May 7 “Let Loose” Event - new iPads

[leman]

So I just tuned in and the first thing I hear is "bringing the pencil experience to the whole new level!"

I'm happy Apple is not taking itself too seriously these days

 

[Andropov]

New Pencil sounds like a great upgrade. Hate the double tap gesture

 

[Jimmyjames]

I was wrong and Maxtech was right. A bitter pill to swallow. Now curious to see benchmarks.

 

[Andropov]

I was wrong and Maxtech was right. A bitter pill to swallow. Now curious to see benchmarks.

I can imagine people at Qualcomm are not super excited to see them

 

[Cmaier]

Fully loaded 13” with keyboard and pencil pro ordered. Delivery next Wednesday.

 

[Jimmyjames]

Confused about what has or hasn’t improved vs the M3. Any ideas?

Edit: what concerns me is, if either cpu or gpu haven't improved, we have to wait another year probably.

 

[Andropov]

Confused about what has or hasn’t improved vs the M3. Any ideas?

Edit: what concerns me is, if either cpu or gpu haven't improved, we have to wait another year probably.

Hard to say since they also increased the number of cores and the numbers given are relative to M2 (not M3), but the M3 is not 50% faster than the M2 (CPU wise), so I'd expect there's some improvements in the CPU side on top of the added E cores.

 

[leman]

I was reading Apple marketing pages about the M4. They mention a "second-gen more efficient 3nm process". Could this refer to N3E? I really would like to know how the planning works behind the scenes. These must be incredibly tough business decisions. I know of no other company that would switch nodes this quickly. Also, I was under impression that N3E is only available later this year? Could it be that M4 is iPad Pro only simply because the current manufacturing capability is currently poor?

Some other thought: I wouldn't be surprised if the CPU cores are actually slower than in M3. Increasing E-core counts sounds like a good move for some additional sustained compute. The only architectural changes in the CPU seems to be the updated AMX. I'd really like to hear more details.

 

[Andropov]

I was reading Apple marketing pages about the M4. They mention a "second-gen more efficient 3nm process". Could this refer to N3E? I really would like to know how the planning works behind the scenes. These must be incredibly tough business decisions. I know of no other company that would switch nodes this quickly. Also, I was under impression that N3E is only available later this year? Could it be that M4 is iPad Pro only simply because the current manufacturing capability is currently poor?

Some other thought: I wouldn't be surprised if the CPU cores are actually slower than in M3. Increasing E-core counts sounds like a good move for some additional sustained compute. The only architectural changes in the CPU seems to be the updated AMX. I'd really like to hear more details.

In GB6, the M3 scores ~11,400 points vs the ~9,600 points of the M2. That's a 18% multicore improvement from M2 -> M3. Then, if as said on the keynote M2 -> M4 is 50% improvement, I don't think two additional E cored can explain the difference.

 

[Jimmyjames]

I really want to know the single-core improvement.

 

[Jimmyjames]

In GB6, the M3 scores ~11,400 points vs the ~9,600 points of the M2. That's a 18% multicore improvement from M2 -> M3. Then, if as said on the keynote M2 -> M4 is 50% improvement, I don't think two additional E cored can explain the difference.

The 50% relates to Affinity Photo’s benchmark. Which is an interesting choice for a cpu benchmark.

 

[leman]

In GB6, the M3 scores ~11,400 points vs the ~9,600 points of the M2. That's a 18% multicore improvement from M2 -> M3. Then, if as said on the keynote M2 -> M4 is 50% improvement, I don't think two additional E cored can explain the difference.

They didn't use GB6, they used Affinity Photo. I doubt the GB6 improvements will be as high.

@Jimmyjames beat me to it ^^

 

[dada_dave]

I was reading Apple marketing pages about the M4. They mention a "second-gen more efficient 3nm process". Could this refer to N3E? I really would like to know how the planning works behind the scenes. These must be incredibly tough business decisions. I know of no other company that would switch nodes this quickly. Also, I was under impression that N3E is only available later this year? Could it be that M4 is iPad Pro only simply because the current manufacturing capability is currently poor?

N3E is indeed already available, but typically Apple stockpiles chips for a fall release - especially for the iPhone. They must really want something to test new features on after WWDC.

 

[Cmaier]

This is all very baffling. When will M4 come to mac? At some point, if M4 is mac-bound, they will have to explain what advantages it has over M3. It does sound like the single core speed is faster, but how did they do that?

 

[Cmaier]

N3E is indeed already available, but typically Apple stockpiles chips for a fall release - especially for the iPhone. They must really want something to test new features on after WWDC.

yeah, that’s my thinking. Something is coming at WWDC that will benefit mightily from something that M4 has that M3 doesn’t.

 

[leman]

At this point I wouldn't be surprised if they jump the Mac straight to M5. Or maybe use M4 platform for the desktop. It seems that Apple is now committed to iterating faster, which makes sense for them. I think it is great for the customers.

 

[Andropov]

Well even they acknowledged it was unexpected to launch with the M4 instead of the M3.

They didn't use GB6, they used Affinity Photo. I doubt the GB6 improvements will be as high.

@Jimmyjames beat me to it ^^

Huh you're right I missed that part. It's not very clear in their website either.

 

[Andropov]

Strangely binned chips too: https://x.com/markgurman/status/1787864987110682921?s=46&t=AVo4Ae4rwcqD3xOi5WvXyg

 

[Jimmyjames]

At this point I mostly disregard Apples own benchmark scores. It’s not that they lie, it’s that they are usually odd or poorly explained. Last time they said the M3 was around 10% faster single core and it turned out around 15-20% in Geekbench.

 

[Cmaier]

Strangely binned chips too: https://x.com/markgurman/status/1787864987110682921?s=46&t=AVo4Ae4rwcqD3xOi5WvXyg

i am guessing that’s artificial and not due to fallout, but who knows.

Glad I ordered the highest storage - i did so figuring I’d get more RAM, and hadn’t had time to read all the specs and stuff since i did it while driving to work

Only option i didn’t order was nano-texture.