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Apple A6 Chip: Twice as Fast as the A5X that Powers the iPad 3

By | September 17, 2012 | 5 comments
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You thought the new iPad was fast? Wait until you get your hands on the iPhone 5. Tech website Geekbench has discovered that, not only is the new iPhone fast, but it is twice as fast as Apple’s most recent generation tablet. Based on user-submitted data analysis that shows various performance speeds, it looks like the iPhone 5 is now the fastest mobile device in the world.

Geekbench is a downloadable program that measures processor and memory performance. Users download the application to their computer, tablet, or phone to determine the processor speed of their device. One user uploaded his device’s performance chart to Geekbench through the company’s PrimateLabs website with purported results showing the iPhone 5 score of 1601.

John Poole of PrimateLabs told MacRumors that the average score for the third-generation iPad is 766. 9to5Mac pointed out that these results also show that the iPhone 5 runs only slightly less than three times as fast as the iPhone 4S, whose score came in at 631.

Normally, Apple releases major performance technology in its tablets. However, it appears that this time around, the iPhone got the goodies. It could be that the A6 processor chip was not ready in time for the release of the new iPad. It could be that Apple wanted to wait until the next generation of tablet to release the faster processor. What is almost a guarantee is the fact that Apple will put the A6 chip into the fourth-generation iPad.

While it is possible that the A6 chip will be featured in the iPad mini, there is a chance that Apple will use a cheaper, less expensive chip in the smaller tablet in order to keep costs to a minimum.

We will likely see the fast chip in the iPad 4. What we don’t know is whether Apple will blow everything away with a quad-core A6 chip processor. Imagine the performance you’d see in something like that?

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About Lory: Writer of all things app related, traveler of the space-time continuum, baker of really great cookies. Follow me @appaholik

  • http://twitter.com/JesDJ Jesse

    Seems like an overkill to me…I feel a little cheated with my new iPad…..I know that the next iPad better be at least an A6 or better

    • lorygil

      Jesse, I have to admit, I’m a little disappointed myself. I was hoping that the third-gen iPad would be my last tablet purchase (other than an iPad mini), but it looks like I’ll be upgrading again when Apple puts the A6 chip in next year.

      • http://twitter.com/JesDJ Jesse

        Yeah….I would have purchased the next iPad anyways but the fact that my wifes iPhone can run everything I can on my expensive iPad kind of sucks!

        • noni8491

          I just wonder how Apple will make the ‘iPad mini’ desirable hardware-wise (in comparison to the Nexus 7), The Nexus 7′s ‘NVIDIA Tegra 3 T30L’ SoC is already comparable in theoretical performance to the ‘A5X’. It would seem Apple would have to use the ‘A6′ (or a subset of that), if they want to differentiate the hardware from the Nexus 7 or the new iPod Touch. (Of course, this would anger new iPad users.) I just can’t imagine that the iPad ’4′ wouldn’t incorporate the A15/PowerVR Series 600 as a new ‘A7′ SoC (which may greatly surpass the ‘A6′), instead of waiting to use that for the iPhone 6.

        • http://twitter.com/libertysurvival Liberty Survival

          I don’t get it, just because a new model came out doesn’t mean yours became suddenly slower.