PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS:
October 23rd, 2012, Apple Products

Originally posted Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012, by rob-ART morgan, mad scientist
8:53PM same day corrections and additons were made

Fourth Generation iPad

• With the dual-core A6X processor and quad-core graphics, it is twice as fast as the 3rd Gen iPad (March 2012) with the A5X processor.
• Improved 4G LTE and faster WiFi.
• Front facing camera upgraded from VGA to 720p.
• The 30-pin connector is replaced with the 8-pin Lightning connector but adapters are available for USB, SD, HDMI, and VGA adapters.

iPad mini

• A more affordable, smaller iPad but with an A5 processor -- the same processor as the 2nd gen iPad.
• The resolution is 1024x768 which instantly makes all "iPad only" apps compatible, but at 163 ppi it lacks "Retina" rating of the 3rd and 4th gen 9.7" iPad (264 ppi).
• However, it does have the same 4G LTE and faster WiFi like the 4th gen iPad.

13-inch Retina MacBook Pro
A great addition to the 13" form factor MacBook Pro line but . . .

• The 13" RMBP comes only with a Dual-Core i5 or i7 while the 15" Retina MacBook Pro comes with a Quad-Core i7.
• The 13" is limited to an integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 GPU with "borrowed" memory while the 15" comes with a discrete NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with dedicated memory.
• In other words, unless you need a smaller laptop, for $500 (or 29%) more you can have a Retina MacBook Pro with two more cores, a bigger screen, and a "real" GPU.
• Oh and one more thing: the 13" RMBP is limited a max of 8G of RAM. The 15" can be ordered with up to 16G.

'late 2012' iMac

• Sandy Bridge main processor in the 2011 iMac is replaced with Ivy Bridge -- the best being Quad-Core i7 3.4GHz (3.9GHz with Turbo Boost).
• The AMD Radeon GPUs are replaced with NVIDIA Kepler GPUs, the top option being an NVIDIA GTX 680MX with 2GB of GDDR5.
• Memory speed jumps from 1333MHz to 1600MHz DDR3 (four user serviceable slots in the 27" model but not in the 21" model).
• A new drive option is the Fusion Drive with 128G of NAND flash combined with either 1TB or 3TB of hard disk storage. You can still get a regular HDD or SSD but the wording on the specs page appears to say you can only have one drive. The 2011 model offered two drives -- one HDD and one SSD.
• The four USB 2.0 ports are replaced with four USB 3.0 ports.
• A single microphone is replaced with dual microphones.

There are "downgrades" as well. The FireWire 800 port disappears but a ThunderBolt to FireWire 800 converter cable is available to plug into a Thunderbolt port. It loses the audio line in and line out ports for one audio line out.

'late 2012' Mac mini

The 2011 Mac mini could only be had with a Quad-Core i7 if you bought the Server model -- running at 2.0GHz. The 2012 "non-server" Mac mini can be ordered with a Quad-Core i7 running at 2.6GHz (Turbo Boost up to 3.3GHz).

On the other hand, the top GPU (AMD Radeon HD 6630M) has been dropped for the integrated Intel HD 4000 in all models.

Memory speed increases from 1333MHz to 1600MHz. Memory max of 8GB rises to 16GB.

Drive options change. You can have one HDD or one SSD, or one Fusion drive. Only the Server version gets two drives.

The FireWire 800 port remains, but the four USB 2.0 ports become four USB 3.0 ports.

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WHERE TO BUY REFURBISHED iPADs
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copyright 2012 Rob Art Morgan
"BARE facts on Macintosh speed FEATS"
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