Apple's iPad Air 2 Dissected - What Makes Tri-Core Cyclone Beat Denver?

With the launch of Google'due south Nexus ix and Apple's iPad Air 2, the big question we all had on our minds was, which device comes out on top? Subsequently all, Google aimed high for the Nexus nine by equipping the device with Nvidia's Tegra K1 Denver CPU with 192 GPU shader cores on board. Apple'due south response was the A8X on the iPad Air 2, a SoC which the company claimed delivered up to 40% increased CPU performance and two.five% increased graphics operation over the A7, its predecessor in the iPad Air.

Since the launch of the two devices, we at present have benchmarks available for both the Nexus 9 and the iPad Air two for the first time. And so now it's time for the much-awaited benchmark comparison of the Nexus 9 and the iPad Air two and to make up one's mind which device ends up offering better functioning. So let's start.

Single Core Results.

Looking at unmarried core results, we can see that the Nexus nine gets a score of 1903 points in GeekBench. If you lot've been following us regularly, you know that the to a higher place scores surfaced a week ago and allowed us to have a good initial look at the capabilities of the Tegra K1 on board the Nexus nine. As can exist seen in a higher place, the Nexus nine doubles the score of every Android device, except for the Galaxy Notation iv. However, how does it compare to the iPad Air 2? Permit's take a expect below.

gkbsc2 The iPad Air ii nearly matches the Nexus 9 in unmarried core results, only the Nexus nine manages to keep its lead. Nevertheless, before nosotros leap to any conclusions, it is important to consider two facts. Commencement, the benchmarks of both the devices are preliminary, and should therefore not be used to reach concrete conclusions.

Multi Core Results.

Starting once again from previous results, we saw the Nexus 9 being topped by Samsung's Milky way Note 4 in preliminary GeekBench results. The device nevertheless managed to top the Apple tree iPhone 6 Plus, which demonstrated the clear advantage Tegra K1 has over Apple's A8 SoC. Withal, things alter dramatically with the A8X and the iPad Air 2. In these latest multi-core benchmarks, we see the A8X taking a articulate advantage over the Nexus nine.

gkbmc1 The iPad Air two outperforms the Nexus 9 by a huge margin of 1217 points in GeekBench multi-core.While it might seem surprising at starting time, this difference is better explained when nosotros take a look at how the A8X works. By the initial looks of things, it looks similar Apple tree had prepared well for the Tegra K1 beforehand. So what makes the A8X beat Nvidia's dual-cadre 2.3 GHz Denver beast?

What Is The A8X And What Makes Information technology Tick?

Before the launch of the iPad Air ii, several sources expected the visitor to follow in the steps of the iPad Air and equip the tablet with the A7. Just with the launch of the Nexus 9 just days before the iPad Air 2, Apple had to make changes in society to stay competitive, and changes it did make. With the iPad Air 2 came the A8X, a processor that the company claimed possessed drastic operation improvements over its predecessors, and now nosotros finally know why.

Geekbench-Overall-score Starting from the very basics, the A8X has iii billion transistors on board. The processor departs from Apple and industry tradition altogether by coming with iii cores on board, as opposed to the dual cadre A8. The presence of this extra core on the A8X is one of the reasons the A8X ends up beating Nvidia'south Tegra K1 in GeekBench Multi-core.

At present the A8X features 6-way super scalar cores with out-of-society execution. Basically the Apple'southward A8X processors tin execute vi micro operations per 2nd. The A8X fetches instructions in the compiler generated lodge but can complete and execute in any order, whereas the Denver variant features vii-fashion super scalar simply with in-order execution. Basically, though the Denvers can execute 7 micro operations per second, they can but fetch, complete and execute instructions in compiler generated social club. Also the Apple SoC is based on the 20nm process, while the Tegra K1 is stuck on the 28nm ane. Even after everything considered, the Tegra K1 shows very impressive results in the single core departments just takes a footstep behind in multi core because of the uncomplicated reason you are comparing 2 cores vs 3 cores.