iPadOS 16 on a non M1 iPad is such a disappointment.

[Wizec]

The A12X/Z were actually the first Apple chips to get Unified Memory Architecture. I think they’ve got half the memory bandwidth of M1, though, if my memory serves me correctly.

No, M1 was the first Apple SOC to feature UMA:

“The launch of the M1 chip brought Apple’s first use of unified memory architecture (UMA) on Apple silicon.

What is Unified Memory and how does it work?​

Unified memory is about minimizing the redundancy of data copied between different sections of memory used by the CPU, GPU, etc. Copying is slow and wastes memory capacity. With a traditional memory implementation, part of your RAM is reserved for the GPU. If your laptop is advertised with 16GB of RAM, and 2GB is allocated to the GPU, you only have 14GB available for system tasks. Apple solves this problem with UMA, making memory allocation more fluid and increasing performance.”

What is Unified Memory and how does it work on Apple Silicon?

This article takes a look at how Apple's Unified Memory Architecture really works on Apple Silicon like the M1 processor!

www.xda-developers.com

 

[rui no onna]

No, M1 was the first Apple SOC to feature UMA:

“The launch of the M1 chip brought Apple’s first use of unified memory architecture (UMA) on Apple silicon.”

What is Unified Memory and how does it work on Apple Silicon?

This article takes a look at how Apple's Unified Memory Architecture really works on Apple Silicon like the M1 processor!

www.xda-developers.com

A12X Overview

Apple walks Ars through the iPad Pro’s A12X system on a chip

Apple's Anand Shimpi, Phil Schiller talk silicon—"This is really an Xbox One S class GPU."

arstechnica.com

Typically when you get this type of CPU and GPU performance, a combination of the two, you have a discrete memory system. So the CPU has its own set of memory and the GPU has its own set of memory, and for a lot of media workloads or pro workflows where you actually want both working on the same data set, you copy back and forth, generally over a very narrow slow bus, and so developers tend to not create their applications that way, because you don't want to copy back and forth.

We don't have any of those problems. We have the unified architecture, the CPU, the GPU, the ISP, the Neural Engine—everything sits behind the exact same memory interface, and you have one pool of memory.

On top of that, this is the only type of memory interface that iOS knows. You don't have the problem of, well, sometimes the unified pool may be a discrete pool, sometimes it may not. iOS, our frameworks, this is all it’s ever known, and so as a result developers benefit from that. By default, this is what they're optimized for, whereas in other ecosystems you might have to worry about, well, OK, sometimes I have to treat the two things as discrete; sometimes they share.

 

[Shirasaki]

iPadOS was originated from iOS, a system that was designed and optimised for a phone. What Apple is doing nowadays is band-aiding as little as they can get away with by adding half baked desktop feature to a mobile operating system, hoping it will work out eventually. Stage manager is great? Kind of. But why I still need to resort to slide over just so that I could type while waiting for game to run?

I am looking forward to see how Apple will either force the entire world to bend over to their will and embrace their half-assed hybrid approach or Microsoft could figure out how to tidy up their disastrous windows 11 better.

 

[KPOM]

And that is the issue, the M1 has only been in the iPad for a year you can bet there are significantly more A series chips out there. Heck their latest iPad the iPad Mini still came with an A15 rather than an M1.

Now don’t get me wrong I could see the older iPads getting reduced features in the future, I just didn’t expect it to be literally the next iPadOS version on devices that are still very powerful and are still not being used to their full potential.

Last year there was a lot of hand-wringing on the forums that Apple added the M1 to the iPad (literally the same chip in the newest Macs) and didn't take any advantage of it in iPadOS 15. Now they are specifically targeting a new feature around the M1 and people are complaining.

Stage Manager goes hand-in-hand with their other announcement that they want developers to bring desktop-class apps to the iPad. While we will likely never see macOS run on an iPad, we could see iPad apps with feature parity to Mac apps and maybe "universal" Mac apps that run on the iPad natively (Apple would need to make more changes for the latter to happen, though). M1 is a logical place to start since it is the first chip that powered both Macs and iPads sold at retail. Yes, I know the Mac developer kit ran on an A12Z, but that was obviously never intended as a Mac chip.

 

[Wizec]

A12X Overview

Apple walks Ars through the iPad Pro’s A12X system on a chip

Apple's Anand Shimpi, Phil Schiller talk silicon—"This is really an Xbox One S class GPU."

arstechnica.com

Looks like you’re right. The packaging for A12X brought the System DRAM onto the same package and integrated the memory controller like the M1…

 

[dannyyankou]

They just want you to upgrade, that’s undeniable. If a 2017 Intel MacBook Air can run Stage Manager, a 2020 iPad pro should be able to. It has enough power.

 

[bniu]

I think a lot of people are thinking the A12Z can do more because it was featured in the Developer Transition Kit.
I’m thinking the DTK A12Z was a bit modified so that it’d take 16GB of RAM and probably had a mod to allow for RAM swap.
Whatever modifications it was, it was intended for helping developers transition their software over and it did its job. It was never a public system so likely Apple had a bit more freedom to do what needed to be done to achieve its goal with it.

