I really hope they increased the RAM to 2GB for the Air. I use a lot of tabs in the web browser and switch back and forth. RAM is crucial for keeping multiple tabs loaded and ready.
Love my job, since I've been bringing in $5600… I sit at home, music playing while I work in front of my new iMac that I got now that I'm making it online(Click on menu Home) http://goo.gl/PX9hWn
It's doubtful to me it is the same. The graphs Apple put up during the presentation and their marketing seems to indicate the iPad Air GPU is 2x the A6X GPU.
The iPhone 5S GPU is about the same as the A6X GPU.
I'm curious to know if there will be a clock speed/GPU difference between the Air and mini. The mini is $100 less yet seems to have an identical spec to the Air.
I would think the mini would be more expensive given that the pixel density of the mini's screen is higher and that it will probably have a CPU speed binned for power efficiency for the mini's smaller battery. What does the Air have that the mini doesn't?
This is also what I was wondering about, it can't be double the GPU performance of both the A6 and A6X like Apple said at varying times. I wonder if it's still double the iPhone A7 GPU performance then.
Why didn't they name it A7X like before, though? I think at best they raised the clock rate for both tablets, since they have the same resolution, but they may have also kept them the same, and are keeping A7X or A8 for another spring release or "something" (iPad Pro laptop?)
If there is a change in gpu, Apple will definately rename it to A7X just like before. I think the chip is the same as the a7 on the 5S but is clocked much higher. AFAIK, the G6430 gpu on the 5S is clocked at a very low frequency and has already matched up the 554MP4 on the iPad 4. Apple just need to clock it higher, of course, at the expense of heat & power consumption.
RAM, 'nuff said. The iPad 2 had 512MB of RAM. The original iPad had 256MB and that was CLEARLY too little (can't even run iOS 6). That gives us a baseline of 256MB of "free" RAM being the entry-level "sweet spot" for usage. When the iPad 3 came out with 1GB of RAM, it was discovered that the increased video buffer (4x bigger than that on the iPad 2) ate up the additional RAM, and the iPad 3/4 was left with LESS available RAM than the iPad 2 (for those keeping track, we're now less than 256MB free). 640bit computing uses an approximately 20% larger RAM footprint than 32bit. That means that the iPad Air and the iPad mini with Retina are looking to be working with less than 200MB of "free" RAM, almost 60MB less than the iPad 2. Yet iOS 7 and these new, great apps (GarageBand, iMovie) seem to be much BIGGER than their ancestors. RAM...it –is– the question. If these new models ship with 1GB, users should understand they're just about in iPad 1 territory. Ask an iPad 1 user how that's working out.
Where did you find the "64bit computing uses approximately 20% larger RAM footprint than 32bit" stats? Does it already account for the memory saving by the compiler using tagged pointers in 64bit binaries?
Yeah but which one should I buy? I moved to the Mini from the iPad 2 because it was too heavy, and avoided the later iPads because they were even heavier. Would love the Retina upgrade and suspect the 1.0lb Air is light enough that it would be the more usable of the two, and light enough. Huh. Want to hear your perspective on this--recommendations of which one for different people. Especially given the prices are closer than before.
Of course it depends on what you value most, but I'd go with the Mini. It is lighter, and you seem to value this a lot (0.73 lbs VS 1.0 lbs), cheaper by $100 and has a higher pixel density than the full size iPad.
But maybe you could wait for reviews to see if there a significant differences in real user battery life or benchmarks (they'll probably go to higher clock frequencies than on the iPhone 5s, but nobody knows how much right know, to push those pixels, maybe the Mini and the Air will be clocked differently).
I'm confused. A7 just bought the iPhone to iPad 4 graphics levels with the A6X (a6X had double the GPU resources of the A6, thus the same-ish performance as the A7), but they're saying the same A7 doubled it from the iPad 4...? Yet it's not an A7X?
Both claims can't be true. Unless they doubled performance without calling it an X series, or if the new claim takes different metrics, Apple themselves also claimed the A7 was double the A6 during the 5S announcement, so now turning around and saying it's also double the performance of the A6X is a bit underhanded.
If it's the same old A7, that's less performance at hand per pixel than the iPhone 5S, seeing as they have a lot more pixels to push in retina iPads.
The A7’s graphics performance is greater than that of the A6x. As the air's performance is twice that of the ipad 4, then Apple did something in addition.
It's all about the quality apps. This is something that doesn't get enough recognition I think, that is Apple's push towards better and better apps. They continue to offer their owns at lower prices or make them free. It's about the devs and the platform. It is not so much about specs or something being just $100 cheaper. If you gain so much more from an ecosystem, then the $100 is easily worth it.
