We’ve heard quite a lot about what to expect from this year’s iPhones — being dubbed the iPhone 12 for now. We’re expecting a slab-sided design similar to that of the iPhone 4 and current iPad Pro models; time-of-flight sensors on the rear for improved AR performance and Portrait mode; support for faster 5G mobile data; 6 GB RAM; and an A14 processor with a 5 nm process.
But what does that 5 nm process mean for the power of the phone? A new analysis suggests it could mean the iPhone 12 is as powerful as the 15-inch MacBook Pro…
MacWorld’s Jason Cross is back with another look ahead at what Apple’s upcoming A14 chip might offer, and he suggests it could be a lot.
He starts by pointing out that a move from a 7 nm to a 5 nm process might not sound like a lot, but it’s a really big deal.
This could enable Apple to do better than the trend line would suggest when it comes to multi-core performance in particular.
If we take TSMC at its word about the improved transistor density of the 5 nm process, we’re looking at an incredible 15 billion transistors. That’s more than all but the largest high-end desktop and server CPUs and GPUs. It’s huge. It’s so big that I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if Apple shrunk the total chip area a bit to around 85 mm square and around 12.5 billion transistors.
More transistors in the GPU and the rumored (faster) 6 GB RAM could see games performance boosted by about 50%.
For what it’s worth, the fastest Android phones score around 3,000 on this test, and a score of 5,000 would be similar to 6-core mainstream desktop CPUs or high-end laptop CPUs. It’s 15-inch MacBook Pro territory.
Cross expects even more of an improvement in another area of the A14 chip: the neural engine.
The full piece is well worth reading.
