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.
I need someone to talk me out of buying a iPad Pro
- Thread starter gobikerider
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Iirc, A9 and A8X are pretty close in terms of GPU performance. It's A9X that's significantly faster.
I agree they are close, in Geekbench 4 Compute (GPU) Test, the Pro is rather impressive to say the least
A8X: 7,500 Baseline (Power VR 6XT Series 8 cores)
A9: 9,800 30% increase (Power VR 7 Series 6 cores)
A9X 15,000 100% increase (Power VR 7XT Series12 cores)
The A9 in the iPad (5th gen) is similar to the A8X in the iPad Air 2 in the GFXBench 1080p Manhattan Offscreen benchmark, but the A9 is 60-66% faster in the newer 1080p Manhattan 3.1 Offscreen and 1440p Manhattan 3.1.1 Offscreen benchmarks.
Another great example of how the A9 alone is better than A8X even in gpu test I wouldn't have expected quite the improvement.
I've mentioned this before in another thread, but I think it's time to start thinking of the iPads in terms of MacBook refresh progression. I strongly suspect that's a big part of why Apple started with all the "Pro" branding on iPads.
I am surprised that the iPad 12.9 inch Pro can beat the 9.7 inch Pro despite having same chipset and all; I thought the 12.9 inch will need more CPU and GPU power to maintain same standards as the 9.7 inch
Not sure what you mean, sorry
100% Agreed. I feel like the naming of the 2017 iPad confirms just about confirms it too.
Memory bandwidth. iPad Pro 12.9 has 2x2GB LPDDR4 dual channel while iPad Pro 9.7 only has 1x2GB LPDDR4 single channel. For graphics, memory bandwidth can be a huge bottleneck.
Agreed. The iPad Air line was kind of the outlier. Apple never called the iPad 3 and iPad 4 that officially. They're just the iPad (3rd generation) and iPad (4th generation) with Retina display.
In addition to what rui no onna mentioned above, the linked benchmarks are offscreen so the display resolution doesn't matter.
Basically expect minor refreshes on iPads moving forward, with only major changes at 2-3 year intervals.
Ah I see, so it's the dual channel, thanks!
No wonder, I think I saw onscreen benchmarks that puts the iPad Pro 9.7 inch as the top though
Sounds like a great idea seeing that this can encourage people to buy iPads all year round instead of such waiting, but then again, people will just wait for the major changes and the same thing is going to happen again!
I Sold off my 12.9 and picked up a used 9.7 Pro off eBay for 400$. Now is a bad time to buy new. The iPad Pro is first gen and really isn't that great. I bet gen 2 will be much better. The Apple Pencil is just meh. Palm rejection is meh. iOS is annoying for productivity. Ram is low for doing anything serious.
It's got good battery life though. Fun for wasting time on. I bet the next one will be much better (I hope so at least-Apple seems kinda clueless what the professionals needs are these days, just look at the failed Mac Pro).
Thousand bucks is allot of money to spend for taking notes .
But it's up to you I bought 2 of them so far. I don't regret it despite the flaws and hardware limits.
It's got good battery life though. Fun for wasting time on. I bet the next one will be much better (I hope so at least-Apple seems kinda clueless what the professionals needs are these days, just look at the failed Mac Pro).
Thousand bucks is allot of money to spend for taking notes .
But it's up to you I bought 2 of them so far. I don't regret it despite the flaws and hardware limits.
@gobikerider I've loved watching your freak out about the launch. You and I are the same, except i purchased my iPad about 17 days ago. I was frantically refreshing MR to see if i need to return this lovely 12.9" Pro.
My advice? I see you have an Air 2 now. That was my last iPad before this one. But if you want a 9.7", I say wait. The 10.5" or whatever will be worth it. I avoided Air 2 -> 9.7" because it wasn't enough of a jump for me. But if you want a 12.9", get one. Today. You'll love it. Nothing suggests anything drastic for the 12.9" line, so buyers remorse should be minimal. With 4gb of RAM, the 12.9 SHOULD be able to handle whatever iOS 11 has. "Worst" case scenario for me, when a new one comes out this fall and I really want it, I'll sell it and upgrade. But for now, I'm loving my Pro.
My advice? I see you have an Air 2 now. That was my last iPad before this one. But if you want a 9.7", I say wait. The 10.5" or whatever will be worth it. I avoided Air 2 -> 9.7" because it wasn't enough of a jump for me. But if you want a 12.9", get one. Today. You'll love it. Nothing suggests anything drastic for the 12.9" line, so buyers remorse should be minimal. With 4gb of RAM, the 12.9 SHOULD be able to handle whatever iOS 11 has. "Worst" case scenario for me, when a new one comes out this fall and I really want it, I'll sell it and upgrade. But for now, I'm loving my Pro.
I was going to get it today, but Apple said I couldn't trade in my Air 2 because I'm under 18
. I'm short on cash allocated to new iPad so that was a deciding factor for me, so now I'm just on Air 2 patiently awaiting new ones. No more freak outs, no more anxiety, I'm going to wait, save , and when new ones hit I'll be the first in line for them. I was going to get it today, but Apple said I couldn't trade in my Air 2 because I'm under 18
Possible to get your parents to help with the trade in?
I was going to get it today, but Apple said I couldn't trade in my Air 2 because I'm under 18
I think this is a good decision to wait, especially if your iPad Air 2 is more than capable of handling what you were doing now. If by Fall, there is no new iPad, then you can at least feel more comfortable with your purchase with a Pro model. Good luck.
Ah nice, glad that they can help!
come on apple hit us with that May event
Yeah, my wallet is waiting!
I was going to get it today, but Apple said I couldn't trade in my Air 2 because I'm under 18
Did you end up finding a keyboard to use with your Air 2 in the meantime?
I was going to get it today, but Apple said I couldn't trade in my Air 2 because I'm under 18
Good thinking. Interesting that Apple said no especially as they want your market. Suggestion: if there was a reason why you wanted the pro try to do that with the Air in the meantime. For example, I want the pencil again to draw, but in deciding to wait I've begun to draw/doodle traditionally in the interim to stave that desire.
Right there with you in wanting a new Pro.