 

[BDL_24]

Just traded in my iPad Pro, and a few other things (including my MacBook Air (intel)) and going to just one device. The MacBook Pro. Too many years of hoping for true windowed multi-tasking, pro apps, and an all out MacBook replacement. Clearly not going to happen any time soon. The MacBook Pro, seems to fit all needs. Great screen, performance, apps, keyboard, etc. Once I made the decision, I actually am really looking forward to me new MacBook Pro.

 

[mrochester]

Just traded in my iPad Pro, and a few other things (including my MacBook Air (intel)) and going to just one device. The MacBook Pro. Too many years of hoping for true windowed multi-tasking, pro apps, and an all out MacBook replacement. Clearly not going to happen any time soon. The MacBook Pro, seems to fit all needs. Great screen, performance, apps, keyboard, etc. Once I made the decision, I actually am really looking forward to me new MacBook Pro.

You should definitely buy the device that meets your functional needs!

 

[oldmacs]

I mean the hardware is 4 years old, right? 4 year old iPhones and Macs often don’t get true best hardware features either.

My 10 year old Mid 2012 MacBook Pro can handle the equivalent of stage manager + extended displays... in fact Macs back to the 1990s have been able to do this, yet iPads that Apple touted as 'desktop class' etc etc somehow can't? iPads that are supposedly so much faster than my 10 year old Mac?

 

[oldmacs]

Somewhere in a lab or test pipeline they tried it. Someone decided not to do it. It may have been a poor user experience, or may have been motivated by other reasons. But I‘m making an educated guess it wasn’t great. I have an 11” IPP and i split-view 2 apps or the same app all day long, usually Webex and Notes or Teams and Notes. Running multiple apps (or even Picture in Picture) work great, but I’m guessing the graphics performance or video RAM just isn’t there.

Honestly if my decrepit 2012 MacBook Pro with Intel HD 4000 graphics can handle the graphics of equivalent functions in MacOS, there's no way that A12 iPads that supposedly run rings around my MacBook wouldn't be able to handle it!

 

[twdawson]

They are playing the “let’s get as much money out of people game”. It’s typical Apple

 

[mrochester]

They are playing the “let’s get as much money out of people game”. It’s typical Apple

Yeah it's a truly novel idea.

 

[lindros2]

Well, my iPad Pro 11" 2nd Gen is from 2020. So 2 years old and the most wanted features aren't supported anymore. Really sucks.

could be worse - I bought a 2020, and my buddy bought a 2021. His was stolen in an airport - fully loaded $2k+ 12.9"...
And AppleCare+ doesn't offer theft and loss on anything but iPhone...

 

[mrochester]

could be worse - I bought a 2020, and my buddy bought a 2021. His was stolen in an airport - fully loaded $2k+ 12.9"...
And AppleCare+ doesn't offer theft and loss on anything but iPhone...

Ouch, but that’s what insurance is for!

 

[Abazigal]

I think a lot of people are thinking the A12Z can do more because it was featured in the Developer Transition Kit.
I’m thinking the DTK A12Z was a bit modified so that it’d take 16GB of RAM and probably had a mod to allow for RAM swap.
Whatever modifications it was, it was intended for helping developers transition their software over and it did its job. It was never a public system so likely Apple had a bit more freedom to do what needed to be done to achieve its goal with it.

I also seem to remember someone commenting that macOS ran like crap on the DTK, and was practically unusable for development purposes. So it wouldn’t have been ready for prime time use anyways.

 

[HandsomeDanNZ]

I understand that and to be honest Stage Manager isn’t the bit I’m most annoyed about, its the half baked way that the iPad still handles the 2nd screen if you don’t have an M1 iPad. You cant be telling me that the 2018 iPad with all of its power couldn‘t run a web browser on one screen and MS Word on another for example.

A Chromebook with 2GB of RAM and a slow, old processor can run extended displays in full screen, with a Word Processor on one screen a browser on the other.

This is just a cash grab, with unneeded features (Stage Manager) being the gloss that makes it look legitimate to the uninitiated.

 

[SoYoung]

I especially understand the frustration for 2020 Pro owners, but at the same time, we knew from the beginning the 2020 pro isn't much of an upgrade over the 2018 with basically the same processor and ram (compared to the 1TB version of the 2018).

That's why at this period I preferred to buy a fully loaded 2018 one on a final sale clearance and then buy the M1 Pro one year and a half later.

 

[ppeinado]

So Samsung had dex back in 2017 so a mobile phone which has far less power than the 2018 iPad Pro has much more software versatility when it comes to 2nd screens/Keybaord & Mouse support. Hell low end windows laptops have been able to extend their screens for longer than I can remember.

Now as I said I understand the hardware is older now but its still more than capable of running all the new software features Apple announced, ok with some limitations when it comes to amount of open apps etc due to RAM.

