Hard to count. They're in rut right now
I want to see what gpu performance is like next, iPhone 5S or iPad Air? Or in the middle..
They're so similar, it's not worth the paltry couple points it'll be. Anand did an extremely in depth review of both the 5s and iPad Air (delving deeply into the A7/A8 instruction set). Worth the read. You'll instantly get an answer to your question. Right now, graphically and computationally the A7 sits atop the heap. Expect an insignificant 4-7% decrease
Ah, didn't click on that link. Thanks!
I will most likely get it then. The lack of RAM in the previous model made it almost unusable (for me).
Weird. Mine works great. As does my Air. And iPad 4. Love my mini and getting the new one for my wife. Keep in mind, that RAM is help to the display as well. Original mini is an excellent device. No rMini is a grand slam. Those benchmarks, and the speed differences will be cool, the display a HUGE step up
That said...the OG Mini is a damn good device.
That's pretty bad news, particularly if there's also thermal throttling as in the 5s, vastly reducing the performance after 1-2 minutes of full-speed operation.
----------
Frankly, secretly I hoped for the same CPU speed as with the Air. After all, Jim Cook (or the Apple Store homepage?) did state it has exactly the same internals as the Air. While the difference isn't as big as between the 4 and the Mini 1, it's still significant if you, for example, use software decoding for, say, MPEG-2 1080i60 video.
Now, I may still be going for the Air and just keep the Nexus 7 2013 as my truly pocketable tablet.
Lol...you're supposed to be transcoding on a laptops desktop...or something other than a an iPad. Compressor, Handbrake....what the hell are you trying to transcode 1080p video on an iPad for?
As far as thermal throttling, you should go back and re read Anand's review. He says, while the 5s indeed is clocked at the same speed as the mini...1.3Ghz, the reason the 5s throttled to 900-1000Mhz was because of its lack of heat dissipation 'room' or area. The Air has significantly more room than the 5s, hence no throttling. The Mini is much larger than the 5s as well. I don't see it throttling 'as quick'

as the 5s. Anand was BLOWN away the 5s maintained 1.3Ghz as long as it did! Very VERY few instances if any will utilize your SoC's power maxxed out for the 2+ minutes it finally took to throttle. That the Air didn't, another amazing feat in silicon engineering.
Indeed 'Tim Cook' did mention similar in parity with its big brother. 100mhz decrease in clock doesn't change that one iota.
Guaranteed bud, you won't be transcoding or encoding h.264 1080p @ 60fps on your Nexus either. We aren't there yet. But getting damn close. And with Apple's release of a 64 bit processor gets us closer, faster
You should applaud him, and buy a laptop
If that happened it would be the worst iPad ever. Retina graphics assets + apps built for the 64-bit chip would mean RAM would be eaten up way too fast. It would probably be worse than the original mini...
Actually...I'll say it again, the Mini doesn't suck. It's easily the second best tablet on the market! Keep in mind (I've got an iPad Air and '4') the RAM on 64 bit architecture extends its footprint while 'lending' some memory for the display/graphics on the SoC. You'll still get to repopulate your safari tabs, I promise. With the 32bit, low Rez display of my original Mini, I'm seeing almost the amount do free and wired RAM on my mini and Air in comparison with the same apps open. There's still plenty of A5/6 processors on the market and the mini runs everything on the App Store currently without a hiccup. While this new mini is a MONSTER upgrade for sure...you'll be waiting along with me for those developers to continue updating 64 bit apps and optimizing them for the A7
Nice try to justify what you just bought while you realize you bought the wrong product.
Not sure who the bigger dick is. You or the four people they 'up' voted your jack ass comment
The iPhone is too small and the Retina iPad Mini is too big. I want one that is between the two size wise. I guess I'm the odd man out.
Lol. You kinda are! Have you tried Android? Hopefully for you the recent bigger phones are your answer. That said...man, the Air as an extreme improvement on the older iPads, and this new mini...a game changer @¾ of a pound. Pretty amazing and portable/discreet piece of quality computing power....in your pocket!
bigger screen of Air might be better only for watching movies.for rest of the tasks the 7.9 inches retina mini's size is actually more suitable.