Some fanboys can only see specs, and forget that it's about what you can do with it.
I think, please Correct me if I am wrong, the Memory in SoC could be (relatively) easily changed during the manufacturing. And If for heat concern reason it could also be decoupled from the SoC. So Apple could increase the Memory to 2GB. Since Apple has never mentioned about memory size in all its previous presentation we will have to wait to find out.
The A7 in iPad could still be theoretically faster then A7 in iPhone by increasing CPU and GPU Clock Speed. Since the iPad has nearly double the Power Budget then iPhone. Conservatively there could be 50% clock speed difference. Although another more likely Scenario would be the SoC be 10 - 20% faster and Apple has the software that allows iPad to run at Top Speed for longer period of time.
Ok, this might not be a huge upgrade over the current 4th Gen iPad, but iPads never seem like a big leap over the previous version. But the iPad 3 was enough of an upgrade over the original. I have the iPad 3 (and still feel a little burned that Apple came out with another one 6 months later)... is the iPad Air enough of an upgrade over the iPad 3 (especially figuring that I'll sell my iPad 3)? That's what I need to know.
Well, the Air is going to be 3-4 times faster in CPU and 3-4 times faster in GPU, so I'd say it's a big upgrade over the 3rd gen iPad. And then you take into account the huge weight savings over the 3rd gen, I'd say it's a no brainer if you have the few hundred bucks to spend for the difference in selling your 3.
not to steal any thunder - but now I am really curious about the kindle fire hdx - this reviewer kept saying, "it really feels light", etc - this ipad weighs in at 17 ounces, which is indeed very light. however the hdx 8.9 weighs in at 13.5 ounces - that's a huge difference - I do wonder how well it will perform.
It sure is good to see a fairly open minded non-biased top 10. I get tired of the i-sheep reports that the iPhone 5 is the best thing out there. In truth, the iOS and iPhones are falling behind. Nothing of their own design or concept since the 3. Apple has been copying ideas off the jailbreak community for years and now Android. If you've been following it for as long as I have, Android is years ahead of iOS. I love the battle, it serves to get me a better product. I switched from the iPhone 5 to the Samsung S4 a while ago. Took a little getting used to, but now when I pick up an iPhone, I chuckle and put it back down to get me beloved S4 back. I could never go back. And the new iOS? Lol Wtf were they thinking? Ppl keep using apple for familiarity. Scared to change or learn something new. I used this latest version http://goo.gl/O5G8Zi I like the new things.
It can't be the "exactly" the same as the one in iPhone 5s. A6X was already ahead of A6 in the graphics department. And Apple claims that iPad Air delivers 2X faster graphics performance than the 4th gen iPad. So I guess it is a higher clocked version of A7. And so it could have extra RAM as well. After all, it has to push 3 million pixels!
We’ve updated our terms. By continuing to use the site and/or by logging into your account, you agree to the Site’s updated Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
43 Comments
Back to Article
Ylurien - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
Ask how much RAM the iPad Air has!AdrianSmoke - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
I really hope they increased the RAM to 2GB for the Air.I use a lot of tabs in the web browser and switch back and forth. RAM is crucial for keeping multiple tabs loaded and ready.
savaraevin - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
iPad Air is really amazing, i found a guide about it here, seems to be nice: http://goo.gl/OZ8HXjtipoo - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
It's the same A7 as the 5S seemingly, not A7X or anything different. So 1GB.Arbee - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
A7 doesn't contain the RAM, so that doesn't mean anything.tipoo - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
Actually it's on the package on a lot of SoCs. The ipad 3 was the odd man out there.ssj4Gogeta - Wednesday, October 23, 2013 - link
Hardly matters whether it's on-package or not. They could easily manufacture a version with more RAM for the tablets.KevinZuber - Wednesday, October 23, 2013 - link
Love my job, since I've been bringing in $5600… I sit at home, music playing while I work in front of my new iMac that I got now that I'm making it online(Click on menu Home)http://goo.gl/PX9hWn
thesavvymage - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
ram isnt a part of the soc, so it could possibly have more. Knowing how apple wants to keep things uniform however, I doubt itAenean144 - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
It's doubtful to me it is the same. The graphs Apple put up during the presentation and their marketing seems to indicate the iPad Air GPU is 2x the A6X GPU.The iPhone 5S GPU is about the same as the A6X GPU.
So, some sleuthing to do yet.
darkich - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
It's the same chip but certainly clocked higher than in the iPhone, both the CPU and GPUAenean144 - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
They could:1. double the clock rate
2. double the GPU units
3. increase GPU units by 1.5 and increase the clock by 1.3x.
