Anandtech: iPad Pro Review (And ARM vs x86 Talk)

Anandtech published their iPad Pro Review this morning. This review in particular features a big talk on architecture and how the A9X compares against a series of Core M-based laptops.

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Final Words:

On the SoC side, we’re finally seeing a major player in ARM SoCs directly competing with Intel on their home ground of sorts, and the results are at least somewhat shocking. Despite a handicap on process node, the CPU of the A9X isn’t all that far off from Skylake Core M. And while A9X can't go toe-to-toe, Apple is for the first time capable of reaching Intel's level for some workloads. Otherwise on the GPU side, Apple arguably bests Intel. While iOS vs. Windows doesn't lend itself to as precise comparisons as we'd like due to some fundamental architectural differences, for a developer writing a GPU-accelerated application tailored for the platform the A9X’s 12 Cluster Series7XT GPU is capable of doing more than the Core M’s Intel HD 515.

Ultimately Apple's Twister CPU core is now the “new normal” for Apple devices, so I’m not nearly as blown away as I was with the iPhone 6s, but I really do have to emphasize that this SoC is incredibly fast. Currently, it has no real competition in the ARM SoC space, and I suspect it won’t for quite some time even in light of new SoCs on the horizon like the Exynos 8890 and Snapdragon 820, as the SoC is tailored for tablet use rather than a smartphone SoC with more thermal headroom. When combined with the Apple SSD present in this device, it’s hard to complain about performance for the most part.

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