New Apple TV Reportedly Equipped With Binned A15 Chip With 5-Core CPU

The third-generation Apple TV 4K released earlier this month is equipped with a binned version of the A15 Bionic chip with one CPU core disabled, according to the website FlatpanelsHD, citing information from the TV Info app for tvOS.

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The review claims the A15 Bionic has a five-core CPU in the new Apple TV, whereas the chip has a six-core CPU in iPhone 13 and iPhone 14 models.

Despite having a binned CPU and a fanless design, the website found the new Apple TV to be roughly 40% faster and throttle less than the previous Apple TV 4K with the A12 Bionic chip. The review said the new Apple TV is much faster than previous-generation consoles like the Xbox One, but the PS5 still pulls ahead in multi-core benchmark testing.

While not confirmed, the report also suspects that the Apple TV uses a version of the A15 Bionic with a four-core GPU, compared to a five-core GPU in iPhone 13 Pro models. Apple's streaming box still lags behind popular consoles in graphics performance, but the review said it is "starting to get to a point where Xbox One and PS4 games should, in theory, be playable on Apple TV without too many compromises."

Apple says GPU performance is up to 30% faster on the new Apple TV compared to the previous generation, but there are no GPU benchmark apps for tvOS.

The review pointed out that the Apple TV only offers a limited number of games that take full advantage of the A15 Bionic's capabilities, so the device remains far from a "console killer," but the performance boosts could set the stage for a bigger gaming push.

Related Roundup: Apple TV
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Top Rated Comments

Nozuka Avatar
40 months ago
Personally, i found the efficiency gains pretty interesting.



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Score: 59 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dannyyankou Avatar
40 months ago
Apple needs to get more serious about gaming, all that power and not a ton to show with it.
Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Villarrealadrian Avatar
40 months ago
Doesn’t matter if there are no AAA games…
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
thejadedmonkey Avatar
40 months ago
The PS4 and Xbox One are 9 years old. I'm not sure if that's supposed to be impressive, or not.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
icanhazmac Avatar
40 months ago
Makes sense, without a much bigger commitment to games how much power does ATV need? Good use for those chips.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Ashbash75 Avatar
40 months ago
Apple TV and Bionic in the same sentence makes my mind think of a gimped Steve Austin.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)