Doubling the clock rate seems an expensive proposition in terms of power consumption, so, I think it is 2 or 3. Wait and see.
BulkSlash - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
I'm curious to know if there will be a clock speed/GPU difference between the Air and mini. The mini is $100 less yet seems to have an identical spec to the Air.I would think the mini would be more expensive given that the pixel density of the mini's screen is higher and that it will probably have a CPU speed binned for power efficiency for the mini's smaller battery. What does the Air have that the mini doesn't?
tipoo - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
This is also what I was wondering about, it can't be double the GPU performance of both the A6 and A6X like Apple said at varying times. I wonder if it's still double the iPhone A7 GPU performance then.Aenean144 - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
The plots or charts Schiller had only plotted iPad performance. iPad Air was 2x the performance over the iPad 4 in both CPU and GPU.Krysto - Wednesday, October 23, 2013 - link
Why didn't they name it A7X like before, though? I think at best they raised the clock rate for both tablets, since they have the same resolution, but they may have also kept them the same, and are keeping A7X or A8 for another spring release or "something" (iPad Pro laptop?)jerrylzy - Wednesday, October 23, 2013 - link
If there is a change in gpu, Apple will definately rename it to A7X just like before. I think the chip is the same as the a7 on the 5S but is clocked much higher. AFAIK, the G6430 gpu on the 5S is clocked at a very low frequency and has already matched up the 554MP4 on the iPad 4. Apple just need to clock it higher, of course, at the expense of heat & power consumption.ScooterComputer - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
RAM, 'nuff said. The iPad 2 had 512MB of RAM. The original iPad had 256MB and that was CLEARLY too little (can't even run iOS 6). That gives us a baseline of 256MB of "free" RAM being the entry-level "sweet spot" for usage. When the iPad 3 came out with 1GB of RAM, it was discovered that the increased video buffer (4x bigger than that on the iPad 2) ate up the additional RAM, and the iPad 3/4 was left with LESS available RAM than the iPad 2 (for those keeping track, we're now less than 256MB free). 640bit computing uses an approximately 20% larger RAM footprint than 32bit. That means that the iPad Air and the iPad mini with Retina are looking to be working with less than 200MB of "free" RAM, almost 60MB less than the iPad 2. Yet iOS 7 and these new, great apps (GarageBand, iMovie) seem to be much BIGGER than their ancestors.RAM...it –is– the question. If these new models ship with 1GB, users should understand they're just about in iPad 1 territory. Ask an iPad 1 user how that's working out.
teryan2006 - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
Where did you find the "64bit computing uses approximately 20% larger RAM footprint than 32bit" stats? Does it already account for the memory saving by the compiler using tagged pointers in 64bit binaries?krumme - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
Man you are so cuteSm0kes - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
Da fuq?tipoo - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
Does the iPad Air have stereo speakers like the Mini?Fanfoot - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
Yeah but which one should I buy? I moved to the Mini from the iPad 2 because it was too heavy, and avoided the later iPads because they were even heavier. Would love the Retina upgrade and suspect the 1.0lb Air is light enough that it would be the more usable of the two, and light enough. Huh. Want to hear your perspective on this--recommendations of which one for different people. Especially given the prices are closer than before.ASEdouardD - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
Of course it depends on what you value most, but I'd go with the Mini. It is lighter, and you seem to value this a lot (0.73 lbs VS 1.0 lbs), cheaper by $100 and has a higher pixel density than the full size iPad.But maybe you could wait for reviews to see if there a significant differences in real user battery life or benchmarks (they'll probably go to higher clock frequencies than on the iPhone 5s, but nobody knows how much right know, to push those pixels, maybe the Mini and the Air will be clocked differently).
ASEdouardD - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
''real use'' battery life.tipoo - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
I'm confused. A7 just bought the iPhone to iPad 4 graphics levels with the A6X (a6X had double the GPU resources of the A6, thus the same-ish performance as the A7), but they're saying the same A7 doubled it from the iPad 4...? Yet it's not an A7X?Both claims can't be true. Unless they doubled performance without calling it an X series, or if the new claim takes different metrics, Apple themselves also claimed the A7 was double the A6 during the 5S announcement, so now turning around and saying it's also double the performance of the A6X is a bit underhanded.
If it's the same old A7, that's less performance at hand per pixel than the iPhone 5S, seeing as they have a lot more pixels to push in retina iPads.
