You may think this title is a bit extreme, but it's true that in recent years, compared with the enhanced version of Apple A series used by the iPad, the performance of other mobile processors is really lagging behind. How did Apple get on this crazy road? Today, let's take a look at the crazy stacking process of the iPad:

The New iPad (the third generation iPad, namely iPad 3, A5X processor)

In addition to the introduction of A5X, which was considered to be powerful at that time, the New iPad also brought Retina level screens for the iPad for the first time, with a resolution of 2048 * 1536. This resolution has also been used to the current iPad Air2 and iPad mini4, which can be said to be a pioneer of the times.

Apple A5X processor (dual core A9+quad core SGX544)

The New iPad is also the first product with an "X" suffix on the SoC. Apple specially introduced the A5X chip for it. It is a dual core Cortex-A9 1.0GHz processor. The GPU is SGX543MP4 250MHz, and is manufactured with Samsung's 45nm process. Although such parameters are not very good now, they were definitely called monster performance at that time, GPU performance was significantly ahead of that of Tegra 3, the competitor at that time. At the same time, the memory bit width of the A5X is 128bit. It uses four channel LPDDR2 32bit 800MHz, and the bandwidth reaches 12.8GB/s, which is also very leading data at that time. However, even with the most ferocious A5X at that time, the resolution of The New iPad was still too high, resulting in poor smoothness. However, the first iPad as a Retina screen was definitely a classic product.

IPad 3 CPU performance comparison (Sunspider 0.9.1)

IPad 3 CPU performance comparison (Rightware BrowserMark)

In terms of CPU performance, since Apple has not started using its own CPU core in the A5X period, there is not much difference between its performance and the SoC of other Cortex-A9 cores.

IPad 3 GPU performance comparison (GLBenchmark 2.1 Egypt bright screen)

IPad 3 GPU performance comparison (GLBenchmark 2.1 Egypt off screen 720P)

In terms of GPU performance, the SGX543MP4 also showed a very aggressive absolute performance at that time, which was unparalleled in the Offscreen test. However, due to the high resolution, it was even worse than the iPad 2 in terms of the bright screen performance. This is also true in the actual experience. The New iPad is really poor in fluency, perhaps for this reason, it was quickly replaced by the iPad with Retina Display.

IPad with Retina Display (the fourth generation iPad, i.e. iPad 4, A6X processor)

First of all, I would like to talk about Apple's disorderly naming, which is the New iPad and the iPad with Retina Display. The iPad with Retina Display and The New iPad have kept the same figure. Now they are both overweight and too thick. The screen keeps 9.7-inch Retina, but the iPad with Retina Display runs much faster because it is equipped with a new monster, A6X.

Apple A6X processor (dual core Swift+quad core SGX554)

The A6X does not seem to be strong in terms of specifications. It is still a "2+4" (i.e. dual core CPU plus quad core GPU) structure. However, Apple is crazy about going on the road of independent CPU development. Swift is born, which indicates that Apple has made great progress in the performance of single core CPU. Although the frequency is "only" 1.4GHz, the single core performance is significantly ahead of the processors used by the Android camp in the same period. Although the GPU is still the MP4, the core of the GPU is the PowerVR SGX554, which is much more powerful. Its theoretical performance is twice that of the A5X. In addition, the memory bandwidth of the A6X has also been increased to 17GB/s, and it is manufactured using Samsung's 32nm process.

IPad 4 CPU performance comparison (Sunspider 0.9.1)

IPad 4 CPU performance comparison (Octane Benchmark v1)

With the A6X on the iPad with Retina Display, Apple finally introduced its own CPU core, and from here on, Apple's CPU power gradually left Android. In terms of CPU single core performance, due to the emergence of Nexus 10 with Cortex-A15 and RAZR i with Atom, the CPU performance of the A6X does not have overwhelming advantages. However, compared with the mainstream Cortex-A9 and Krait architectures at that time, Apple's processors are much stronger in performance.

IPad 4 GPU performance comparison (GLBenchmark 2.5 Egypt HD bright screen)

IPad 4 GPU performance comparison (GLBenchmark 2.5 Egypt HD off screen 1080P)

In terms of GPU, the decline of The New iPad has been changed. The iPad with Retina Display uses the SGX554MP4 with much exaggerated specifications. The memory bandwidth has also been increased to 17.1GB/s, greatly improving the performance. The absolute performance of the GPU has almost doubled that of the previous generation. The performance in fluency and games will certainly be much better. In the Offscreen test, the iPad was a lot ahead of the Nexus 10, which ranked second. In the bright screen test, it was at the same level as the Nexus 4 (refrigerator version), which had a much lower resolution, and the iPhone 5.

IPad Air 2 (6th generation iPad, A8X processor)

If we regard the 9.7-inch iPad as the main line of the iPad, the iPad Air 2 released in 2014 should be the sixth generation iPad. Careful friends may find that we have neglected the fifth generation iPad Air, because it is the only 9.7-inch iPad without an X suffix processor in recent years. The A7 used by the iPad Air is not very different from that on the iPhone 5s, except that the CPU frequency is 100MHz higher, so let's ignore it directly. As for the A8X on the iPad Air 2, the specifications are really exaggerated. The CPU is actually a three core Typhoon, with a dominant frequency of 1.5GHz. Although the Typhoon frequency is not significantly enhanced compared with the Cyclone on the A7, the frequency is increased to 1.5GHz, which adds another core, making the performance of the A8X significantly improved compared with the A7. In addition, the A8X is manufactured using TSMC's 20nm process.

