> It's pretty remarkable that now we're not only comparing Apple's SoC to the best CPUs from dedicated makers, we're comparing it to the best GPUs.
Is it? Apple has 5nm on lockdown right now. Process is nearly everything in performance/watt.
If you want to compare architectures, you compare it on the same process. 5nm vs 5nm is only fair. 5nm vs 7nm is going to be 2x more power efficient from a process level.
When every transistor uses 1/2 the power at the same speed, of course you're going to have a performance/watt advantage. That's almost... not a surprise at all. It is this process advantage that Intel wielded for so long over its rivals.
Now that TSMC owns the process advantage, and now that Apple is the only one rich enough to get "first dibs" on the leading node, its no small surprise to me that Apple has the most power efficient chips. If anything, it shows off how efficient the 7nm designs are that they can compete against a 5nm design.
Is it? Apple has 5nm on lockdown right now. Process is nearly everything in performance/watt.
If you want to compare architectures, you compare it on the same process. 5nm vs 5nm is only fair. 5nm vs 7nm is going to be 2x more power efficient from a process level.
When every transistor uses 1/2 the power at the same speed, of course you're going to have a performance/watt advantage. That's almost... not a surprise at all. It is this process advantage that Intel wielded for so long over its rivals.
Now that TSMC owns the process advantage, and now that Apple is the only one rich enough to get "first dibs" on the leading node, its no small surprise to me that Apple has the most power efficient chips. If anything, it shows off how efficient the 7nm designs are that they can compete against a 5nm design.