Apple's new 2020 iPad Pro models are equipped with an A12Z Bionic processor that's remarkably similar to the A12X chip in the 2018 iPad Pro models, offering little in the way of performance improvements.
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The A12Z does, however, feature an 8-core GPU while the A12X includes a 7-core GPU, which sets them apart, but new evidence shared by NotebookCheck suggests that the A12Z Bionic is simply a renamed A12X chip with a latent GPU core enabled.
According to NotebookCheck, teardown site TechInsights confirmed that the 2018 A12X chip physically has 8 GPU cores and not the 7 GPU cores that Apple includes in tech specs. One of the cores of the A12X is disabled.
The A12X and the A12Z appear to be the same physical chip on the surface, with the same number of physical CPU and GPU cores rather, suggesting the A12Z is not a new design. AnandTech has also speculated that the A12Z is a re-binned variant of the A12X.
There can be several speculative reasons as to why Apple chose to do this. It is not uncommon to see chip makers disabling physical cores and enabling them in higher SKUs. For instance, the NVIDIA Titan RTX has all 4,608 CUDA cores enabled while the RTX 2080 Ti offers only 4,352 cores despite both using the TU102 GPU.
The other likely explanation is that Apple's decision to disable one GPU core in the A12X could have been deliberate. Enabling the latent core in an interim refresh like the A12Z would save them from having to develop an A13X and instead, directly focus on the (5 nm?) A14X that is slated to debut with the 5G iPad Pro later this year.
In the future, TechInsights is planning to conduct a floorplan analysis to determine for certain whether there are any differences between the A12X and the A12Z in the new iPad Pro models.
NotebookCheck speculates that Apple is saving an updated chip design for future iPad Pro models, and there are indeed rumors of a second iPad Pro refresh this fall that could bring mini-LED displays and 5G connectivity.
Top Rated Comments
The hardware isn't the limiter for the iPad line right now. Software is.
Regardless of how people can rationalize Apple's decision, this is a very shady step by Apple. This is a Pro unit which means most of the people evaluating an upgrade are going to look at the tech specs (and not to mention the hefty price tag). This marketing/advertising scam was caught very quickly and Apple should be ashamed and likely will have poor sales.
And someone said here that the "real excitement is the new keyboard in May." Seriously?! People wait 2+ years for an upgrade (on a "Pro" device no less) and a)there's essentially no hardware upgrade and b)I have to wait several more months after the launch for the "real excitement" which c)just turns out to be a bleeping keyboard that d)costs several hundred bucks?!
Wow.
They also cut prices on upgrades, went from 4GB to 6GB of RAM and doubled the base storage. It’s a better model for the same or lower price.
Obviously, that’s worth complaining about to some ?
Wow.
PS.
a) it’s not 2+ years, it’s a year and 4+ months ?
b) no hardware upgrade?
* A12Z: GPU upgrade
* 64—>128GB Storage
* 4GB—>6GB RAM (128/256/512GB)
* single—>dual camera,
* LiDAR scanner
* Five “studio quality” microphones
* “Enhanced thermal architecture”
* WiFi 6
* U1 chip—ultra wideband
c) The new keyboard is real excitement for some, others couldn’t give a rat’s ass. If you don’t want or can’t afford it, the solution is simple: don’t buy it! Or buy the current keyboard. Or a third party keyboard. Or no keyboard. The choice is yours.
It's more likely they improved yields to the point where all eight cores are functional when produced and therefore can enable it while the A12X likely had one core fail.
Apple's starting to have the same problem as Intel: why bother doubling performance every year if everything today is performant enough? The difference is that Apple got to that point in just a few generations.