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It is very interesting that since the release of the M1 chip, CPU performance on Apple silicon has really come under a microscope. It leads me to ask: Was Appl

It is very interesting that since the release of the M1 chip, CPU performance on Apple silicon has really come under a microscope. It leads me to ask: Was Apple silicon always this best-in-class and we weren’t looking this closely as a community?

Aissen 4y ago
Everyone was looking, and it was well known that it was best in-class; two random examples: https://www.anandtech.com/show/7335/the-iphone-5s-review/4 https://www.anandtech.com/show/7335/the-iphone-5s-review/4 https://twitter.com/codinghorror/status/912047023871860737 https://twitter.com/codinghorror/status/912047023871860737
minhazm 4y ago
Apple's chips in their iPhones & iPads have been outperforming the competition (Qualcomm & Samsung) for a long time now in both power efficiency and performance. Apple has usually been around 2 yrs ahead of the competition. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chip with 8 cores has a Geekbench multi-core score of 3592[1]. The six-score Apple A15 Bionic scored 4673. The Apple chip has ~30% better multi-core performance with 25% fewer cores than the Qualcomm chip. In single-core performance the difference is even larger, with the Apple chips performing ~47% faster. You can get the same A15 Bionic in both the $429 iPhone SE and the $1100+ iPhone 13 Pro Max. It hasn't really been a huge deal though because people don't develop directly on an iPhone, so it doesn't affect their every day productivity all that much. Also phone's have reached the point of "fast enough" a few years ago, it's hard to tell the difference between an iPhone 13 Pro and an 11 Pro unless you use them side by side. But with the release of the M1 chip, people are getting the performance & energy efficiency gains in their every day workflows. [1]. https://browser.geekbench.com/android-benchmarks https://browser.geekbench.com/android-benchmarks [2]. https://browser.geekbench.com/ios-benchmarks https://browser.geekbench.com/ios-benchmarks
- grishka 4y ago
  Phones also usually aren't designed to sustain a high CPU load for extended periods of time. Computers, on the other hand, are.
mhh__ 4y ago
You couldn't buy one without a screen, or run arbitrary code on them.
skavi 4y ago
Yes, and anyone who had been reading AnandTech's excellent mobile reviews (by Andrei Frumusanu) knew what M1 would bring.

Aissen 4y ago

Everyone was looking, and it was well known that it was best in-class; two random examples: https://www.anandtech.com/show/7335/the-iphone-5s-review/4 https://www.anandtech.com/show/7335/the-iphone-5s-review/4 https://twitter.com/codinghorror/status/912047023871860737 https://twitter.com/codinghorror/status/912047023871860737

minhazm 4y ago

Apple's chips in their iPhones & iPads have been outperforming the competition (Qualcomm & Samsung) for a long time now in both power efficiency and performance. Apple has usually been around 2 yrs ahead of the competition. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chip with 8 cores has a Geekbench multi-core score of 3592[1]. The six-score Apple A15 Bionic scored 4673. The Apple chip has ~30% better multi-core performance with 25% fewer cores than the Qualcomm chip. In single-core performance the difference is even larger, with the Apple chips performing ~47% faster. You can get the same A15 Bionic in both the $429 iPhone SE and the $1100+ iPhone 13 Pro Max. It hasn't really been a huge deal though because people don't develop directly on an iPhone, so it doesn't affect their every day productivity all that much. Also phone's have reached the point of "fast enough" a few years ago, it's hard to tell the difference between an iPhone 13 Pro and an 11 Pro unless you use them side by side. But with the release of the M1 chip, people are getting the performance & energy efficiency gains in their every day workflows. [1]. https://browser.geekbench.com/android-benchmarks https://browser.geekbench.com/android-benchmarks [2]. https://browser.geekbench.com/ios-benchmarks https://browser.geekbench.com/ios-benchmarks

grishka 4y ago
Phones also usually aren't designed to sustain a high CPU load for extended periods of time. Computers, on the other hand, are.

mhh__ 4y ago

You couldn't buy one without a screen, or run arbitrary code on them.

skavi 4y ago

Yes, and anyone who had been reading AnandTech's excellent mobile reviews (by Andrei Frumusanu) knew what M1 would bring.