Can Arm Chips Run Heavy Apps and Games

[Propfam 2,305]

Hello,

I've seen benchmarks shows that the latest iPad Pro can provide laptop-like performance thru Apple A10X, although with some controversies. Currently, it's the fastest Arm chip commercially available for tablet. Also, with the growth of Apple chips and production of the powerful Snapdragon 850, powerful yet still efficient processors going to lots of devices. The question is can Arm processors run heavy apps like full-fledged Photoshop, Premiere Pro and Blender, and heavy games like Cities: Skylines (heavy because it doesn't fully support integrated graphics) and triple-A titles? Nice to see if people carrying their tablet to model things in 3D and rendering it either while in travel or at home (depending on the complexity), or recording C:S gameplay on their phone, editing it using the full-fledged Premiere Pro and share it on YouTube.

Thanks.

[matias93 7,535]

The short answer: NO.

Why? Because software has to be written for each specific architecture, and as ARM chips have been traditionally less powerful and only focused on mobile devices, most power applications haven't been released for ARM processors.

It's not so much of a lack of capacity, is that the needed programming hasn't been done because when people wants to use those heavy applications, they simply use a processor that is known to work with them.

I guess in some more years things could change with the proliferation of mobile devices, but consider this: even if you can fit a powerful processor inside a phone, you will blow away the battery life using heavy applications, and the phones are still ergonomically inadequate for the kind of long-time usage those applications require.

Yes, somebody could think: hey, but what about using an ARM chip on a full-sized computer? But in that case it would be much more economical to use a conventional x64 chip by Intel or AMD, which is also much more compatible. It's a path-dependence of sorts: once you start doing things on an specifical way, it becomes increasingly costly to change the basic method.

[Propfam 2,305]

Hello,

I see the new iPad Pro is getting better and better. Here are the hand-ons:

But, as a power user and personally I don't like Windows, I want to ask a question: what the setup you'll suggest if I'm buying the iPad? iPad and custom PC running Linux? iPad and iMac? iPad and MacBook/other laptops reinstalled with Linux? Or, another setup?

Thanks.

[rsc204 21,866]

1 hour ago, chfzdn said:

But, as a power user and personally I don't like Windows, I want to ask a question: what the setup you'll suggest if I'm buying the iPad?

If you buy an iPad as a power user, it's like going racing in a tiny 1.0l fuel efficient car, you've got the wrong tool for the job. Yes, they are more powerful than they've been, but are they even remotely comparable with a proper laptop, not even slightly. When you compare that further to a proper desktop, well there is no comparison.

Ultimately you will buy whatever you want, because that's what people do. You aren't really asking for our advice I suspect, but looking for us to validate your choices, which I personally (even annoyingly), am prepared to point out the flaws of.

I have a small Ultra Mobile Personal Computer, it's a Sony Vaio P, 1st generation. It's smaller than a tablet, less than 700g in weight and has a great keyboard and hi-res screen. It's the best portable computer I've ever owned, it literally fits in the inside pocket of a jacket, plus it never weighs me down on the move. But, it is highly flawed as a computer, very limiting in some ways. That said, last year I had a return train journey of 13h in each direction, I was able to use it to get some modding done, watch videos and some internet surfing/e-mail tasks.

The point being, don't buy what seems like an "ideological" machine, unless your usage of it matches that ideology. You'll just end up spending a lot of money for something that's totally incapable of playing SC4, Cities Skylines or many modding tasks. If however, you understand the limitations of such a device, but it meets your needs, knock yourself out if that's what you want. Hate Windows all you like, but I wouldn't drop that money on something that will be junk the moment the battery dies. Assuming the crap doesn't break long before that time, because Apple and reliability is a joke these days. This is an expensive toy, if you can afford one and it's your thing, again who am I to stop you, just don't make the mistake of thinking otherwise, you might seriously regret wasting a lot of cash on one.

[RobertLM78 1,598]

9 hours ago, chfzdn said:

But, as a power user and personally I don't like Windows, I want to ask a question: what the setup you'll suggest if I'm buying the iPad? iPad and custom PC running Linux? iPad and iMac? iPad and MacBook/other laptops reinstalled with Linux? Or, another setup?

If you're considering using Linux, why even bother with an Apple product?

[Propfam 2,305]

On 31/10/2018 at 6:33 PM, rsc204 said:

If you buy an iPad as a power user, it's like going racing in a tiny 1.0l fuel efficient car, you've got the wrong tool for the job. Yes, they are more powerful than they've been, but are they even remotely comparable with a proper laptop, not even slightly. When you compare that further to a proper desktop, well there is no comparison.

Ultimately you will buy whatever you want, because that's what people do. You aren't really asking for our advice I suspect, but looking for us to validate your choices, which I personally (even annoyingly), am prepared to point out the flaws of.

I have a small Ultra Mobile Personal Computer, it's a Sony Vaio P, 1st generation. It's smaller than a tablet, less than 700g in weight and has a great keyboard and hi-res screen. It's the best portable computer I've ever owned, it literally fits in the inside pocket of a jacket, plus it never weighs me down on the move. But, it is highly flawed as a computer, very limiting in some ways. That said, last year I had a return train journey of 13h in each direction, I was able to use it to get some modding done, watch videos and some internet surfing/e-mail tasks.

The point being, don't buy what seems like an "ideological" machine, unless your usage of it matches that ideology. You'll just end up spending a lot of money for something that's totally incapable of playing SC4, Cities Skylines or many modding tasks. If however, you understand the limitations of such a device, but it meets your needs, knock yourself out if that's what you want. Hate Windows all you like, but I wouldn't drop that money on something that will be junk the moment the battery dies. Assuming the crap doesn't break long before that time, because Apple and reliability is a joke these days. This is an expensive toy, if you can afford one and it's your thing, again who am I to stop you, just don't make the mistake of thinking otherwise, you might seriously regret wasting a lot of cash on one.

To be clear, I'm not having Windows because I don't how they update the user's system and other policies, and I will not using iPad 100%. iPads for light and (possibly) lighter-medium computing like photo editing and coding and laptop for heavier-middle and heavy tasks like video editing and gaming. But, there are clashes in laptop industry, especially on the Ultrabook one. For instance, the new MacBook Air is almost same as the previous-gen MacBook Pro with almost same price and the Retina MacBook is capable what the iPad did, minus macOS. I could buy the 2-in-1 one but if I'm installed Linux, it might not be optimal as on Windows. Also, the iPad is more common in my country than the Surface Pro for instance. What your solution to these clashes?

Thanks.

[rsc204 21,866]

4 hours ago, chfzdn said:

What your solution to these clashes?

If you can afford an iPad + MacBook, you can pretty much afford whatever you want.

Personally, I'd buy a reliable Thinkpad (even if you choose to run Linux upon it), then mate that with a dock and external monitor/keyboard/mouse. A desktop when you need it, a laptop when you are not at home, the best of both worlds. With this sort of money to drop, an i7 which will do everything you need is well within your budget.