Not to rub more salt in the wound, but your 2018 pro w/ 1tb actually has 6gb ram (https://www.macrumors.com/2018/10/30/ipad-pro-1tb-has-6gb-ram/ ) so there’s even less of an excuse for it not to be included

and as you’ve pointed out my Samsung s7 fe tablet only has 4gb ram and can handle dex just fine.

 

[Edric_1337]

Unpopular opinion: when the M1 iPad Pro came out, there where plenty of "why does it not have additional features". Now they will have, the other part cries... so you can't make everyone happy

 

[Stuey3D]

Not to rub more salt in the wound, but your 2018 pro w/ 1tb actually has 6gb ram (https://www.macrumors.com/2018/10/30/ipad-pro-1tb-has-6gb-ram/ ) so there’s even less of an excuse for it not to be included

and as you’ve pointed out my Samsung s7 fe tablet only has 4gb ram and can handle dex just fine.

I know it does, but the rest of the 2018’s only had 4GB of RAM and I doubt Apple would make the distinction, you can guarantee if say a future iPadOS drops the 2018’s due to RAM its dropping them all including the 1TB models.

 

[mrochester]

I know it does, but the rest of the 2018’s only had 4GB of RAM and I doubt Apple would make the distinction, you can guarantee if say a future iPadOS drops the 2018’s due to RAM its dropping them all including the 1TB models.

They’ve set precedent for not making that distinction with the iPhone 7 range.

 

[ct2k7]

Unpopular opinion: when the M1 iPad Pro came out, there where plenty of "why does it not have additional features". Now they will have, the other part cries... so you can't make everyone happy

Most people were asking why there weren't more desktop class apps with M1, not different ways of interacting with the interface.

 

[theotherphil]

I hear what the OP is saying. The 2018 iPad Pro is a beast and was never fully utilized.
The problem is the new iPadOS is specifically built around the M1 and new memory.

It’s not the power of the processor that is the concern, it’s the amount of available RAM to keep the programs open and speed of the SSD required for swap to provide a smooth experience.

The A12Z processor absolutely has the power to perform the window management. It doesn’t have the RAM, memory bandwidth or SSD speeds required in the 2020 iPP. We saw that with the Mac Mini dev transition kit where it came with 16Gb ram and faster SSD vs 4-6Gb on the iPad.

The M1 has 64GB/s memory bandwidth vs 42GB/s of the A12Z. The interesting thing here is that a single performance core on the M1 is able to fully saturate this and is unheard of in other designs. This is likely why M1 also has 12Mb L3 cache vs 8Mb on the A12Z.

As for SSD speeds:

A12Z Sequential Read: 585MB/s
M1 Sequential Read: 2370Mb/s (4x faster)

A12Z Sequential Write: 368Mb/s
M1 Sequential Write: 2064Mb/s (5.6x faster)

A12Z Random 4k Read: 19Mb/s
M1 Random 4k Read: 21.43Mb/s (negligible difference)

A12Z Random 4k write: 3.93Mb/s
M1 Random 4k Write: 23.31Mb/s (5.9x faster)

Testing with Jazz Disk Bench as it’s the only test I’ve found that shows random 4k read/ writes. From those results, the SSD speed of the 2020 iPP cannot support fast swap files.

Download Jazz Disk Bench and test the 2018 iPP for yourself….I’d be surprised if it’s SSD speeds are not slower than the 2020 iPP which would further degrade swap performance.

 

[rui no onna]

It’s not the power of the processor that is the concern, it’s the amount of available RAM to keep the programs open and speed of the SSD required for swap to provide a smooth experience.

The A12Z processor absolutely has the power to perform the window management. It doesn’t have the RAM, memory bandwidth or SSD speeds required in the 2020 iPP. We saw that with the Mac Mini dev transition kit where it came with 16Gb ram and faster SSD vs 4-6Gb on the iPad.

The M1 has 64GB/s memory bandwidth vs 42GB/s of the A12Z. The interesting thing here is that a single performance core on the M1 is able to fully saturate this and is unheard of in other designs. This is likely why M1 also has 12Mb L3 cache vs 8Mb on the A12Z.

As for SSD speeds:

A12Z Sequential Read: 585MB/s
M1 Sequential Read: 2370Mb/s (4x faster)

A12Z Sequential Write: 368Mb/s
M1 Sequential Write: 2064Mb/s (5.6x faster)

A12Z Random 4k Read: 19Mb/s
M1 Random 4k Read: 21.43Mb/s (negligible difference)

A12Z Random 4k write: 3.93Mb/s
M1 Random 4k Write: 23.31Mb/s (5.9x faster)

Testing with Jazz Disk Bench as it’s the only test I’ve found that shows random 4k read/ writes. From those results, the SSD speed of the 2020 iPP cannot support fast swap files.

Download Jazz Disk Bench and test the 2018 iPP for yourself….I’d be surprised if it’s SSD speeds are not slower than the 2020 iPP which would further degrade swap performance.

Curious, what storage capacity was that 2020 Pro?

The 2018 1TB is actually fairly decent.