Sm0kes - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
I think we need to wait and see benchmarks, but the power / clock adjustments could easily account for the gap in performance improvements.melgross - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
The A7’s graphics performance is greater than that of the A6x. As the air's performance is twice that of the ipad 4, then Apple did something in addition.Krysto - Wednesday, October 23, 2013 - link
They said that, but they didn't change the name and didn't give any details. So we don't really know for sure until we see the reviews.Also, the iPhone 5S A7 was just ever so slightly more powerful than A6X, but they were really roughly the same.
dwade123 - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
Add in the new iWorks and I don't see why anyone would get a useless Android tablet. You can do work on the iPad now!ArthurG - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
yeah on a tiny 10" touch screen... sure...melgross - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
Businesses and government bought millions of them each year so far. Do you suppose they bought them to play games?EnzoFX - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
It's all about the quality apps. This is something that doesn't get enough recognition I think, that is Apple's push towards better and better apps. They continue to offer their owns at lower prices or make them free. It's about the devs and the platform. It is not so much about specs or something being just $100 cheaper. If you gain so much more from an ecosystem, then the $100 is easily worth it.Some fanboys can only see specs, and forget that it's about what you can do with it.
lilmoe - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
Any chance you guys can do a comparison on browser speed/fluidity of the iPad Air vs Surface 2? Same for maps. If you get a chance, of course.iwod - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
I think, please Correct me if I am wrong, the Memory in SoC could be (relatively) easily changed during the manufacturing. And If for heat concern reason it could also be decoupled from the SoC. So Apple could increase the Memory to 2GB. Since Apple has never mentioned about memory size in all its previous presentation we will have to wait to find out.The A7 in iPad could still be theoretically faster then A7 in iPhone by increasing CPU and GPU Clock Speed. Since the iPad has nearly double the Power Budget then iPhone.
Conservatively there could be 50% clock speed difference. Although another more likely Scenario would be the SoC be 10 - 20% faster and Apple has the software that allows iPad to run at Top Speed for longer period of time.
Sainlllday - Wednesday, October 23, 2013 - link
Ok, this might not be a huge upgrade over the current 4th Gen iPad, but iPads never seem like a big leap over the previous version. But the iPad 3 was enough of an upgrade over the original. I have the iPad 3 (and still feel a little burned that Apple came out with another one 6 months later)... is the iPad Air enough of an upgrade over the iPad 3 (especially figuring that I'll sell my iPad 3)? That's what I need to know.Vibosoft edito write an article:
darkcrayon - Wednesday, October 23, 2013 - link
Well, the Air is going to be 3-4 times faster in CPU and 3-4 times faster in GPU, so I'd say it's a big upgrade over the 3rd gen iPad. And then you take into account the huge weight savings over the 3rd gen, I'd say it's a no brainer if you have the few hundred bucks to spend for the difference in selling your 3.nedjinski - Wednesday, October 23, 2013 - link
not to steal any thunder - but now I am really curious about the kindle fire hdx - this reviewer kept saying, "it really feels light", etc - this ipad weighs in at 17 ounces, which is indeed very light. however the hdx 8.9 weighs in at 13.5 ounces - that's a huge difference - I do wonder how well it will perform.nerd1 - Wednesday, October 23, 2013 - link
The experia Z tablet is waterproof and only 5% heavier than iPad air as well.jasonelmore - Wednesday, October 23, 2013 - link
i dunno why you said "everything seems smooth" when you can see this ipad getting pretty chunky on the maps 3d panning/zooming.iwould - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
ipad air is clocked faster, mini is little faster than iphone 5s, ipad air have bigger screen use more bettary than mini.yanasister - Friday, October 25, 2013 - link
It sure is good to see a fairly open minded non-biased top 10. I get tired of the i-sheep reports that the iPhone 5 is the best thing out there. In truth, the iOS and iPhones are falling behind. Nothing of their own design or concept since the 3. Apple has been copying ideas off the jailbreak community for years and now Android. If you've been following it for as long as I have, Android is years ahead of iOS. I love the battle, it serves to get me a better product. I switched from the iPhone 5 to the Samsung S4 a while ago. Took a little getting used to, but now when I pick up an iPhone, I chuckle and put it back down to get me beloved S4 back. I could never go back. And the new iOS? Lol Wtf were they thinking? Ppl keep using apple for familiarity. Scared to change or learn something new. I used this latest version http://goo.gl/O5G8Zi I like the new things.mjh483 - Sunday, October 27, 2013 - link
It can't be the "exactly" the same as the one in iPhone 5s. A6X was already ahead of A6 in the graphics department. And Apple claims that iPad Air delivers 2X faster graphics performance than the 4th gen iPad. So I guess it is a higher clocked version of A7. And so it could have extra RAM as well. After all, it has to push 3 million pixels!