You know what's funny? The only reason that there is any argument over Apple's cpu performance is that you can't do jack shit with it.
Run a kernel compile, do some rendering, play a few common games, churn out a few F@H WU's, the real world performance of a cpu is really not that hard to gauge. But guess what? You can't do any of that on the ipad pro!
So the A9X might well have quantum computational powers but do you even care?
Clearly some people here would for e-peen or bragging (I think a lot of it is used to justify iOS/Apple vs. Android ***boy wars or justifying your own gadget upgrades, more than anything really). Another side to it I think is because AMD is not competitive with Intel, some are desperately to find proper competition for Intel's products, but are completely ignoring what it actually means to hardness that power in the real world. I guess since smartphone / ARM devices are increasing performance at a rapid pace, that industry sector is to some extent more exciting to follow than the traditional desktop/laptop PC segments. But let's not get carried away -- in the end what matters is HOW you can use that power to your benefit NOT how much power is theoretically there but will never be used.
It's the same reason how discussing gaming benchmarks of Steam OS, Linux or OSX and trying to declare a winner is a waste of time. If you need a proper gaming device, you are using Windows OS, not Steam OS, not Linux not OSX. The same applies to consumer gadgets.
Your post is thus one of the best posts in this entire thread. Provided by work, I ended up using iPhone 5, 5S, 6, 6S and iPad Air but guess what, the main differences between all these devices in the real world are: (1) Screen size (2) Battery life (3) 2D/3D camera/video. GPU and CPU speed is basically 99% irrelevant for productivity or any real world tasks among
these types of devices. Why? Because as actual consumer devices, they are poor products as far as productivity and functionality is concerned. Adding more horsepower to an inferior consumer good doesn't make it more productive. The 6S does browse the web better with 2GB of RAM due to less Safari reloading. However....in the real world:
- The number of professional reports (MS Word) I've written on iOS devices in the last 10 years: 0
- The number of professional presentations (MS PowerPoint) I've done on iOS devices in the last 10 years: 0
- The number of professional financial forecasting, budget, risk/outcome modeling analysis (Monte Carlo simulation) I've done on iOS devices: 0
- The number of great gaming experiences I've had on iOS devices: 0
- The number of times I connected an iOS device to my Panasonic plasma to watch movies: 0
- The number of times I watched a BluRay movie on an iOS device either natively or via a connection to the TV: 0
And then there is the completely horrendous file storage sub-system for all files and music (iTunes is pure trash).
My Canon and Olympus micro-4/3rds cameras wipe the floor with all iOS devices for image quality which means for evening, any night time or photos that are needed for work (zoom in details/macro shots), I use a dedicated camera. The only area where the latest iOS devices are hands down better are 4K video.
In other words, are iOS devices good products? Yes, they are for basic functions such as social media, average style internet browsing, text/Multi-media text messaging, quick photo for FB/Instagram, basic YouTube videos, etc. But if we compare them to any
dedicated productivity devices such as a 15.6" laptop, a proper Windows OS - an actual functional OS for multi-tasking, a proper camera, they are just
toys. That means even if the iPhone 7 and iPad Air 3 had the power of Core i7 6950X and Pascal SLI, they are still very limited devices for anything useful besides pure basics. Whenever I have access to my 32" 2560x1440 desktop or my 15.6" i7 quad-core laptop, the iOS devices just collect dust. That's not a knock against iOS devices per say because the same applies for Android devices too. It's just the fact that smartphones and tablets are of very limited use when trying to get
real work done. A proper 15.6" laptop + any 2015 $300 smartphone annihilates iOS of those devices for productivity and functionality. I bet a lot of consumers are realizing this and why tablet sales are declining. Are there going to be niche use cases where the iPad Pro will be a good product? Sure, but I bet most for people a laptop + smartphone is a far better choice for productivity than an iOS tablet.
But hey, lets discuss how in an imaginary world an A9X CPU has IPC that seems comparable to Skylake in some arbitrary GeekBench that in the real world almost no one uses for productivity. :sneaky:
I wonder how many CATIA and AutoCAD designs will be done over that powerful iPad Pro in the automotive industry? Responsible people who are put in charge of running $30-200 million projects don't use toys -- they need the best equipment possible to ensure efficiency and accuracy. And what exactly is the average consumer going to do with a CPU+GPU 10X more powerful than a Skylake-E in an iPhone 7 or iPad Pro 2? Max out Infinity Blade 4? Crossy Road 2? Candy Crush 2? Awesome. Marketing FTW.