1. Home >
  2. Computing

The iPad Air 2, with a tri-core CPU, is almost as fast as a modern PC

This morning, the first reviews of the iPad Air 2 started to roll off the presses. If you want me to save you 10 minutes, here's a summary: The iPad Air 2 is a thinner and lighter version of its predecessor, the first iPad Air. Yes, the camera is better -- but it's still not as good as the iPhone 5S or 6. Yes, it now has a Touch ID sensor, which will utterly blow your mind -- and yes, the new "bonded" display feels like you're touching the pixels. What interests me the most, however, is that the iPad Air 2 is powered by the A8X SoC -- a chip with three billion transistors, and a tri-core CPU that gets uncomfortably close to laptop levels of performance, and a decent GPU to boot.
By Sebastian Anthony
iPad Air 2, slanted

This morning, the embargo lifted on reviews of the iPad Air 2. If you don't have time to read a full review(Opens in a new window), here's a summary: The iPad Air 2 is a thinner and lighter version of its predecessor, the first iPad Air. Yes, the camera is better -- but it's still not as good as the iPhone 5S or 6. Yes, it now has a Touch ID sensor, which will utterly blow your mind -- and yes, the new "bonded" display feels like you're touching the pixels. What interests me the most, however, is that the iPad Air 2 is powered by the A8X SoC -- a chip with three billion transistors, and a tri-core CPU that gets uncomfortably close to laptop levels of performance, with a decent GPU to boot.

While the physical design of the iPad Air 2 is utterly iterative, the hardware inside is actually quite exciting. Since the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S -- three years ago -- Apple hasn't used more than a dual-core CPU or 1GB of RAM. With the iPad Air 2, Apple finally steps up to 2GB of RAM and a tri-core CPU.

iPad Air 2, A8X Geekbench benchmark performance When Apple unveiled the iPad Air 2 last week, Tim Cook said the A8X SoC would have 40% faster CPU and 2.5x faster GPU performance over the A7 in the iPad Air 1 -- and early benchmarks for the iPad Air 2 suggest that, if anything, Apple was underestimating the A8X's performance.

In the Geekbench benchmark(Opens in a new window), the A8X's tri-core 64-bit Cyclone CPU is about 20% faster than the A7's dual-core CPU in single-threaded tasks -- and almost twice as fast in multi-threaded tasks. The tri-core CPU, incidentally, is clocked at just 1.5GHz (the Snapdragon 805, by comparison, is usually clocked somewhere between 2.5 and 2.7GHz).

A8X vs. A7 GPU, Antutu 3D benchmarkA8X vs. A7 GPU, Antutu 3D benchmark. The GPU side of things looks good, too, with the A8X more than doubling the score of the A7 in the Antutu benchmark. We're still not quite sure what GPU is in the A8X, but it's probably similar to the quad-core PowerVR Series 6 GX6450 found in the A8. Read: A8 SoC reverse engineered: Revised CPU, new quad-core GPU, TSMC’s 20nm process The A8X also does very well compared to other SoCs. The Snapdragon 805, which is inside the new Motorola Nexus 6, only manages single- and multi-threaded Geekbench scores of 1053 and 3355 -- or about 50% slower than the A8X. Early benchmarks suggest that the 64-bit Tegra K1, which will debut in the Nexus 9 tablet, will have comparable CPU performance to the A8X -- which makes sense, given that they're both monstrous, superscalar 64-bit chips that have more in common with desktop chips than mobile chips.

Laptop-like performance

At 3 billion transistors, the A8X has roughly the same transistor count as a modern desktop chip -- like Intel's Haswell. As we've discussed in the past, transistor counts are mostly about capability and functionality -- but still, there's certainly some correlation between transistor count and performance.

ipad_air_2_specs

It's a fairly naive comparison, but it's worth pointing out that the A8X now has a Geekbench score that is very close to a dual-core Core i5-4250U -- the Haswell chip that's inside the mid-2013 13-inch MacBook Air. The A8X CPU manages single- and multi-threaded scores of 1812 and 4477 -- while the Core i5-4250U(Opens in a new window) is at 2281 and 4519. Geekbench isn't representative of the full laptop or PC usage experience -- but at the very least, it means that web browsing on the iPad Air 2 is now as fast as a modern laptop.

Yes, we're still some way away from tablets having desktop-class performance -- the Core i7-4770K scores about 4,500 and 18,000 in Geekbench's single- and multi-threaded tests -- but really, unless you need a PC for high-end gaming or multimedia editing, the iPad Air 2 and A8X SoC proves that we're now getting scarily close to a point where tablets can replace laptops. If I was a chip maker, or a laptop OEM, I'd be a little scared of Apple right now -- clearly, its chip design team is a force to be reckoned with.

Now read: Intel reveals Core M Broadwell performance and TDP: At 14nm, Intel finally goes fanless

Tagged In

Desktops Haswell A8x Ipad Tablets

More from Computing

Subscribe Today to get the latest ExtremeTech news delivered right to your inbox.
This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of use(Opens in a new window) and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time.
Thanks for Signing Up