I agree with everything you said except this one. First AS is not going to be on A12 or even A13. Its going to be on A14 for sure. The reason why they showed us A12Z is because they want to make a splash when the A14 chip is showed. Also, the demo was for one purpose (as Craig said himself too) - to show the power of the chip without even trying anything new. So the A14 later this year will be huge jump and Intel will be embarrassed by it.
A15 is probably when I expect Mac Pro to make the jump also.
So, this fall will be interesting.
Hello Freida,
Apple are all about marketing. (And yes, they do have 'some' substance behind what they do, usually in the push to a 'new' area rather than 'follow through' with 'old' areas.)
So, giving devs a A12z with half the cores, under clocked and outperforming an equivalent Windows ARM product is noteworthy in itself. An emulating product beating a native running product. That's rather decent.
But, skipping the A13 with it's 20% (?) improvement over the A12 per core. And going to say, A14 with another (20%?) improvement per core...(plus all the other improvements...) and you add in higher clocks, unconstrained cooling, specific cores for a high threaded Mac environment...beefed up gpu...
...and you get something that will bury Intel single core and probably multicore performance whilst doing so at a much cooler cost in power.
The marketing impact of that will hit Intel, the x86 and fellow ARM competitors like a truck. And will establish Apple as THEE cpu silicon maker in the world. (If it isn't already with phones and pads, in truth.)
Any A15 will bury the Mac Pro Xeon. So much so, I'd expect an AS silicon to outperform eg a 28 core xeon with less cores. The only question will be how many less cores it will take to humiliate Intel. But on a core to core basis in single core? I'd expect AS to 'run over' Intel Xeon.
The Xeons to me, are unimpressive on a core to core basis. The A12 isn't that far away. Their only advantage? Having moar cores.
Azrael.
[automerge]1593871240[/automerge]
I'd buy that!
Azrael.
[automerge]1593871342[/automerge]
If this is the reason behind it, that would be soooo sh*tty...
Btw anyone notice 5500 has the same exact average bench as 580?
I wouldn't rule out Apple supplying 'new' gpus that perform the 'same' as the last gen. The famous Apple gpu side grade.
Azrael.
[automerge]1593871628[/automerge]
I'm not saying that IS the reason. I'm saying that maybe if its plan that late then RDNA2 will also be part of it. I'm starting to think, that Apple could change their plans and whatever was ready to ship in March is no longer an option and they will just come with something better. After all, Apple did often update Early AND Late models so now it seems that we only get Late models and the Early was scrapped completely. It would overall actually make sense.
Early was just simple spec bump but Late was redesigned and substantial. That would align with a lot of rumours also.
Covid just messed it up and Apple was battling what to do.
I know its a bit wild theory but I feel its plausible. There was not much in March to be ready vs what is ready in Fall so it all makes sense.
So yeah, I'm guessing that we will get a beefy one in fall
Yes. At this stage. Maybe their plans did change.
Either way. The closer it gets to September, I'd rather they offer an RDNA2 BTO, at least as an option.
That may depend on how many GPUs AMD ship eg. is it just RDNA1+ and RDNA2 flagship (probably too much for the iMac's enclosure?) But there is a chance Apple will offer some customised option for RDNA2 in the iMac.
Hopefully without a £800 price tag.
Azrael.
[automerge]1593871784[/automerge]
Sure. It you need GPU this is not a good option.
Yes. Apple offering a mac mini without a dGPU. And the iG in it is shockingly bad.
'Only' Apple.
And they'll charge you £799-£1050 for that machine.
A cute design and 6 cores can't mask this.
No gpu, no k/b, no mouse...no monitor...
Remember when Apple offered you a choice of 2-3 iMacs under £1000? You know, that came with stuff.
Now, Apple will charge you for an extended keyboard.
Only Apple could charge you for an extension.
Azrael.
[automerge]1593871913[/automerge]
The best strategy is to take the 6-core Mac mini, make the RAM upgrade by yourself with Crucial RAM, and buy 2K or 4K Dell Ultrasharp monitors. You have a very good value after that. The monitors can always be connected to a future iMac to get a 3 display setup (which is frankly the best ever) and the Mac mini is still a powerful computer.
If the Mac Mini had a gpu, then this would be great. Hopefully, this can be adressed with ASilicon. Then the Mini becomes a proposition.
Azrael.
