A9X

Apple claims an 80% or 1.8X speedup compared to the iPad Air 2 A8X:

Apple's claims have historically been very accurate especially concerning multicore performance as compared in synthetic benchmarks such as Geekbench or browser benchmarks. Although we don't know how many cores the iPad Pro A9X has, it's likely quad-core since a tri-core design would require vastly higher clockspeeds or instructions per clock (80% higher). If the A9X is quad-core, then it only requires ~35% better performance per core compared to the tri-core A8X.

Sources: and

The smoking-gun quote on Apple's website:

iPad Pro is capable of playing three simultaneous 4K video streams in iMovie, without losing its agile responsiveness to your every command.

Apple claims that the new A9X processor is not only desktop class, but also faster than a roughly equal priced Surface pro 3 with the i5-4300U. They are claiming it is 2x faster than the A8X and faster than 80% of portable PCs released in the past year.

More info:

Sorry for the lack of detailed information as this is still developing.

UPDATE - 1: Many of you have mentioned that apple did not mention the surface during their presentation. So i wanted to explain where i pulled this title and claim from. So i pulled the I5 and Surface from the fact that the new iPad pro will be priced between $799 for 32GB and $1079 for 128GB models. From their claim that the device is faster than 80% of the PC market shipped last year and that it has a desktop class processor. I looked at the similar device that the iPad pro was designed to compete with in this case the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 released in June 2014 which has its own price range of 64GB/i3 for $799 up to 512/i7 for $1,949. I compared the proposed specs of the 128GB iPad pro model price at $949 to the 128GB/i5 Surface pro 3 at $999. The comparison wasn't much of a stretch in my opinion as they have released the Apple Pencil, and new keyboard cover put it squarely in the same market as the Surface pro lineup. The main differences between the two series at this time is that the Surface runs on Haswell(x86-64) processors and the iPad runs on custom Apple ARM chips using the ARMv8-A extension set.

Also sorry for the confusion with the post title as apple did not directly claim this but implied it. (read above)

Performance is comparable to A9X with Single-Core scores screaming 3000

The iPad Pro is now available online and for instore pickup!

* Contest mode has been enabled since this thread is over 24hrs old to ensure that fresh content is brought to the top. This has the effect of shuffling comments and hiding comment scores. *

Welcome to the Megathread for discussion of the iPad Pro and the Apple Pencil!

Experiences? Tips for others? Sheer excitement? Share you thoughts! We do ask that all iPad Pro discussion stay in this thread unless it's a very specific concern that is deserving of a seperate thread. Please stay on-topic and civil, Mods will be reading these comments.

Note that for now the Apple Pencil is currently unavailable, but will be hopefully be available in the next few days. Please also call ahead before heading into your local Apple Store to ensure that stock is available (stock is limited).

Noteable Features:

• Display: 5.6 million pixel, 12.9‑inch Retina Display. The largest of any iPad.

• Performance: A9X, Apple's third‑generation chip with 64‑bit desktop‑class architecture. Up to 1.8 times the CPU performance and double the graphics performance of the iPad Air 2.

• iOS9: The iPad Pro can make use of iOS9's new Slide Over, Split View, and Picture in Picture features to aid you in multitasking.

• Design: 6.9 mm thin and 1.57 pounds, yet sporting a 12.9" screen. Four new high‑fidelity speakers built directly into the unibody producing three times the acoustic output of the iPad Air.

• Options: The new and .

I don't think anyone was expecting this. It's a true i5 (not the ridiculous rebranded kaby lake m5) and it's fanless... This changes the game. Before this, the big comparison was apple's X series iPad chips vs intel's core m chips, specifically the A9X vs Skylake m7, and it was very close. This isn't just impressive, it's a historic moment. A real laptop processor in a fanless tablet! This has never been done before, why aren't people talking about it more? If Apple pulled this off there would be fucking books written about it, but when Intel/Microsoft do it, they get 1 sentence in a review, if they're lucky!

