I recall some years back how proud I was of my and fx 8120 system it was so crazy fast. But now my iPad Pro is way faster. And man o man did I have to use a huge heat sink to keep the mad cool. So what is apples secret?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPad Pro How does apple do it?
- Thread starter Ratsaremyfreinds
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Part of the answer is iOS uses the processor far more efficiently so the iPad can do more with less power and less system memory. Apple can do this because they make both the hardware and software and don’t need to account for variations outside the hardware it produces.
I mean CPU and motherboard architecture in the last decade has changed a lot. When was the last time you looked into this?
Less heat, your FX 8120 was probably 45nm or 90nm die size the A12X is 7nm
To put it in a simplified fashion, it is a combination of engineering and design which makes it happen.
Bear in mind though, even if there is no fan on iPad, iPad is still subject to overheat and throttle down. It is just there are not many workloads that can 100% iPad processor for more than 10 min as of yet.
Bear in mind though, even if there is no fan on iPad, iPad is still subject to overheat and throttle down. It is just there are not many workloads that can 100% iPad processor for more than 10 min as of yet.
Apple bought a chip design company with some of the greatest minds in chip design, with experience in DEC, PowerPC, StrongARM, Itanium, and PowerPC design, and then they poured billions (yes billions) of dollars into designing a very limited set of chips with specifications to do exactly what they needed for their iPhones and iPads and related devices, while buying up other hardware and software engineering companies along the way. Furthermore, they specifically designed chips for low power and not the desktop space. What I mean about designing for their own plans for example is that they went 64-bit before everyone else, and they design their own OS, which meant that they could leave 32-bit behind a lot sooner than everyone else. Apple can plan to throw out legacy features, and then they go ahead and do it, in their chips, in their logic boards, in their OS, and in their apps.
In addition, since those are their own chips, they are not paying profit to companies like Intel for their chip design. Yes they are fabless, but they also are able to leverage their enormous volumes to get great pricing on chip manufacturing, from the best companies. Luckily, both Samsung and TSMC were competitive against each other so Apple was able to play them off each other for the best deal and the best tech. And it turns out now in 2019 TSMC probably has the best tech, even ahead of Intel, so Apple's primary fab is TSMC.
In addition, since those are their own chips, they are not paying profit to companies like Intel for their chip design. Yes they are fabless, but they also are able to leverage their enormous volumes to get great pricing on chip manufacturing, from the best companies. Luckily, both Samsung and TSMC were competitive against each other so Apple was able to play them off each other for the best deal and the best tech. And it turns out now in 2019 TSMC probably has the best tech, even ahead of Intel, so Apple's primary fab is TSMC.