Air is still bulky and heavy when compared to the retina mini.
mini is overall a much better form factor.
I'm so glad I didn't jump to buy the Air! now I'll have the superior iPad.
As an owner of both, neither is superior. I'm glad you got the one you wanted. No need to out others down. Anyone considering the Air to bulky and 'heavy' (it's a pound man!) might enjoy the cliché response....forget the 'screen time'. Time to get to the gym, do some waking, exercise. Ya know. What we did in gym class back in the 'old' days
Yup, if it does have throttling, it'll surely not be as bad as that of the 5s.
Nevertheless, Anandtech will surely report on this as well. We'll soon see.
----------
Well, for high-res video decoding, even that of the simple(r) MPEG-2 (let alone the more complex H.264!), you need as much CPU performance as possible. Proper (meaning few dropped frames) MPEG-2 1080i60 decoding isn't even possible with the A6. Even 10% of a perforormance difference does matter in this case.
No iPad has done this to date. What are you trying to do? Are you seriously considering using your Air as a video transcoding system?
I'm glad you're starting to understand 'throttling'. And I'll agree with an earlier poster. Interlaced video is demon brew. And dead at that. What are you doing with it....on an iPad?
Only for non-interlaced H.264 up to 1080p.
- No MPEG-2
- No interlaced H.264
- No for example 2K
etc. With these, you must use software decoding.
And, of course, hardware acceleration can only be used with either the mov / mp4 / m4v containers or with background remuxing from MKV's, which rules out for example proper AirPlay playback.
So use one of the many video conversion apps that'll play all files stored on YOUR computer! Not your iPad. There are a load of video playback apps...and why in the world are you trying to play interlaced? 2k? That's 1080p. Easily playable in the retina mini or Air. Mpeg2streamclip, grab the app (on you computer) and/or handbreak. Your issues are solved. While the iPad is an amazing creation tool and an excellent 'field' unit while shooting, I'm thinking you're trying to get a bit more from it than possible....on ANY tablet other than a Surface (as it's a computer!)
How many Safari tabs can you keep open without having to reload the closed ones? 3? 4? Now, that's one of the major issues of having 1GB of RAM only.
Again: among other things, Safari is REALLY suffering from the (compared to the alternatives) low RAM. Don't tell me you simply love having to wait for the killed pages' reloading.
'Wait' for killed pages? Lol....my LTE is 45 down, 38-40 up. Website repopulation is almost instantaneous. Even my home internet, 30 down, 20 up, it screams! No...I don't get annoyed, but if you're on EDGE, I can understand.
Mine is incredibly fast at reloading. Especially with these current LTE speeds. Amazing now matter where you are. As well, my Mini's browser is Mercury pro. My larger iPads are using iCab as our go to browser. You don't have to lock in to Safari
I just picked mine up at best buy. They got the shipment in this afternoon and only got twelve in. Only had five left when I picked mine up. Anyone looking could get lucky. They said it was the first of possibly three before the end of the year. Will be hard to get your hands on.
Hard to believe one of the blue shirts at best buy has any clue about the inventory his or her store should expect pre Christmas. You know Apple's making 'em. Can't wait? Buy one from best buy...they're doing January 15 returns right now (because of the holidays). By then, you'll have a shot at one or can turn it in for full refund and order one up as more inventory is being constantly released. Kinda cool. Fresh of the factory line. 80-88% battery! haven't been laying around on shelves, excellent post purchase support if something happens. Win/Win
I am not saying the iPad Mini was a piece of crap, merely that the specs were pretty paltry at release time.)
ImageImage
Good. Because it's not. Not when you consider so many important jobs now being handled by iPad 2s (pilots, doctors, inventory control and POSale systems...built on the updated chip for the ,2,4). While the charts show 6x improvement, I've got an Air and it's not exactly 6 times faster in my day to day tasks. That'll change as time matches on and I'll get rid of mine for excellent resale and buy another. Just one of those things!
J