What contributes more to the performance gains with these iPhones? The extra ram or the processor? I remember early days of computing where adding more RAM made the world of difference in the daily fluidity of the operating system. Noticing my iPhone 15 being much smoother and responsive than my iPhone12. 2 more gigs of ram in the 15 and a 2 year newer processor.
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Other Ram vs processor
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Depends on the computing activity but over all ... both.
In this case I'd probably say software optimisation. I suspect Apple simply puts more effort into optimising the iOS builds for their latest devices, so it feels smoother. There's no other reason I can think of that an A16 should run iOS any better than an A14, it's way past the point where raw power is going to make a noticeable difference just for running the OS.
Exactly. Yet windows 10 still runs everything I need and smoothly on my i7 desktop from 2010.
We’re looooong past the days when computers were a single general-purpose number cruncher. Today, there are multiple subunits dedicated to all sorts of different tasks — video, machine learning, radio signal processing, the works. Note that, typically, these are all physically located on the same piece of silicon; not all that long ago, each would have been dedicated chips on the main logic board, if not separate circuit boards entirely. And even the least of these subunits outperforms the supercomputers of the single general-purpose number crunching days.
So … it really comes down to the particular task you’re doing. If there’s a dedicated processor for it and the problem fits in RAM, as is almost always the case these days for what people actually use their phones for … then it’s really system architecture and software algorithms that determine performance.
A car analogy … think of RAM as something like the fuel pump. If the fuel pump is underpowered, you can experience vapor lock and similar conditions where the engine has the potential to produce more power, but the fuel just can’t move fast enough from the tank to the engine for the engine to burn it. But once the fuel pump is powerful enough, making the fuel pump even more powerful doesn’t make the engine produce more power. Then again, if you do something else that makes the engine more powerful (such as add a turbocharger), you may well need a more powerful fuel pump to meet the new demand.
In this analogy, your gas tank would be the storage space — your HDD in days of yore. A small tank, and you might not be able to make it across town before you run out of fuel. A big enough HDD and you never have to worry about how far you can go.
A well-designed system matches all these components to each other … so it might not be the most powerful engine, but the car does great on both the daily commute and on a road trip. Then, the touring bus has a completely different setup, the farmer’s combine another, and so on. All superficially very similar — but the balances and compromises made for any one is entirely inappropriate for any other.
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So … it really comes down to the particular task you’re doing. If there’s a dedicated processor for it and the problem fits in RAM, as is almost always the case these days for what people actually use their phones for … then it’s really system architecture and software algorithms that determine performance.
A car analogy … think of RAM as something like the fuel pump. If the fuel pump is underpowered, you can experience vapor lock and similar conditions where the engine has the potential to produce more power, but the fuel just can’t move fast enough from the tank to the engine for the engine to burn it. But once the fuel pump is powerful enough, making the fuel pump even more powerful doesn’t make the engine produce more power. Then again, if you do something else that makes the engine more powerful (such as add a turbocharger), you may well need a more powerful fuel pump to meet the new demand.
In this analogy, your gas tank would be the storage space — your HDD in days of yore. A small tank, and you might not be able to make it across town before you run out of fuel. A big enough HDD and you never have to worry about how far you can go.
A well-designed system matches all these components to each other … so it might not be the most powerful engine, but the car does great on both the daily commute and on a road trip. Then, the touring bus has a completely different setup, the farmer’s combine another, and so on. All superficially very similar — but the balances and compromises made for any one is entirely inappropriate for any other.
b&
It isn't just the processor speed or the amount of memory, the memory also runs at a certain speed and there is a certain bandwith and latency for it as well. Similarly the storage also has latency and bandwith can is likely upped from one generation to the next as are all these other "hidden" specs.
What also changes how we perceive smoothness is the display panel's response time. 120Hz is only half the story, the panel also needs a certain amount of time to actually change what the pixel is doing. In tests this is usually the grey-to-grey response time. For example the MacbookPros have 120Hz just like the iPhones but their panels response time is so slow that the pixels can't actually change 120 times per second, so with these Macbooks fast moving content leaves a trail, called ghosting or smearing.
And there are a couple more of these "hidden" specs that significantly impact how fast a device feels in daily use.
What also changes how we perceive smoothness is the display panel's response time. 120Hz is only half the story, the panel also needs a certain amount of time to actually change what the pixel is doing. In tests this is usually the grey-to-grey response time. For example the MacbookPros have 120Hz just like the iPhones but their panels response time is so slow that the pixels can't actually change 120 times per second, so with these Macbooks fast moving content leaves a trail, called ghosting or smearing.
And there are a couple more of these "hidden" specs that significantly impact how fast a device feels in daily use.
RAM and processor complement each other contributing performance. I love my iPhone 15 pro max performance with bigger RAM and more advanced processor!
true, but we will get to a point where adding more RAM to a phone will not make a noticeable difference except for power users and gamers. 8 gb is standard for desktop RAM. I've been running a desktop with 8 GB for over a decade now.
The suggestion that there is no reason "A16 should run iOS any better than an A14" is absurd. Stronger more modern processors always make devices run better.
For non demanding simple tasks such as web browsing, email, messaging, playing videos, etc we are far past the point where processors should make a noticeable difference in the performance of an operating system. Did the A15 run much better in iPhone 14 vs the 13? Did that extra gpu core make all the difference or was it the 2 extra gig of ram they added to the iphone 14?
Performance is the key word here. If you think about speed and how fast you can get things done, then the latest and greatest processor will be more performant compared to older ones.
If you think, when it comes to the word performance, about how long open tabs and apps stay in the cache and can be resumed without a hitch, then the extra RAM will benefit you.
Both combined make for a better experience without a doubt.
You are simply wrong. See what MandiMac said. Of course weaker boxes will run non demanding simple tasks, but stronger processors do make a noticeable difference in the performance of an operating system. Yes the iPhone 15 Pro performs better than the iPhone 14 Pro which performed better than the iPhone 13 Pro (I owned each of them).
Each new generation of a device has the benefits of tens or hundreds of thousands of additional engineering hours as well as the more modern hardware of the rapidly advancing tech world. Suggesting that there are not performance improvements is just silly.
Although I am sensitive to performance improvements, I make no attempt to determine whether the causes are due to RAM or CPU or GPU or software.
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Simply wrong huh ? You do realize faster ram, more ram , ssd makes a world of a difference. I’ve seen recommendations that putting a new SSD into a computer with a HDD was a better upgrade than a faster processor. All I said we are past the point where processor should be making much difference at all on a polished operating system. I’m not talking about CPU/GPU intensive tasks like converting video or 3D graphics. I’m talking fluidity of iOS.
You can tackle latency from any vantage point. It doesn’t have to be the CPU or the RAM.
One generation’s phone app might feel super quick because the SoC has a new ISP with embedded hardware optimisations that makes taking pictures much faster, even if the CPU is moderately faster than the previous generation.
In addition to RAM size, there is RAM speed and RAM bandwidth. Then there are SSD access speeds.
Going back to your point about RAM and early microcomputers, especially in the 1990s putting in more RAM was a game changer because virtual memory on an IDE hard drive was extremely slow compared to having RAM hold the operations for you.
Even if iOS dumps a load of app state onto your SSD to make way for something else in its 4/6/8GB RAM, the retrieval of the data again from the SSD isn’t a big deal in terms of time (it’s just comparatively slower to having it sitting ready in RAM).