Apple A8X processor (three core Typhoon+eight core PVR 6XT)

When it comes to Apple's traditional strength GPU, the A8X has joined the 8-core PowerVR GXA6850 crazily, which even breaks through the design of the highest six cores in the public version of the PowerVR 6XT series. It can be said that it is a GPU specially designed for Apple. There is no doubt about the performance of this GPU. It has 256 ALU units, which is slightly better than the Kepler (192 CUDA cores) on Tegra K1, which was still out of reach last year. Even by current standards, its performance is still in the forefront. The A8X has also greatly improved its memory. Its memory bandwidth has soared to 25.6GB/s, and it uses 2G memory that makes fruit powder move to tears.

IPad Air 2 CPU performance comparison (Sunspider 1.0.2)

IPad Air 2 CPU performance comparison (Geekbench 3)

As far as CPU performance is concerned, in the era of iPad Air 2, Apple is still unable to stand out in the world, because NVIDIA's Tegra K1 (dual core Denver version) also has a very impressive single core performance. NVIDIA's Denver architecture and Apple's A-series chips follow a somewhat similar path. Although they have only two cores, the single core performance is extremely powerful. Denver uses the ARMv8 instruction set, has a transmission width of 7, and has the Dynamic Code Optimization function. It is a 64 bit processor with a self-developed core. In terms of multi-core performance, the three cores of the iPad Air 2 have surpassed the eight core processor of Android phones at that time.

IPad Air 2 GPU performance comparison (GFXBench off screen 1080P)

In terms of GPU, the iPad Air 2 is very strong, but it has not reached the level of dominance. Compared with the Nexus 9, it is only slightly better. Of course, compared with the mobile phone, the iPad Air 2 still has a huge advantage.

IPad Pro (A9X processor)

The iPad Pro is not a traditional iPad. You can regard it as a "regional task" of Apple's product development. Its price, use and size determine that its sales will not be particularly good, but this does not affect Apple's continued building hardware on it. The iPad Pro uses the A9X, the most powerful mobile processor in history, and its CPU performance is even claimed to be comparable to that of desktop products. Like the A9, it uses a dual core Twister core. However, the CPU frequency has been upgraded to 2.26GHz, making its performance rise to a new height. Although it has shrunk from the three cores of the A8X to the dual cores, the multi-core performance of the single core is too powerful, and its multi-core performance has also successfully surpassed the A8X and even many eight core Android products. The A9X uses the same TSMC 16nm FinFET process as some iPhone 6s. Another prominent feature is that the iPad Pro uses an unprecedented 4G memory, which can be regarded as the top of Android devices, and is absolutely "massive" for iOS devices with the original maximum 2G memory. The A9X has been upgraded to the LPDDR4 standard. It is 128bit wide and its memory bandwidth has reached a horrible 51.2GB/s. It can handle the 2048x2732 "quasi 3K" resolution of the iPad Pro with ease.

Apple A9X processor (dual core Twister+12 core PVR 7XT)

In terms of GPU, Apple will certainly not neglect it. This time, the graphics processor of PowerVR Series7XT is brought to us, but it is not the 8-core GT7800, nor the high-end 16 core GT7900 (normal mobile devices cannot control this power consumption). It is a 12 core customized GPU for Apple, which has 384 ALU units. With such abnormal parameters, there is no need to doubt the performance. The graphic performance of the A9X is almost twice that of the A9, which dominates the mobile phone industry. It also successfully overthrows the Maxwell (256 CUDA cores) architecture GPU on the former king Tegra X1.

IPad Pro CPU Performance Comparison (Sunspider 1.0.2)

IPad Pro CPU Performance Comparison (Geekbench 3)

In terms of CPU performance, the iPad Pro (A9X) is absolutely a crushing performance, which easily topples the whole Android family, and is also significantly ahead of Apple's own iPhone 6s Plus (A9). Although it only has dual cores, the iPad Pro also slightly outperformed the first tier Galaxy Note5 (Exynos 7420) in Android in the Geekbench multi-core test, achieving the feat of "2-8".

IPad Pro GPU performance comparison (GFXBench off screen 1080P)

The comparison of GPUs is even more unmistakable. The only "powerful" NVIDIA team in Android is also vulnerable to A9X, not to mention mainstream Exynos 7420 and Snapdragon 810. The closest thing to the iPad Pro is still the iPhone 6s Plus. As far as the graphics processing performance of this generation is concerned, Apple is unique in both mobile phones and tablets.

summary

Since the A5X of The New iPad, Apple has shown the world its hardware investment regardless of cost. Apple's A-series processors have conquered the players again and again with their powerful performance, which is totally inconsistent with our impression that "Apple doesn't fight for hardware". In particular, in terms of GPU, Imagination has given Apple strong support, and Apple has also repeatedly suppressed NVIDIA, which is based on graphics processors. For the latest A9X, the super single core performance, the still dominant GPU performance and the exaggerated memory bandwidth are amazing. However, the positioning of the iPad Pro is still a bit strange. We still hope that it can be "lowered" to the iPad Air or even the iPad mini series.

Finally, a summary of SoC specifications introduced in this paper is attached:

Yes, this article is really bragging about how awesome Apple is, and the A9X on the iPad Pro also fully matches this picture:

PS: The pictures without Chinese in the text are all from and The rest of the comparison charts can be viewed on our website Running points library ： 。