Technically- Can Apple Intelligence work on iPhone 14 Pro hardware?

[1800AirTAG]

As the title has it, more of a question than anything.

Based on Apples list, computers, iPads and iPhone, the iPhone is the only lineup that requires the latest best version to run Apple Intelligence.

I don’t understand too much detail about the silicon itself. I understand the CPU/GPU, etc specs, but not enough to explain exactly how things work and why. So, I looked up several articles and the difference between the A16 Bionic vs the A17 Pro, and although the 17 is of course better, faster, etc- the %s don’t seem to be all that much different on paper.

So, other than the fact that they want “force” the sale of the newer phones by only offering AI in 15 Pro and above, is there any real hardware related reason why they can’t put it on the 14 Pro? Is it really not powerful enough to run it?

 

[anshuvorty]

Rumors suggest it is because the iPhone 15 Pro has more RAM than the iPhone 14 Pro (8 GB vs. 6 GB), and the Apple Intelligence feature needs as much RAM as possible to run efficiently on the device.

 

[aakshey]

Apple Intelligence is limited to devices with both a neural engine and those that have at least 8 GB of RAM

iPhone 14 Pro (/Max) only have 6 GB RAM

 

[1800AirTAG]

Thanks to the both of you, that’s the one thing I didn’t consider. Still sucks 🤣 hopefully they will have a “special upgrade” for those who could be enticed to upgrade just for that

 

[Broken Hope]

The fact M1 is supported proves it's RAM that's the issue and not the power of the NPU.

 

[krspkbl]

According to Apple no it can’t. Seems like that extra 2GB RAM makes the difference and is a cut off.

I think it’s a bit poor that the 15/Plus is excluded but hey I guess you buy a Pro for a reason. As for 14 … tough luck. They are 2022 devices and this isn’t the first time Apple has excluded new features on old hardware.

 

[shad0wf0rce]

IMO they will bring a lite Version of that in the future like they did for the Stage Manager before. This is not acceptable for a device 1 year old. Audience is really important at this point...

 

[shenfrey]

Looks like Apples stinginess on RAM has come back to bite them in the butt

 

[1800AirTAG]

Looks like Apples stinginess on RAM has come back to bite them in the butt

It's not biting them in the butt, if anything it's their marketing to upgrade to an iPhone 15 Pro/16 Pro

 

[eoblaed]

I don’t understand too much detail about the silicon itself. I understand the CPU/GPU, etc specs, but not enough to explain exactly how things work and why. So, I looked up several articles and the difference between the A16 Bionic vs the A17 Pro, and although the 17 is of course better, faster, etc- the %s don’t seem to be all that much different on paper.

Rumors suggest it is because the iPhone 15 Pro has more RAM than the iPhone 14 Pro (8 GB vs. 6 GB), and the Apple Intelligence feature needs as much RAM as possible to run efficiently on the device.

Besides the 33% increase in RAM fro the A16 Bionic to the A17 Pro, there's also the change from a 5nm process to a 3nm process (40% reduction in size) and the neural engine improvements ... from 17 TOPS (trillion operations per second) in the A16 Bionic to 35 TOPS in the A17 Pro.

So, we have a 33% increase RAM, a 40% reduction in process size, and greater than 100% increase in neural engine performance (which the AI features are going to lean extremely heavily on).

Those are major, directly relevant improvements. The on-device AI functionality they showed is extremely demanding and I'm certain if they enabled it on the prior phones while it might ... 'work' ... it would probably result in a laggy, jittery experience across the device.

I'm just guessing here, but given the sudden explosion of AI on the scene, and how fast it's moving, I suspect Apple was kind of backed into a corner and had to come out with something 'now'-ish. And whatever they came out with couldn't just be some token chat integration, it had to be comprehensive, robust, and amazing. I'm sure Apple would've loved to have waited another year or two to really nail things down and polish it completely ... which would've also had the side effect of having more years worth of hardware capable of running the new software.

But, they didn't have that time.

 

[1800AirTAG]

Besides the 33% increase in RAM fro the A16 Bionic to the A17 Pro, there's also the change from a 5nm process to a 3nm process (40% reduction in size) and the neural engine improvements ... from 17 TOPS (trillion operations per second) in the A16 Bionic to 35 TOPS in the A17 Pro.

So, we have a 33% increase RAM, a 40% reduction in process size, and greater than 100% increase in neural engine performance (which the AI features are going to lean extremely heavily on).

