iPhone 8 w/ hexa-core A11

[OutHouse]

I have no clue what those numbers mean but I know that both the iPhone 8 and X will be a tremendous performance boost to my iPhone 6.

For a $1100 phone I would hope so.

 

[OutHouse]

I love seeing performance advancements, but what mobile benchmarks really need is a way to quantify what all the "50% faster!!!" lines mean in actual, real world usage. When I hear the new iPhone/Galaxy/Pixel is X% faster, that's great! But what does that actually mean? How much faster will it do x, y, and z compared to previous models?

For example, with PCs you can compare encoding benchmarks and actually see how much faster one processor will do the job compared to another. Why does this not exist in the mobile world? I might actually pay attention to benchmarks if they did.

I still rock a S5 it's plenty fast for me and what I do on it.

 

[lopri]

@Red Storm: I might have more to say about the subject of benchmark in general, but for now let me link the whitepaper from Primate Labs wrt Geekbench.

Geekbench 4
CPU Workloads (PDF)

 

[lopri]

So the iPhone 8 really has 2GB of RAM. That is almost as criminal as 1GB on the A7. By the time the A11 actually can make a difference 2GB will make sure that such "inconsistency" is not allowed in Apple's ecosystem.

 

[StrangerGuy]

I got up at 3am to order my wife the gold 8 plus 256gb. Then I got to work at like 6:30 and it was still in stock. In fact it was still in stock until like 9:30am or so on the Verizon site, which had it being delivered at 9/29 instead of 9/22. But apple's site still had it showing for delivery on 9/22.

When I got my previous 2 iPhones this same way they were way sold out by the morning time. I wonder if sales are down, if they have more hardware ready for launch, or people are just waiting for the X.

It's because much of the iPhone populace is waiting for the X precisely for the rarity and price. $1000 is chump change to these folks too.

 

[twjr]

I picked the highest single-cores scores from each database of the A10 and the A11 and compared the sub-scores of both single and multi. Keep in mind that the clock frequency is likely higher for the A11. My guesstimate is 2.5 ~ 2.6 GHz.

https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/compare/2822603?baseline=3976700

Apple claimed 25% single-core improvement and 70% multi-core improvement. I do not know if they base that claim on Geekbench, but overall single-core improvement comes a bit short, at 20% in the above chart. Multi-core improvement is spot on at 70%. We need the clock frequency for IPC comparision - if it runs at 2.5 GHz, IPC improvement is 12%.

I just ran the benchmark on my laptop. The A11 is faster than my i7 6700HQ. While I don't doubt the Apple is a fast CPU I don't get how it can be fast than the Intel given the clockspeed and power advantage.

 

[quikah]

I just ran the benchmark on my laptop. The A11 is faster than my i7 6700HQ. While I don't doubt the Apple is a fast CPU I don't get how it can be fast than the Intel given the clockspeed and power advantage.

Because geekbench is a bunch of BS?

 

[Oyeve]

I just ran the benchmark on my laptop. The A11 is faster than my i7 6700HQ. While I don't doubt the Apple is a fast CPU I don't get how it can be fast than the Intel given the clockspeed and power advantage.

Synthetic benchmarks mean nothing.

 

[t1gran]

Any guesses why the results of iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus in GFXBench OFF-screen tests are different?

 

[mikegg]

Because geekbench is a bunch of BS?

No, it's not BS. You don't know what you're talking about. Intel CPUs are on desktops and laptops which means they have higher sustained performance due to heat dissipation.

 

[evident]

Should I get the 7 or 8 for my wife? At first glance Im not really seeing anything to make me want to shell out an extra 300 for the 8. Is the screen much better? She's coming from a 6s

 

[Andrei.]

Synthetic benchmarks mean nothing.

Because geekbench is a bunch of BS?

I thought by now we would have been at the acceptable phase but there's still people struggling with denial.

GB4 more or less scales similarly to SPECint2000. Is the latter also BS? Apple simply has a better uarch and Intel's process lead has evaporated into nothing.

 

[quikah]

I thought by now we would have been at the acceptable phase but there's still people struggling with denial.

GB4 more or less scales similarly to SPECint2000. Is the latter also BS? Apple simply has a better uarch and Intel's process lead has evaporated into nothing.

I don't put much faith into micro benchmarks in general, but at least SPEC documents their testing methods and gives you the source code. Also, SPECint2000 has been retired for a LOOONG time.

 

[Andrei.]

I don't put much faith into micro benchmarks in general, but at least SPEC documents their testing methods and gives you the source code. Also, SPECint2000 has been retired for a LOOONG time.

And GB4 also documents and give you the source code. Your point?

SPEC2000 is still very relevant in mobile because of memory footprint limitations.

