Leaked benchmarks from developer kit for Apple's home-baked silicon appear to give Microsoft a run for its money
- Reference: 1593522671
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/06/30/apple_developer_transition_kit_leaks/
- Source link:
At the time of writing, [1]22 Geekbench 5 benchmarks have been submitted. That's noteworthy by itself, as users of the Developer Transition Kit - who paid $500 to borrow the device from Apple - are contractually prohibited from sharing performance data and other benchmarks without Apple's prior approval.
The GeekBench data shows single-core performance hovering between 800 and 850 points. Multi-core performance is just under the 3,000-points mark. These scores were generated with the benchmark software running under Apple's Rosetta 2 compatibility software, which translates instructions written for the Intel x86-64 architecture for the arm64-based [2]A12Z SoC used by the Transition Kit.
Microsoft Surface Pro X: Windows on Arm usable at long last – but, boy, are you gonna pay for it [3]READ MORE
That's roughly on par with Microsoft's [4]Surface Pro X tablet , which runs the Arm-based SQ1 platform, co-developed by Microsoft and Qualcomm, and based on the Snapdragon 8cx chip. The key difference here is that the Surface can execute the Geekbench software natively, while there's presently no Mac Arm port available, forcing owners of the Transition Kit to run the software in emulation.
Interestingly, Geekbench notes that the chip running on the Transition Kits has four cores, while the variant of the A12Z used on the iPad Pro is an octa-core affair – with four high-performance and four low-power cores.
Another point worth noting: there's no guarantee the A12Z chip in the Developer Transition Kit will appear in the first consumer Arm-based Macs, which are expected to land later this year. It's plausible that Apple will use a different chip entirely for its debut Arm-powered effort. ®
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[1] https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/search?q=eperm-d995af6e2ef02771
[2] https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/06/apple-announces-mac-transition-to-apple-silicon/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2019/10/18/surface_pro_x_hands_on/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2019/10/03/microsofts_satya_nadella_says_the_operating_system_no_longer_so_important/
[5] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Maybe, but low power cores in a laptop would allow some background activity to continue when sleeping on battery.
Sure, which is why they're not in the developer box which doesn't have a battery.
If the laptop is sleeping then the only background activity that needs to take place is knowing when to wake up.
Let's not start confusing modes, shall we ? Sleep is sleep. If the laptop's CPU is working, then it's not sleeping.
Apple has used an existing two year old mobile chip in the development kit. It's not custom made or the one they'll be selling later.
The most likely explanation is that Geekbench (developed for x86, not ARM and running under Rosetta 2) is incapable of detecting the little cores as it has never had to look for those types. The extra cores will be available to developers on the dev kit, it's just that Geekbench doesn't report them.
Apple's policy
I'm sure Apple knew that benchmarks would be released so I wonder why they decided to bother banning developers from providing them; apart from the usual paranoia that is. Presumably, because it gives them plausible deniability over benchmarks for code that is almost certainly not optimised, while at the same time knowing that the leaked scores will keep people talking about the speed of the new chips.
Will we see improvements over time as the compiler and emulator get better? Will we see a baseline that allows Apple to gather wows™ when new hardware is released?
Re: Apple's policy
One minor point, I don't think that the article suggested that they had been leaked, just mentioned that the developer need permission - so possibly a nod and a wink have been shown?
Re: Apple's policy
Some people think that this is a deliberate ploy by Apple. The idea goes that Apple knows that benchmarking tools for x86 will not be able to accurately detect actual performance of ARM architecture chips but the reported performance is already quite good, putting people at ease about having to rely on Rosetta 2. When they release the actual chips (the CPU in the dev kit is an existing two year old mobile model, not the one they'll be selling later) they will be so much faster than the leaked speeds that it generates extra excitement upon launch.
I think the above theory is a bit far-fetched but it's not impossible.
Ouch ...
“who paid $500 to loan the device from Apple” Borrow ?
Re: Ouch ...
It stops the "I'll grab one of those for a play" hackers from making them unavailable for "real" developers.
Armut
The MacMini (4 ARM cores) achieves a score of 2871 points against 19,155 points for ye aulde Mack Pro (28 Xeon cores). I suppose Apple's next entry level Mac will have 64 cores put it through its paces.
Interestingly, Geekbench notes that the chip running on the Transition Kits has four cores…
Not really, no point in shipping big.Little silicon for what is a non-mobile developer workstation and Apple will presumably be aiming to ship beefier kit in its own hardware later this year, otherwise it would probably selling it already.