Those are major, directly relevant improvements. The on-device AI functionality they showed is extremely demanding and I'm certain if they enabled it on the prior phones while it might ... 'work' ... it would probably result in a laggy, jittery experience across the device.

I'm just guessing here, but given the sudden explosion of AI on the scene, and how fast it's moving, I suspect Apple was kind of backed into a corner and had to come out with something 'now'-ish. And whatever they came out with couldn't just be some token chat integration, it had to be comprehensive, robust, and amazing. I'm sure Apple would've loved to have waited another year or two to really nail things down and polish it completely ... which would've also had the side effect of having more years worth of hardware capable of running the new software.

But, they didn't have that time.

This actually makes a lot of sense. I appreciate the explanation!

 

[gwhizkids]

Besides the 33% increase in RAM fro the A16 Bionic to the A17 Pro, there's also the change from a 5nm process to a 3nm process (40% reduction in size) and the neural engine improvements ... from 17 TOPS (trillion operations per second) in the A16 Bionic to 35 TOPS in the A17 Pro.

So, we have a 33% increase RAM, a 40% reduction in process size, and greater than 100% increase in neural engine performance (which the AI features are going to lean extremely heavily on).

Those are major, directly relevant improvements. The on-device AI functionality they showed is extremely demanding and I'm certain if they enabled it on the prior phones while it might ... 'work' ... it would probably result in a laggy, jittery experience across the device.

I'm just guessing here, but given the sudden explosion of AI on the scene, and how fast it's moving, I suspect Apple was kind of backed into a corner and had to come out with something 'now'-ish. And whatever they came out with couldn't just be some token chat integration, it had to be comprehensive, robust, and amazing. I'm sure Apple would've loved to have waited another year or two to really nail things down and polish it completely ... which would've also had the side effect of having more years worth of hardware capable of running the new software.

But, they didn't have that time.

Exactly this. Not everything can be explained as some nefarious scheme by Apple to force upgrades. Though, as a hardware manufacturer, there's nothing inherently wrong if they did that. As long as the phones they sold in the past continue to do the things they were advertised as being able to do when sold, they can do whatever they want with future products. If my 2020 KitchenAid refrigerator doesn't do what a current model KitchenAid refrigerator does, I'm not going to complain. If I want those newer features, I'll go buy a new one.

 

[theshoehorn]

IMO they will bring a lite Version of that in the future like they did for the Stage Manager before. This is not acceptable for a device 1 year old. Audience is really important at this point...

I second this. At least give a limited version of it. Regardless of the RAM, TOPS, etc. you can't tell me that at least the 14Pros can run most of this, albeit a little slower.

 

[shenfrey]

It's not biting them in the butt, if anything it's their marketing to upgrade to an iPhone 15 Pro/16 Pro

Maybe, but I'm sure there's a lot more people that can't afford the latest devices than the ones who can.

 

[aakshey]

Besides the 33% increase in RAM fro the A16 Bionic to the A17 Pro, there's also the change from a 5nm process to a 3nm process (40% reduction in size) and the neural engine improvements ... from 17 TOPS (trillion operations per second) in the A16 Bionic to 35 TOPS in the A17 Pro.

So, we have a 33% increase RAM, a 40% reduction in process size, and greater than 100% increase in neural engine performance (which the AI features are going to lean extremely heavily on).

Those are major, directly relevant improvements. The on-device AI functionality they showed is extremely demanding and I'm certain if they enabled it on the prior phones while it might ... 'work' ... it would probably result in a laggy, jittery experience across the device.

I'm just guessing here, but given the sudden explosion of AI on the scene, and how fast it's moving, I suspect Apple was kind of backed into a corner and had to come out with something 'now'-ish. And whatever they came out with couldn't just be some token chat integration, it had to be comprehensive, robust, and amazing. I'm sure Apple would've loved to have waited another year or two to really nail things down and polish it completely ... which would've also had the side effect of having more years worth of hardware capable of running the new software.

But, they didn't have that time.

This is absolutely not the reason for Apple Intelligence not coming to older iPhones

M1 is worse than this yet it’s coming to M1

There‘s only one reason - RAM

 

[drunkaviator]

It's not biting them in the butt, if anything it's their marketing to upgrade to an iPhone 15 Pro/16 Pro

It might do though, when people look at Google Gemini and see it's being rolled out to countless existing Pixel phones. It's certainly making me consider switching to be honest, especially as Goodgle usually bundle a free pixel watch and discount buds in the UK. Apple has become excessively greedy of late milking their existing user base hard...just like with the new iPads.