They say the cpu is their version big little, 3 big, 3 small and that the gpu is 40% faster than the previous gpu. This new cpu will wipe floor of intel M7s even potentially (although new refresh is pretty great because process improvenents). To be fair the A10x is probably way more transistors, because the A9x uses way more, and this can only be bigger. Adjustable refresh rate on a mobile device is wild. And a file system..... I may buy an iPhone finally if they put this one how iPhone. Apple is ready to completly kill OSX slowly. First with consumer, but eventually they will work way up to iMac and the new bullshit Mac Pro

[Source for the information] ()

I want to buy an iPad with 9.7" display. As is known to us all, Apple just released an iPad Pro on 21 March. And the new iPad pro begins with 32 GB $599. While Apple drops the iPad Air 2 price to $399. I want to buy a large storage iPad, and I think the iPad Air 2 with 64 GB model fits me better, because it also has a lower price. However, the 9.7' iPad Pro has A9x processor, what's more, it supports Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard.

Which one should I purchase? I know there is no standard answer to this question, but I still want to get your suggestions. Any ideas will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

After 100+ tl;dr game recommendation posts here on the sub, this is my attempt at collecting and summarizing some of the very best traditional, turn-based, roguelikes on mobile.

This is meant as the 5th entry in my "best of" series here on the sub, where I’ve previously covered , , , and .

I hope you'll enjoy it, and share your own favorites below for others to discover <3

Watch the video version here:

__________

1) Shattered Pixel Dungeon | $4.99 - Landscape + Portrait

This game actually originally started off as a mod for another game called Pixel Dungeon before becoming a stand-alone title, and it’s a tough roguelike dungeon crawler RPG with lots of quests to complete, items to gather, and monsters to defeat.

One of the best aspects of Shattered Pixel Dungeon is that we have four unique character-classes to play as, each of which comes with unique sub-class specializations that ensure a high level of replayability.

The bosses are truly challenging in this game, though, so you gotta be prepared to die a lot as you attempt to make your way through the five dungeon floors.

It’s definitely one of the best overall roguelikes on mobile, and despite the difficulty, it’s also rather beginner-friendly, so definitely take it for a spin if you haven’t already.

2) Redungeon | Free - Portrait

Redungeon is an endless dungeon crawler by Nitrome with an awesome retro arcade atmosphere, fast-paced gameplay, and a variety of heroes to play as.

The game’s fun core gameplay loop essentially has us collect coins through procedurally generated dungeons, while avoiding obstacles and escaping monsters to unlock and upgrade all 11 heroes.

Since each hero has unique abilities that impact the gameplay, and new mechanics that require us to think fast are introduced in each dungeon floor, the game is addictively fun and does an excellent job at never growing too repetitive.

The game is free to play, and while we CAN pay to instantly unlock and upgrade heroes, it really doesn’t take too long to also grind them through gameplay.

3) Pathos: Nethack Codex | Free - Portrait AND Landscape

I saw one user on MiniReview refer to Pathos: Nethack Codex as an easy intro into the world of proper roguelikes. And I couldn’t agree more.

It’s a challenging roguelike inspired by the 1987 game “Nethack”, where we begin by creating our own custom class based on a list of options, and then jump straight into the first dungeon floor where we try to get as far as possible before dying.

We simply tap an enemy to attack it, but to survive, it’s often much better to avoid combat whenever possible. Each dungeon floor is FULL of a large variety of weapons, spells, and consumables locked in chests, hidden behind traps, or dropped by enemies.

There truly is a ton of content and items to explore, and the game is completely free without ads or iAPs, which is why it easily deserves a spot here.

4) The Enchanted Cave 2 | $5.99 - Landscape

The Enchanted Cave 2 stands out because once we delve into a dungeon, we can only leave if we find a pair of Escape Wings, which allows us to keep any artifacts and gold we’ve gathered.

The game features nine playable characters, but what I really like is that when leveling up, we can distribute skill points across a large skill tree that branches into warrior, mage, and alchemist skills and bonuses.

True to the name of the game, crafting is also super important, as it allows us to for example enchant armor with protection against ice attacks, and as we continuously enter new dungeon floors with different biomes and monsters, it’s critical to keep enchanting our gear with protection against the element used by the monsters roaming those biomes.

The game costs $5.99, and it’s an easy recommendation if you’re looking for something that is traditional yet more fast-paced and action-driven than most other games mentioned today.

