We are already expecting the iPhone 12 to have a slab-sided design similar to the iPhone 4 and current iPad Pro models. It is rumored to have time-of-flight sensors on the rear, 5G support, 6GB of RAM and an A14 processor on 5 nm. But what does this A14 mean for the performance of this device?
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MacWorld's Jason Cross says the following about what the A14 may offer:
This is a big upgrade. The 5 nm mode is not a half-step by any stretch, but it is the next "full node" after 7nm.
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.
Remember however, that transistor count alone does not determine total performance. A modern Ryzen 5 3600 and a previous generation 1080 Ti total about 14 billion transistors. and the performance is still really good. It is likely that the shrink in the size of the transistors, will bring big improvements to the efficiency and could improve battery life depending on how the A14 chip is designed.
According to the Geekbench scores, the iPhone 11 Pro has a 1330 single-core and 3436 multi-core score, while the MacBook Pro 15-inch (mid-2019 with the i9-9980HK) scored a 1135 single-core and 6872 multi-core. With the A14 improvements Jason Cross claims that the Geekbench multi-core score could be around 5000. Now for comparison, the MacBook Pro 15-inch (mid-2019 with the i7-9750H) scores 1037 single-core and 5141 multi-core. This would mean that the iPhone is approaching the same power as mainstream 6-core mobile processors.
What do you think? Will the next iPhone be as powerful as the 6-core 15-inch MacBook Pro? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
According to the Geekbench scores, the iPhone 11 Pro has a 1330 single-core and 3436 multi-core score, while the MacBook Pro 15-inch (mid-2019 with the i9-9980HK) scored a 1135 single-core and 6872 multi-core. With the A14 improvements Jason Cross claims that the Geekbench multi-core score could be around 5000. Now for comparison, the MacBook Pro 15-inch (mid-2019 with the i7-9750H) scores 1037 single-core and 5141 multi-core. This would mean that the iPhone is approaching the same power as mainstream 6-core mobile processors.
What do you think? Will the next iPhone be as powerful as the 6-core 15-inch MacBook Pro? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!