The third-generation 2022 Apple TV 4K is powered by a binned version of the A15 Bionic chip with one CPU core disabled, according to the website FlatpanelsHD. The publication used information for its review from the TV Info app for tvOS.
The reviewer says the A15 Bionic has a five-core CPU in the new Apple TV, when used in iPhone 13 and iPhone 14 devices, the chip has a six-core CPU.
The website found the new Apple TV to be approximately 40% faster and to throttle less than the previous Apple TV 4K with the A12 Bionic chip. FlatpanelsHD said the new Apple TV is quite a bit faster than previous-generation consoles like the Xbox One, but the PS5 outperforms it in multi-core benchmark testing.
While the reviewer was unable to confirm it, the report also believes that the Apple TV uses a version of the A15 Bionic with a four-core GPU, compared to a five-core GPU in iPhone 13 Pro models.
While Apple’s streaming box still trails behind popular gaming consoles in graphics performance, it’s inching ever closer. The reviewer said it is “starting to get to a point where Xbox One and PS4 games should, in theory, be playable on Apple TV without too many compromises.”
If you’re curious about what “binned” means when using it in reference to processors like the A15 Bionic, Tom’s Hardware offers an excellent explanation:
Binning is a term vendors use for categorizing components, including CPUs, GPUs (aka graphics cards) or RAM kits, by quality and performance. While components are designed to achieve a certain performance level, sometimes the final product fails to meet those standards, due to the complexities associated with manufacturing PC components. After manufacturing, vendors conduct testing and bin the component based on its performance results.
Here’s a simplified example. Intel has standards for performance, power management and thermal output for its Core i5 CPUs. If a CPU fails to meet those standards, Intel will bin it as an i3 processor instead. However, since Core i5 processors have four cores and i3 processors have two, Intel will disable two (likely defective) cores on the processor in order to sell it as a two-core processor. Thus, it’s possible your gaming PCs i3 processor was meant to be an i5 but failed to meet performance standards, so Intel disabled two of its cores to turn it into an i3.
(Via MacRumors)