5) Hoplite | $2.99 - Portrait

Hoplite is a turn-based roguelike with tactical combat and a simple core gameplay mixed with a painstakingly high difficulty.

Played on a hexagon-tiled map that we move around one step at a time, the objective is to get to the end of the floor by taking out all opponents using our spear, knocking-back bombs with our shield, and jumping to avoid incoming attacks.

Once we reach the end, we get to pick an upgrade that lasts until we die, and then continue to the next floor.

The game costs $2.99 and it’s an easy recommendation that takes some serious brian-power to complete.

6) Twilight Dungeons | Free - Landscape

Next, I wanted to include a game that I can almost guarantee you haven’t played yet because it’s a fairly new and unknown indie game, called Twilight Dungeons, whose unique take on the genre has us attempt to survive a truly strange world by learning about and utilizing its many flora and fauna to our advantage.

Yes, you read that right… the core gameplay involves searching for harvestable plants that we then use to craft items and equipment. And maybe most interesting of all, we can even plant seeds to grow, harvest, and create more plants, giving the game a unique survival-like feel.

This is really only scratching the surface though, because there’s lots more to this game and its many systems, and since it's entirely free without ads or iAPs, it’s a must-try if you like strange worlds and unique gameplay.

7) Out There: Ω Edition | $4.99 - Landscape

If you’re a fan of the sci-fi theme and genre, you might also wanna check out Out There: Omega Edition, which is an RPG adventure game that mixes in some exploration and roguelike elements, such as a procedurally generated universe.

The core gameplay is all about keeping our crew alive by managing our field, oxygen, and the hull of our spaceship, which are resources we find as we travel from planet to planet.

The further we travel into space, the more events and random encounters we meet, and the decisions we make during these often significantly impact the rest of our run.

Out There costs $4.99, and although it’s very hardcore and diffiult, it’s also highly replayable, and while it might not be as traditional a roguelike as the other games mentioned here, there’s a high chance you’ll enjoy it if you like old-school roguelikes and sci-fi.

8) Rust Bucket | Free - Portrait

One of the better free-to-play roguelikes around is definitely Rust Bucket, which has us study enemy movement patterns so we can avoid their attacks and land our own, which is an incredibly important lesson as we die in just a single hit in this game!

The game features 40 puzzle-like levels, and then an endless mode, and while turn-based, the experience feels relatively fast-paced, making it a great casual roguelike for short play-sessions.

Rust Bucket monetizes through showing ads when we die, which can be removed through iAPs up to $3.99, which is a great relaxed way to do monetization in my opinion.

9) WazHack | Free Trial - Landscape

WazHack is a hardcore side-scrolling roguelike inspired by Nethack - that 1987 game that Pathoas: Nethack Codex was also based on.

This essentially means that every run features a procedurally generated dungeon, loot needs to be identified before we can equip it, and it takes A LOT of attempts to finish the game.

Like in any great roguelike, there are a bunch of character classes to pick from, each with unique stats and equipment, and the game features both single-player and co-op dungeons full of traps and enemies.

One of the most interesting aspects of Wazhack’s combat system is that ranged attacks actually have to be aimed since they’re affected by gravity, which creates a much more advanced experience than most other roguelikes.

The game is free to try, after which we have to pay $1 per class we want to unlock, and it’s definitely worth checking out if you haven’t tried it already

10) Cardinal Quest 2 | Free - Portrait

Next up is Cardinal Quest 2 - a truly retro turn-based roguelike where our goal is to fight our way through three acts and level up our skills to the point that we can finally defeat the boss at the end of the game.

We can swipe or tap to move around the map, and simply bump into enemies to attack them, which makes the game easy to navigate even on smaller screens.

It also features a bunch of classes that drastically change the gameplay and add a high level of replayability. These can be unlocked for free through gameplay, or instantly acquired through a few iAPs, which is the only way the game monetizes.

It currently sits at a 4.9/5 score on the App Store, and has a 100% user rating score on MiniReview, so you might want to take it for a spin if you haven’t played it before :)

I was comparing the specs on my (from 2016) with the and they're really similar. Some things I noticed:

• roughly the same size (9.7" iPP slightly thinner)

• both support Apple Pencil

• only 9.7" iPP supports the Smart Keyboard

• 9.7" iPP has 4 speakers (2018 iPad only has 2)

• 2018 iPad has a better processor (A10 Fusion vs 9.7" iPP's A9X)

• the back camera is better on the 9.7" iPP; the front camera is a lot better on the 9.7" iPP

• display is better on the 9.7" iPP (True Tone, fully laminated, etc.)

