Published in PC Hardware

Apple A8X SoC outpaces 32-bit competition

by on22 October 2014



But not Denver

Apple's new flagship SoC has no trouble taking on 32-bit ARM cores, but when it comes to other custom 64-bit cores, the A8X cannot pull ahead. 

Luckily for Apple, there are no high-end 64-bit cores in currently Android products, apart from one. The Nexus 9 features the Tegra K1 64-bit SoC, Nvidia's first mobile chip based on a custom ARM core.

According to Apple Insider, the A8X has no trouble wiping the floor with products based on Snapdragon 800 and Exynos 5 Octa processors. Cupertino's new tablet chip beats them in Geekbench with a wide margin. It has no trouble taking on the Nvidia Shield tablet, which is marginally faster than the Kindle Fire HDX 7 and Galaxy Tab S 10.5.

It should be noted that this is a CPU benchmark, so GPU performance is taken out of the equation. In any case the A8X outperforms Samsung and Amazon tablets by roughly two to one in single core CPU tests.

However, when faced with another 64-bit custom core, the A8X hits a wall, but there's a catch. The A8X and Tegra K1 64-bit end up with the same single core score, but the Apple chip runs at just 1.5GHz, or 700MHz slower than the Nvidia chip. The A8X also pulls ahead in multicore tests, since it has three CPU cores, while the TK1 has just two Denver cores.

In multiple core benches the Denver-based Tegra ends up on a par with the 32-bit Tegra used in the Shield tablet, which means a single Denver core is as fast as two Cortex-A15 cores. It just goes to show that Apple's SoC performance lead can be matched with another custom core. There is no magic pixie dust involved, Apple's custom CPU cores are roughly on a par with Nvidia's design, although Apple still delivers more performance per watt at lower clocks.

Unfortunately there is still no data on GPU performance. We know what to expect from the new Tegra, since it uses the same GPU as the 32-bit variant, but there are no A8X GPU benchmarks yet.

Rate this item
(0 votes)

Read more about: