You may have missed it, but for the third time in its existence phone company Apple is moving its desktop computers to a new CPU architecture. This time, from the Intel X86-64 chips it moved to in 2006/7 and with which we’re familiar with from our PCs, to its own designs based on the ARM chips we’re familiar with from our smartphones and tablets.
The move has been mooted for a while, dating back to 2009 when Apple bought processor company PA Semi to develop chips for its iPods and iPhones, starting with the 800MHz, single-core, A4 chip in the 2010 iPhone 4 and first-generation iPad. Since then, the power of the chips has grown hugely, with the 2011 iPhone 4S (Apple A5, dual-core, 1GHz) showing a 68 percent gain in speed, and the A12X Bionic chip in the iPad Pro (2018, eight cores, 2.49GHz, seven GPU cores) showing benchmark results on a par with a Core i7, and AMD’s Durango 2 graphics chip for the Xbox One S.
Leaked benchmarks from developer preview Mac minis equipped with the A12Z chip from the 2020 iPad Pro (usually eight cores, 2.49GHz, eight-core GPU), posted in flagrant disregard of Apple’s T&Cs, show a 30 percent drop in performance when compared to a MacBook Air with a Core i3. That’s nothing short of phenomenal, considering that the chip is not one intended to go into Macs, as it was downclocked and not operating on all cores in the mini, and the benchmark software was using the Rosetta 2 software translation layer to run. Apple has given a two-year timetable to move to Apple Silicon, by which time the glitches will be worked out, Rosetta 2 will be gone, and desktop-class Apple Silicon with who knows how many cores will be available.
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Denne historien er fra October 2020-utgaven av PC Gamer.
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BITING BACK
The tooth is out there in adventure TEETH OF GLASS
SMOKE ALARM
THE INVISIBLE SMOKE FACTORY is back in a Flash
MECH ME OVER
Move over Mario, here's mech-based platforming in ARMORED SHELL NIGHTJAR
"I like Pillars of Eternity better than Baldur's Gate III"
PILLARS OF ETERNITY deserves a bigger space in the CRPG pantheon
"A harrowing dark fantasy about hapless, bright-eyed children"
Spelunking into hell with MADE IN ABYSS: BINARY STAR FALLING INTO DARKNESS
THE IMMORTAL LOCK
A massive, meaty game in a single horrific Quake map.
NEW MANOEUVRES
Building a dedicated sim racing space in an average family house
OVERWATCH 2
Save me space girl.
REET GOOD TIME
THANK GOODNESS YOU'RE HERE is a riotous recreation of Yorkshire
THE PLUCKY SQUIRE
How many games let you make friends with a MtG card?