I can't find a lot of info on the new iPad's display, but it looks like it's the same as the 2017 iPad...is that right?

At any rate, I think $329 is a really good deal for that iPad. I paid more than double that for the 9.7" iPad Pro and they're incredibly similar.

Many people in this sub questioned about the longevity of XR. So I made this post on my opinion.

At first, I thought XS and XR had similar internals, but didn’t notice the 4GB RAM in XS as compared to 3GB in XR. Does it mean XS will be supported longer? I don’t think so.

That extra 1 GB should be because XS and XS Max has to drive the OLED screen. Because from the trend I’ve seen, Apple tend to decide OS support with processor and not RAM - at least with iPhones (iPad pro 2015 with A9X processor is expected to support iOS 15 while iPhone 6S with A9 won’t).

I can pretty much relate the case of XR with the colourful iPhone 5C. 5S and 5C was released at the same time but 5S lasted 2 more years as compared to 5C, because 5C packed a old processor - that of iPhone 5. But I don’t believe it’ll be the same with XS and XR, because (1) they are the same A12 processor (Apple didn’t care to mention the RAM difference). (2) Apple discontinued XS, but kept XR in the lineup.

If we consider iPhone 6S, it came with iOS 9 and supported till iOS 14 (6 years). We can expect XR that came with iOS 12 to support till 16 or 17 the max. But even after that what we will be missing is the OS upgrade, most non-apple apps tend to support 2 more years. For e.g. The latest Chrome 2021 requires a minimum of iOS 12 which can be run on a 2013 iPhone 5S!

From what I see, iPhone XR is there in the lineup to represent the iPhone X series. Apple is clever in not continuing and lowering the price of their premium iPhone X/XS with OLED, stainless steel, 3D Touch bells and whistles. If iPhone X or XS was still available, people who only care about the display would go for it over the newer ones. The goal of Apple is to have a iPhone lineup of all price ranges from $399 to $999 and iPhone XR sits right in the sweet spot between SE 2 with the classic iPhone 8 design and iPhone 11 with dual cameras. I suspect the next-gen SE will be a notch display which will take the place of XR for $399 with a newer processor (and a centred Apple logo ofc), just like how iPhone 8 got replaced.

With iPhone 8 A11 - 2GB ram getting updates till iOS 16 (iPhone 7 ending with iOS 15), I suspect XR with A12 to support iOS 17. The September 2020 budget iPad also reassures that. It has the same processor and RAM of XR but shipped with iOS 14. What’s good an iPad if it doesn’t hold for at least 4 years (2020 to 2024). So XR should have the same span of the iPad 8 is my answer (as a matter of fact, I own them both. Let’s see. haha)

This is a long shot, but I saw someone revisiting a tweet of the wall-of-text artwork featured at WWDC 2016 and it got me thinking.

Within the wall of text is the sentence "Hello April 18th, 2017.", followed by "It's round 2, now fight!". Now I realize this is Tax Day in the U.S., but the initial Macbook 12" release was in April and the 2016 refresh was the day after tax day. Considering the 2016 Macbook refresh on April 19th, 2016 and the date of April 18th, 2017 are both Tuesdays, and considering that Apple has a history of hosting events on Tuesdays, this adds a little to plausibility.

Now, the fact that the rumor mill has been pointing to April for a possible iPad Pro update/release and seeing how the "April 18th, 2017" text is immediately followed by "Hello it's round 2, now fight", makes me think the Macbook and iPad pro refreshes could both be announced this day. The two devices are arguably in competition with one another given their fairly similar size, capabilities, and price (once you factor in accessories and whatnot).

I know it also probably seems crazy that Apple had this date pinned down close to a year in advance, but considering that Apple had the A9X chip ready right around the time of the A9 chip release, it's not hard to imagine they knew they had enough time to ready the A10X chip for an April iPad Pro refresh alongside new Intel chips for the Macbook.

