The recently announced iPad Air 4 is the first Apple device to come with the new A14 Bionic chip, which is also expected to be part of the iPhone 12 and a new Apple TV. While these devices are not yet available, someone shared this week a Geekbench benchmark result for the iPad Air 4, which gives us a closer look at the performance of the A14 chip.
First observed by the Twitter user Ice universe, the Geekbench test was performed on an iPad Air 4 running iOS 14.0.1. The Geekbench score reports 1583 for single-core and 4198 for multi-core, compared to 1112 for single-core and 2832 for multi-core of the A12 Bionic chip that powers the previous iPad Air 3.
That means the A14 chip has 42% better performance than the A12 chip in single-core and 48% better in multi-core — which can be considered a great improvement for those upgrading from an iPad Air 3. Compared to the iPhone 11’s A13 Bionic chip, the A14 chip is about 20% faster in single-core (1327) and 28% faster in multi-core (3286).
These numbers give us a better overview of iPhone 12’s performance compared to iPhone 11, which doesn’t seem to be a huge improvement, but it keeps the iPhone as the most powerful smartphone on the market. It’s also worth mentioning that Apple might offer the iPhone 12 with a slightly different variation of the A14 chip more powerful than the one used on the iPad Air 4, as the Geekbench result shows 4GB RAM and some rumors point out that the iPhone 12 will have 6GB RAM.
If we compare it to the A12Z chip from the 2020 iPad Pro, the A14 Bionic chip performs better in single-core, with the A12Z achieving an 1119 score. However, the multi-core score of the A12Z chip is higher since the iPad Pro’s CPU has 8 cores, while the A14 chip found on iPad Air 4 has only 6. In other words, the A14 chip is 41% faster than the A12Z chip in single-core, but nearly 10% slower in multi-core. A future A14X or A14Z chip will definitely perform better than the A12Z Bionic chip.
Update: October 4, 2020
There’s a new iPad Air 4 benchmark available on Geekbench, this time with Metal score. The A14 chip scored 12571 in Metal score, which is related to its graphical power. This puts the new iPad Air 4 at the top of the Metal ranking, as the A12Z Bionic chip of the 2020 iPad Pro scored 11665.
Here are some comparisons:
- A14 Bionic (iPad Air 4): 12571
- A12Z Bionic (2020 iPad Pro): 11665
- A12X Bionic (2018 iPad Pro): 10860
- A13 Bionic (iPhone 11): 7308
- A12 Bionic (iPad Air 3): 5242
The A14 Bionic chip has an 8% faster GPU than the one included with the A12Z Bionic chip — which was previously the most powerful available in an Apple device. When compared to the A13 chip, the A14 GPU is 72% faster, which definitely sounds promising for the next generation iPhone and even future Macs with Apple Silicon.
In a related note, the Apple leaker known as Fudge shared today on Twitter some details about Apple’s strategy to boost the Apple Arcade. According to Fudge, the company is working with developers to bring more games that compete with console-level games. The leaker also mentioned that Apple has been working on new, more powerful Apple TV models with the A12Z chip and A14X chip, as well as a new game controller.
Earlier this year, 9to5Mac heard from a source that Apple is working on a new Apple TV with the A14 chip (or one of its variations) with at least 6GB RAM. Our source also told us that Apple was aiming to offer more graphics performance to compete with consoles, which has now been corroborated by Fudge. Unfortunately, a Bloomberg report claims that we might not see this new Apple TV until 2021.
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