 

[ProbablyDylan]

It's not impossible. At the bottom of the Apple Intelligence page, there's a disclaimer;

• Some features, additional languages, and platforms will be coming over the course of the next year.

 

[anshuvorty]

Thanks to the both of you, that’s the one thing I didn’t consider. Still sucks 🤣 hopefully they will have a “special upgrade” for those who could be enticed to upgrade just for that

Apple doesn't do special upgrade offers...

 

[Frantisekj]

According to Apple no it can’t. Seems like that extra 2GB RAM makes the difference and is a cut off.

I think it’s a bit poor that the 15/Plus is excluded but hey I guess you buy a Pro for a reason. As for 14 … tough luck. They are 2022 devices and this isn’t the first time Apple has excluded new features on old hardware.

So why my SE 2020 can do voice recognition on device with Aiko app? And faster then realtime. Of course, it can not do anything else at that moment.

 

[anshuvorty]

So why my SE 2020 can do voice recognition on device with Aiko app? And faster then realtime. Of course, it can not do anything else at that moment.

Apple Intelligence, at least as implemented, seems to require at least 8 GB of RAM, and anything else just doesn't meet Apple's performance thresholds. Thus, the iPhone 14 Pro was excluded, IMHO.

 

[Frantisekj]

Apple Intelligence, at least as implemented, seems to require at least 8 GB of RAM, and anything else just doesn't meet Apple's performance thresholds. Thus, the iPhone 14 Pro was excluded, IMHO.

I know that. What I am questioning is Apple perfectionist approach you can have everything or nothing.

 

[eoblaed]

This is absolutely not the reason for Apple Intelligence not coming to older iPhones

M1 is worse than this yet it’s coming to M1

There‘s only one reason - RAM

The 3nm of the A17 Pro offers, among other things, more energy efficient processing of workloads. On a device with a smaller battery, like a phone, it's quite possible that the reduction in energy efficiency of the 5nm process of the A16 Bionic would lead to dramatically reduced battery life. And if there's one thing that'll send people ballistic, it's a noticeable hit on battery. M1 devices, while also 5nm, have significantly larger batteries and significantly more RAM which could conceivably let them absorb that difference less noticeably.

I'd be surprised if it was just that one dimension, but the fact remains that the 15 Pro lineup is measurably more capable than the prior generations and given how demanding the on-device AI tasks are going to be (I can't wait!) this call doesn't surprise me.

I'm guessing the 16 Pro devices are going to be a nice sweet spot with performance. It'll be fun to see the differences.

 

[gwhizkids]

It might do though, when people look at Google Gemini and see it's being rolled out to countless existing Pixel phones. It's certainly making me consider switching to be honest, especially as Goodgle usually bundle a free pixel watch and discount buds in the UK. Apple has become excessively greedy of late milking their existing user base hard...just like with the new iPads.

If you don't do the processing onboard, obviously the compute power needed on the device goes way down. That's Apple's pitch: they can get the job done on-device. If that doesn't do it for you, then, yes, you are free to find a phone vendor who does it the way you want it. That doesn't however, make Apple wrong for trying to do it on-device.

 

[bigboy29]

Do not know for sure but - I have seen some speculation that Apple managed to squeeze their LLM into 3GB RAM footprint (which is actually incredible to begin with). Seeing that you need to have RAM for OS and apps, I would not think that AI is coming to anything lower than 6GB RAM devices, at all.

I wonder what this means for iPhone 16 line of devices; will they sell a non-Pro devices with 6GB still and so AI will be a "Pro" feature? What about next SE?

 

[Paddle1]

Do not know for sure but - I have seen some speculation that Apple managed to squeeze their LLM into 3GB RAM footprint (which is actually incredible to begin with). Seeing that you need to have RAM for OS and apps, I would not think that AI is coming to anything lower than 6GB RAM devices, at all.

I wonder what this means for iPhone 16 line of devices; will they sell a non-Pro devices with 6GB still and so AI will be a "Pro" feature? What about next SE?

I don't think they will release any more 6GB iPhones, or at least ones that aren't AI compatible. The iPhone lineup is the only one where AI is currently locked to the Pros.

The SE has historically matched the specs of the latest standard iPhone regarding chip and RAM with the exception of the 2nd gen. Since it will likely be staying around a few years I can see them wanting to future proof it a bit and doing that again.