Also, consider that this WWDC 2016 wall art is packed full of references and potential hints (e.g. "Hello Jumpman, Jumpman, Jumpman." foreshadowing Super Mario Run months before its release, plus "Hello donations from the other side of the world.", written in red text, foreshadowing the Product Red iPhone), I feel like this is a possibility.

Could easily be me reading way too deep into nothing, but I have a weird feeling about this one....

I saw some posts on several socials where people are asking about performances of devices for SIFAS or for some tips for new phones/tablets for playing SIFAS. After mining into game data I found an interesting table which .

Let's talk about this table.

SIFAS has 5 graphic settings for live shows:

Let's see the details of those modes (some of them reported by database):

This mode is set up automatically during tutorial by detecting the GPU in use in your device (NOT the CPU, unless we are talking about Apple devices since both of them are inside the same chip). Here the recommended settings list made by KLab:

Of course, those are recommendations. You may try to set higher mode and may see working better or worse. For instance, A11 devices (iPhone 8/X) can run 3D Maximum nicely but may have frame rate loss or faster overheating on long time gameplay.

If you were looking for a good device, here my suggestions (IMO, someone may have different opinions):

• iPad Spring 2018 or Fall 2019: starting price is really cheap (329$/300€), especially if you find good deals; chip A10X so this will run at 3D Maximum on SIFAS and runs fancy on most (if not all) of Japanese games like that (I personally own this and it's a pretty good deal if you don't want to spend too much money for a device)

• iPad Pro (any): if you want to spend more money, why not? especially the latest two models (2018 and 2017) since they also have a 120Hz display (running even more smooth on SIF at 120fps) and you will have for sure the recommended setting of 3D Maximum on SIFAS (and probably on all games like that)

• iPhone 8 or newer (better if starting from XS or XR): if you are ok to use Apple environment on an everyday device, then you can consider to buy iPhone. Touch screen is mostly optimised on rhythm games and getting Japanese mobage is even more easier than downloading an APK or using VPNs for downloading the game. I suggest to take XS, XR or 11 (Pro) for granting the max performances but I think that 8 and X are also fine and there are also some deals so why not?

• OnePlus 6 or newer: OnePlus devices are really good by themselves for the provided OS (Oxygen OS) for using Android vanilla with some mini edits and for their hardware (pretty good, even the GPU). With OnePlus you are not going to pay so much the brand like Samsung or Apple devices (mostly). If you feel that you can spend more money, then consider OnePlus 7 Pro: liquid cooling system, powerful CPU/GPU/Battery, 90Hz (big) screen.

• Samsung S10(e/Plus): This year Samsung made finally some good and interesting phones (imo) and they are pretty powerful to handle most of the games nicely. It also includes a nice gaming mode which you can connect to Discord and flexing displaying which game are you playing (yes, even mobage). Precedent model (S9) is also fine for playing SIFAS with the 3D Maximum settings.

Those above are my favourite and recommended devices. There are surely more and more of them which may be really good (if you want to say at least one, comment with your suggested phone and why you should suggest that). Just do some researches and read/watch reviews of the phones for get some informations for your next buy.

I hope that this post may be useful for SIFAS gameplay improvements/settings and for more games.

With it being a 3yr old device now, is there any noticeable lag? The A9X works great on my SE to the extent that I probably won’t stop using it till a couple years after Apple stops supporting it. My biggest gripe would be apps reloading too frequently (and taking too long to load) when I reopen them from the app switcher (doesn’t really happen on my SE even with 2GB RAM).

I managed to find a good deal on a boxed 32GB iPad Pro 9.7 with case&cover included, original receipt and 80 battery cycles (~supposedly 93% capacity) for £250 on eBay (advertised with no scratches and Spigen tempered glass screen protector) which doesn’t look too bad. It’s difficult bc at this price I can also get a refurbished 2018 iPad 9.7 directly from Apple, or shell out another £150-200 for a used 10.5” (unless I’m wrong with the specs this doesn’t seem like it’s worth the price difference for me, looking at the marginal increase in CPU speed and display, 2x the RAM that I won’t ever use?)