 

[Qwertilot]

Should I get the 7 or 8 for my wife? At first glance Im not really seeing anything to make me want to shell out an extra 300 for the 8. Is the screen much better? She's coming from a 6s

300? That's a lot bigger than the UK pounds difference.

The storage capacity you need has quite a big effect of course. If 32GB isn't enough but you're happy with 64GB then the 8 is very close to the 7 price wise. If you need over 64GB then the price gap does widen somewhat.

Unless some real reason to, worth considering not upgrading for another year of course.

 

[evident]

300? That's a lot bigger than the UK pounds difference.

The storage capacity you need has quite a big effect of course. If 32GB isn't enough but you're happy with 64GB then the 8 is very close to the 7 price wise. If you need over 64GB then the price gap does widen somewhat.

Unless some real reason to, worth considering not upgrading for another year of course.

the $300 difference was considering a used Iphone 7 vs a brand new 8. "Need" a new phone now because wife wants to give her 6S to her mom. Anyways, we picked up an 8 because we're in a time crunch, and she's been using second hand phones for the last 3-4 generations so no prob shelling out for it i guess.

 

[Qwertilot]

Makes sense I think. I know the differences aren't so dramatic as they once were, but the flipside of the technology stabilising/maturing is that there's a decent chance of keeping whatever you get for quite a while so if you've got the capital.....

 

[bearxor]

If Apple doesn't have a version of macOS kicking around in their labs that runs on ARM and has x86 emulation for legacy apps I will eat this napkin that's laying on my desk.

 

[Commodus]

If Apple doesn't have a version of macOS kicking around in their labs that runs on ARM and has x86 emulation for legacy apps I will eat this napkin that's laying on my desk.

It very likely does. I suspect this isn’t like the PowerPC/Intel situation, though, as there isn’t tremendous pressure to switch like there was in the mid-2000s. There would have to be an obvious benefit that makes it worth giving up x86 compatibility.

 

[lopri]

Clockspeed of the A11 reported by Geekbench is all over the place.

https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/search?utf8=✓&q=iphone+8

Anywhere between 2.05 GHz and 2.35 GHz, and no way to tell whether they are clockspeeds of big cores or LITTLE cores. If those reported values are indeed the frequencies of A11's big cores, then A11's IPC improvement gets closer to the 25% improvement claimed by Apple. And that would be truly astounding. Holy kangaroo.

 

[lopri]

I just ran the benchmark on my laptop. The A11 is faster than my i7 6700HQ. While I don't doubt the Apple is a fast CPU I don't get how it can be fast than the Intel given the clockspeed and power advantage.

I think it is still an open question how Apple's A Series chips fare with workstation/server workloads. Clearly it can compete with the best of x86 in client-oriented workloads.

 

[StrangerGuy]

I think it is still an open question how Apple's A Series chips fare with workstation/server workloads. Clearly it can compete with the best of X86 in client-oriented workloads.

The cores themselves are already ahead of Intel, but server grade caching/interconnects probably aren't up to Intel standards yet.

 

[Lodix]

Should I get the 7 or 8 for my wife? At first glance Im not really seeing anything to make me want to shell out an extra 300 for the 8. Is the screen much better? She's coming from a 6s

The iPhone 8 practically carries the same display from the iPhone 6 with some improvements

 

[lopri]

About the iPhone X's display:

http://modelessdesign.com/backdrop/260

As full screen, iPhone X has 22% larger real estate in comparison with iPhone 6/7/8. However, as safe area, it is only 12-13% larger.

For landscape orientation, the area of iPhone X’s screen real estate is almost the same as iPhone 6/7/8′s. In addition, for landscape orientation, the height of iPhone X’s safe area is smaller than iPhone 6/7/8′s.

Basically you gain just 13% more usable screen real estate. That came as a shock to me considering how many compromises Apple had to make for this "all-screen" iPhone. I mean, the phone's body itself is substantially larger and chunkier than the regular iPhone.

Also, this is quite un-Applelike.

Look how unbalanced the left "ear" and the right "ear" look against each other. And the size and weight of status icons and the font used for time are severely compromised in that they do not look properly aligned or proportioned.

Compare that with Samsung's implementation:

The notification/status icons are properly sized the and weighted against the radius of the screen curve, and they start displaying where the curves end and flat-line begins, giving overall balanced and organized look.

I also hear that notch-cutting (which is not done by Samsung) is what tanked the yield of the iPhone X's display. It seems to me the whole notch thing is poorly executed from design/production point of view.

 

[mikegg]

For a $1100 phone I would hope so.

Um... the iPhone 8 starts at $699 and has the same CPU as the X. The Galaxy S8 has far worse performance and retailed at a higher price.

Troll.