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Apple's A17 Pro Within 10% of i9-13900K, 7950X in Single-Core Performance

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Re: Apple's A17 Pro Within 10% of i9-13900K, 7950X in Single-Core Performance

#41

Post by gary_0 »

Aloha wrote: post #19
gary_0 wrote: post #11

I find articles like this really vexing because this isn't a general-purpose CPU, it's just a chip meant to run the software that Apple allows on the App Store. Most of the software I use day-to-day can't run on it by design. It's kind of depressing that the most advanced mobile CPU technology (that can only be fabbed by a single company in a far-away country) is monopolized by a company that heavily restricts the so…

Just because you can't run whatever software you like on it, does not make it non-general purpose CPU.

My definition of "general purpose" is that that you can "run whatever software you like on it". If you can't run whatever on it, that restricts the CPU to a "specific purpose", no?

Re: Apple's A17 Pro Within 10% of i9-13900K, 7950X in Single-Core Performance

#42

Post by GeekyBear »

gary_0 wrote: post #11

I find articles like this really vexing because this isn't a general-purpose CPU, it's just a chip meant to run the software that Apple allows on the App Store. Most of the software I use day-to-day can't run on it by design. It's kind of depressing that the most advanced mobile CPU technology (that can only be fabbed by a single company in a far-away country) is monopolized by a company that heavily restricts the so…

> this isn't a general-purpose CPU

Apple uses the same CPU/GPU core designs for handheld, tablet, laptop, and desktop.

Re: Apple's A17 Pro Within 10% of i9-13900K, 7950X in Single-Core Performance

#43

Post by throwaway2990 »

gary_0 wrote: post #41
Aloha wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because you can't run whatever software you like on it, does not make it non-general purpose CPU.

My definition of "general purpose" is that that you can "run whatever software you like on it". If you can't run whatever on it, that restricts the CPU to a "specific purpose", no?

if I write a bit of software and target ARM64 and it cannot run on x86.

Does that mean that x86 has a specific purpose now and is no longer a general purpose CPU?

Re: Apple's A17 Pro Within 10% of i9-13900K, 7950X in Single-Core Performance

#44

Post by throwaway2990 »

Pufferbo wrote: post #30
gary_0 wrote: post #11

I find articles like this really vexing because this isn't a general-purpose CPU, it's just a chip meant to run the software that Apple allows on the App Store. Most of the software I use day-to-day can't run on it by design. It's kind of depressing that the most advanced mobile CPU technology (that can only be fabbed by a single company in a far-away country) is monopolized by a company that heavily restricts the so…

I’m glad someone else feels this way. I absolutely hate those YouTube videos talking about the “4K 30min total render” bs. Show me a M-chip MacBook that doesn’t balk when running Docker, or chug when opening a fat codebase in WebStorm. Sure the chips are fast when they run the stuff Apple designed for it, but they don’t seem any faster to me in my work. I will give them efficiency though. I love not having to carry t…

I have a 14” M2 which has been up 52 days with docker running in the background, and Rider and Clion. And it runs better than my DELL XPS 15 which heats the room.

Re: Apple's A17 Pro Within 10% of i9-13900K, 7950X in Single-Core Performance

#45

Post by throwaway2990 »

kibwen wrote: post #21
satvikpendem wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well they're bringing AAA games like Resident Evil 4 Remake and Assassin's Creed Mirage to the iPhone, complete with raytracing support, so it looks like it'll be a golden age of Apple gaming soon enough.

Games made with a controller in mind are miserable experiences on a touchscreen. Phones are awkward and uncomfortable to hold like a controller, the lack of physical buttons provides no tactile feedback on where to press, the lack of shoulder buttons means overloading your thumbs with even more inputs, and your fingers obscure half the screen. And if the implication is that they'll port those iOS games to Mac, then I…

You know you can connect an Xbox or PlayStation controller to an iPhone?

Re: Apple's A17 Pro Within 10% of i9-13900K, 7950X in Single-Core Performance

#47

Post by wherefour »

nixpulvis wrote: post #28
nomel wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you expand on that? Why does GHz matter? Performance should be measured as a black box, with the metric being the time it takes to accomplishing some task.

The catch is that we can expect better performance when they increase the clock to be closer to the i9. However, it’s never clear how high it go safely.

CPUs are designed with a certain clock speed in mind. The target frequency affects the design of literally every component. Turn up the frequency too high and signals won't arrive in time. Increasing the frequency to match performance with AMD and Intel might require an almost complete redesign.

Maybe it can run faster given better cooling and less aggressive power-saving. But I'd be surprised if it can be made to clock much higher, else Apple would have done it already. Mobile CPUs already have peak performance well above what they can sustain. An even faster turbo would be used more rarely but would still be useful.

Re: Apple's A17 Pro Within 10% of i9-13900K, 7950X in Single-Core Performance

#48

Post by [deleted] »

gary_0 wrote: post #11

I find articles like this really vexing because this isn't a general-purpose CPU, it's just a chip meant to run the software that Apple allows on the App Store. Most of the software I use day-to-day can't run on it by design. It's kind of depressing that the most advanced mobile CPU technology (that can only be fabbed by a single company in a far-away country) is monopolized by a company that heavily restricts the so…

[deleted]

Re: Apple's A17 Pro Within 10% of i9-13900K, 7950X in Single-Core Performance

#49

Post by dylan604 »

m3kw9 wrote: post #6

“ There is a catch though: Apple's A17 Pro operates at 3.75 GHz, according to the benchmark, whereas its mighty competitors work at about 5.80 GHz and 6.0 GHz, respectively.” This is why numbers like this don’t matter when you say the performance is within 10%

Remember the Apple mantra "megahertz myth"?

Re: Apple's A17 Pro Within 10% of i9-13900K, 7950X in Single-Core Performance

#50

Post by dylan604 »

satvikpendem wrote: post #5
edude03 wrote: post #2

This is super impressive on paper, but it feels like there aren't really many applications that can take advantage of this power on a phone due to thermal and (battery) power constraints. Is the idea that mobile workloads are spiky so it can boost to full speed to render a webpage for example then go back to sleep? Are there / can there be any applications that sustain high clock speeds?

Well they're bringing AAA games like Resident Evil 4 Remake and Assassin's Creed Mirage to the iPhone, complete with raytracing support, so it looks like it'll be a golden age of Apple gaming soon enough.

Sounds like Apple will be needing branded oven mitts to hold the thing in the store's accessories section.
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