I don’t plan on doing any drawing, video editing or gaming, as a student it’ll be lecture slides/textbook pdfs, spreadsheets and the occasional report writing (anything else I can just use my 2015 13” MBP) Maybe in the future I’ll get the Apple Pencil (also how does it feel to use it on a 9.7 display?. I don’t have any stores near me so it’s impossible to try)

Apple's A10X is noting short of an engineering marvel. Insanely high benchmark scores for a CPU under 100mm^2. It goes head on with Intels larger, higher power 15 and 28 watt processors, and it comes out on top most of the times. So, with the A10X as a solid basis, let's design the Apple L1.

CPU

First the CPU. The A10X had three Fusion-clusters with each a high-performance Hurricane core and a high-efficiency Zephyr core. The high-performance cores are clocked at 2,38 GHz. Here are some CPU-benchmarks.

To improve our L1, we are going to do two things. First, add a 4th core. Second, apply a modest 15% higher clock-speed. That means we now have a quad-cluster processor with the Hurricane cores clocked at 2,74 GHz. Frequency scaling is almost perfect, so 15% higher scores. Multi-core scaling is not. Adding a 4th core should give 33.3% higher performance, but let's assume 25% to compensate for scaling losses. We now get:

• Geekbench 4.1 Single: 3877 x 1.15 = 4459

• Geekbench 4.1 Multi: 9207 x 1.15 x 1.333 = 14113

So we're on par with an 28 watt Intel i7-processor in single-core, and blowing it away in multi. Not bad.

What did this cost us? The total A10X TDP is estimated at 8 watt, while the CPU-porting uses max 4 of those. We need about 25% more power for the 15% overclock, and 33% for the extra core. So that's 4 x 1.25 x 1.33 = 6.65 watt maximum. Of course we can still opt to clock lower and disable cores for higher efficiency and we still have the high-efficiency Zephyr cores.

The CPU-complex, including caches, take about 18% of the A10X die, so 96.4mm² x 0.18 = 17.35mm^2. With the extra core cluster and extra caches this gets 33.3% bigger, so 17.35mm² x 1.333 = 23.14mm^2, 4,8mm² larger that the A10X. That's very reasonable. We could also double the whole core cluster to a 6+6 configuration, which would blow Intel completely of the table without needing that much die size (34.7 mm^2).

GPU

Let's move on to the GPU. The current GPU is an Imagination 12-cluster GPU with 12 x 32 = 384 streaming processors. It takes 25.3% of the A10X die, so 96.4mm² x 0.253 = 24.39mm^2. For our L1, we want way more GPU power. We want to blow Intel out of the water. Some configurations:

Let's analyse that massive 32 cluster option. Let's say that the A10X uses 5 watt for it's 12 cluster GPU (it's probably lower). If we retain the same clock speeds we use 5 watt / 12 x 32 = 13.33 watt. The current A10X has about 40% of the processing power of a Nvidia GTX 1050, but our GPU is 2.66 times faster, so about as fast as a desktop GTX 1050. Right now Apple's A10X is about 25% faster than Intel's Iris Plus 640 GPU, our L1 is more than 3 times as fast.

Conclusion

GTX 1050 power. Faster than Intel CPU. 20 watt. 142mm² die size. It looks like Apple could easily build a laptop chip for their MacBooks. Technology or power won't be the problem.

Porting all existing software to ARMv8 will be a hell of a job. But Apple has done it before, in far more difficult times. They switched from IBM Power to Intel x86 in less than a year and they can do it again.

Remember, this is all A10-class platform technology. Tomorrow Apple wil announce the A11 with new high- and low-performance cores, a new GPU and the very important ability to dynamically switch task between cores. If they build a laptop chip with these new designs it will probably be even faster and more efficient.

I'm planning to buy a new iPad. However, my budget is limited and I want an iPad that can last at least 4 years from now so I'm having to choose between the iPad 2017 and a used iPad Pro 2016 (I know a good deal atm). iPad Pro 2017 is a no go because it's out of my budget (I need at least 64 GB with Cellular which is too expensive). I will mostly do document stuff (noting, surfing the web, etc) and gaming (specifically the most graphics intensive games). The iPad 2017 should satisfy my needs but I'm afraid it will not last 4 years (in terms of official Apple support, think iOS updates), as for the iPad Pro 2016, I have no idea, it has the A9X, so I think it should? Which one do you think will last longer?

