only using one of the A12's high-performance cores. But the MacBook Pro still wins with multi-core, and when Apple finally refreshes it with the current-generation hex-core Intel Coffee Lake chips, you can expect another 40% improvement on top of that for multi-core.

 

[Constable Odo]

Nice scores, but Apple needs to have 4GB RAM as a standard if Android smartphones have 6GB and 8GB options. I'd like to see iPhones be able to store game data in memory without needing to shut down the app to open other apps. Apple seems to keep falling behind Android smartphone in this area. Great performance scores and Apple remains stingy on RAM memory. If Android flagship smartphones can afford to have more standard RAM memory, then why not Apple's iPhones?
[doublepost=1530568337][/doublepost]

A mobile CPU can only get so fast while size, heat, and battery life must be taken into consideration. The fact that the A12 outperforms the Core i7 CPU in my 2012 15" Retina MacBook Pro while using a fraction of the power is very impressive.

It's definitely impressive but if that extra processing power can't sell more iPhones then it's not impressive enough.

 

[Bacillus]

128KB L1 instruction cache
128KB L1 data cache

4x the 32KB / 32KB in the A11.

wow

Wow man. Ooaarggh... !
Wiggle mode it will be so fast that you'll only notice blur instead.
Expect iOS13 to feature Wiggle Throttling as its most advanced feature (to bring usability in back in line with processor speed - as only Apple can do...)

 

[powerslave12r]

4GB RAM is interesting considering the iphone 8 has only 2GB.

Given that the iphone 8 will be supported for a few more years, the 4GB should be good for a long time to come.

 

[blackcrayon]

Hey! I just edited a screenshot from my iPhone X GeekBench. Increase my Twitter presence by reposting this everywhere.

Seriously, why would Apple make a new CPU for 10% gain? Plain ridiculous.

MacRumors must think we are all fools...

If this *is* the A12...

We don't know the other characteristics. Maybe it gets 10% more performance with 25% less power consumption? And based on that Metal score, maybe they were only able to really boost up the GPU speed this time around.

Also doesn't say what other new features the A12 might have that are unrelated to geekbench scores.

 

[twistedpixel8]

4GB RAM is interesting considering the iphone 8 has only 2GB.

Given that the iphone 8 will be supported for a few more years, the 4GB should be good for a long time to come.

It won’t though. All these AR and VR technologies need a tremendous amount of RAM to keep things churning smoothly while simultaneously allowing the OS to perform optimally. Apple knows this and that’s the sole reason they skimp. Then when the next OS comes out and are more demanding, the last gen phones can’t keep up, even though they would with more RAM.

iOS11 made this too obvious and that’s why they had to prioritize iOS12 as a major performance release. Yes, it was partly old batteries but RAM (or lack thereof) was a huge part of it.