Same thing was said 5-10 years ago.
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New Apple TV Reportedly Equipped With Binned A15 Chip With 5-Core CPU
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This is Apple style market takeover speed. They make subtle moves that seem insignificant at the time but they serve a larger vision.
We will find out why these changes seem to make no sense in about 3 months.
The CPU is binned to use all the A15s they would otherwise throw away from the many devices using the full spec’d A15.
This is a huge win for Apple and consumers. We get a cheaper Apple TV and apple gets to use hardware that would otherwise be sitting in storage.
In terms of that extra e-core…unsure anything it would really bring to the table on a streaming device. The 2 performance cores are what majority of Apple TV is running off. Maybe a single E core for air playing to a HomePod.
As someone who still curates their own library of music on the Music app (RIP iTunes), I wish the old functionality of storing a local copy of said library on the Apple TV's storage were possible, and thus be able to play the music straight from the device rather than AirPlay.
But I suppose such a function would cut into that all-too-important services revenue for Cook. Can't have that, huh?
But I suppose such a function would cut into that all-too-important services revenue for Cook. Can't have that, huh?
nothing wrong with that (if you want to assume that's why they did it). personally I think they wanted to bring down the component cost and this was the way. I doubt they'd have enough duds to sustain a separate product line - eventually they'd have to start purposefully disabling cores on otherwise good chips. we'll never know though...
Microsoft are buying Activision for $69 billion. That's the cost of playing with the gaming big boys. Sticking last year's phone chip in a steaming box and selling simplistic telephone games isn't really going to cut it.
Interesting that the benchmarks show it faster than an Xbox One X but slower than a PS5 when the Xbox is faster than the PS5 and out specs it.
I chalk that up to trying to benchmark gaming consoles to a device that isn't really comparable. That sounds great, but the ATV could never run either platforms games at 4K 60HZ. Just not happening.
I chalk that up to trying to benchmark gaming consoles to a device that isn't really comparable. That sounds great, but the ATV could never run either platforms games at 4K 60HZ. Just not happening.
They cite the PS5 and Xbox One.... the Xbox One is 9 years old (and I doubt the ATV could actually best it it anyway and am suspect of how these tests were run and what they tested) but I think they Mean the Xbox Series X.
I admit I have no idea what 'binned' means in the context of an Apple TV.
Does it means these chips are defective? As is, should have other wise been thrown into the trash 'bin'?
Does it means these chips are defective? As is, should have other wise been thrown into the trash 'bin'?
Well, you could try Google.
Anyway, I've done it for you: https://www.techspot.com/article/2039-chip-binning/
In this context, yes - they do not meet their spec. But in a way that they are still usable. A CPU with 4 out of 5 working cores (in this context) has equal performance to a CPU that was designed with 4 cores to begin with. This allows a company to use chips they could not otherwise use. This is most often seen in graphics cards. The chips designed for the $1000+ gpus that don't meet the spec in some way can be used in less-expensive models.
Not necessarily a "defect" - all silicon performs differently - some performs better than spec (which is what Intel sell as the OC versions) and some don't meet specifications. It's likely that the cores all work in these processors but it's not stable enough to run at spec, so they disabled the weakest core via software.
This is how all the M chips in Macs are handled as well to cut costs - all the lower specced machines are made up of binned chips which have a core disabled.
Kind of depends how you judge success I guess. Alternatively if Microsoft had been more successful in the industry on their own maybe they wouldn't need to buy so many other gaming companies.
I just saw the word 'binned' and Apple TV and didn't even know it was called 'chip binning' as a general term.
You know who else could have done it? MacRumors! But thanks for taking the time, unlike MR.
Are you really saying in your statement that the xbox one x is faster and out specs the PS5?
They are comparing CPU performance I believe. The Xbox One had a pretty meh CPU even when it came out, so it's absolutely believable that the Apple TV is faster. The PS5 has a much newer CPU that probably wins out on multicore but loses in single-core.
As for GPU performance (the most important bit for gaming), it sounds like Apple TV might be almost at the level of the Xbox One, but will (predictably) get absolutely destroyed by the much newer PS5. The Xbox Series X is not mentioned but has basically the same performance as the PS5.
EDIT: Series X, not One X
Until Tim and some of the others are replaced by people my age (forties and younger) who grew up with gaming, Apple will continue to see hardcore gaming as unnecessary and maybe even detrimental to their business.
I guess the next Apple TV 4K with the A17 will match the performance of the PS5 when it gets released in 2024. There may be a PS5 Pro by then that’s better.
I was really surprised to see that too especially considering the active cooling in that and the A10X version.