Device information Just wanted to show the relative power difference between the iPad's. Also not seen, GPU metal scores IPad Air (A7) is around 550 iPad Air 2 (A8X) is around 7600 iPad (2017) (A9) is around 9900 iPad Pro 9.7" (A9x) is around 15000 iPad Pro 10.5" (A10X) is around 28000

As you can see, the A10X found in the latest iPad Pros are significantly faster than the A9 and previous chipsets. That metal graphics score jump between the A7 and the A10X :O

Is it worth the extra money?

So I'm kind of confused at the moment. Apple has yet to release any true information regarding their first true attempted GPU. All we know is it has 3 GPU cores and that's it. I was actually wondering why the graphical improvement from a10 to a11 was so small? Usually it's twice the performance leap of last architecture. Is the A11's GPU really only as good as the A9x or is it's performance still progressing as time goes on? Is IOS 11 holding it back or is this all we will expect out of the A11 GPU? In my opinion the A11 should have been just next to the a10x in GPU performance since this was Apple's personal GPU adaptation. Any hardware or software engineer have an answer to this because I'm very interested and curious about mobile GPU performance.

Okay design professionals, let's hear your thoughts.

Which is the better portable platform for creative professionals: the Apple iPad Pro with Pencil or the Wacom Cintiq Companion 2?

I'm a creative profiessional doing 2d, 3d, animation and motion design both in the studio and on the road. I already have a number of other pressure-sensitive tools for drawing and painting: an older model Cintiq, an Intuos and an iPad Mini with a Wacom Bamboo Stylus.

So, the question is, are we seeing "device convergence" with the current generation of devices? Have we reached the point where I can sell those devices and replace them with one of these?

I've tried to run down some specifications to compare apples-to-apples. To make the comparison as fair as possible, I'm comparing the top of the line models of each:

My thoughts on the matter:

So, looking at this table, some edge goes to Wacom, some to Apple. all in all the two machines are fairly close to each other in terms of hardware specifications. The most notable differences to be sure are the operating system, storage, interoperability and price.

So, in my opinion Apple would have to do one thing to win me over: let me use the iPad Pro as a tablet on my workstation. I know there are third-party tools that do some degree of mirroring, but a well-integrated, first-party solution to use the iPad as a tablet with my OSX or Windows workstation is the killer feature that could put it over the top or me. If I could use the iPad Pro and Pencil with actual, big boy art applications like Photoshop, After Effects and Maya, then we may have a compelling reason. Right now it's a massive advantage of the Cintiq Companion 2 over the iPad Pro - I can use it as a standalone computer, or I can plug it into my Windows or OSX workstation and use it as a tablet. HUGE selling point.

And, of course, the iPad Pro and Pencil need to perform. I mean REALLY perform. The performance needs to be at least on par with the Cintiq Companion 2 for it to even be an option.

All these things are possible. We just need to see if they come to pass.

What do you think?

Love the speakers, the camera and of course the ample storage space. The upgraded front facing FaceTime camera is better too ( I believe) than both my mini and 5s. In fact the iPad's main camera outclasses the one in my iPhone 5s, my daily trusty driver.

There is one slightly underwhelming part. I expected a huge performance jump from the iPad mini 4. Not seeing as much as I expected. Games are a bit smoother. But not by a whole lot. Am I expecting too much or is there something wrong or is the mini 4 really that good that the delta to A9X seems small?

I bought the Apple Pencil as well. Love how it works, hate how ungainly it looks while it charges. Either a giant poking device or a flimsy saucepan depending on which way you hold it.

Rant aside, I've tried onenote, paper by 53, the default notes app and grafio lite with the pencil. Grafio comes closest to what I need (software architecture diagrams) so I'll probably purchase the full "pro" version.

App Store links: Free version: Grafio Lite 3 - Diagrams & Ideas by Ten Touch Ltd. Pro version: Grafio 3 - Diagrams & ideas by Ten Touch Ltd.

Overall I am really excited and at times amazed at how good a tablet this thing is. I'll appreciate if you could drop your thoughts on good Apple Pencil apps for diagrams.

Link to imgur album with 3 pics: (sort of unboxing)