Rumor: Apple removed GPU with ray tracing from A16 SoC in iPhone 14 Pro

According to a new rumor, Apple has removed a GPU with support for ray tracing from the A16 Bionic SoC in the iPhone 14 Pro. The SoC is the only new high-end SoC for smartphones without support for the technology that can be used in games.

Apple discovered relatively shortly before the release that the new GPU required too much power and generated too much heat. writes The Information based on its own sources. As a result, the manufacturer had to replace the GPU at the last minute with a variant of the GPU from the A15 Bionic SoC. It had been clear since its release that the GPU offered little progress compared to predecessors.

The GPU should have supported ray tracing, among other things. That technology debuted in mobile smartphones with Samsung’s Exynos 2200, which is included in the Galaxy S22. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and MediaTek Dimensity 9200 also have support for this. This makes Apple the only maker of SoCs for high-end phones that does not have the technology on board.

The anecdote should illustrate that Apple’s chip division has difficulty developing and releasing the many SoCs for Apple devices. Earlier this week it was revealed that a version of the Mac Pro with a SoC has been removed from the M1 architecture, despite Apple having already hinted at the release of the device in a keynote. As a result, Apple missed its own deadline that the entire Mac line-up would be switched to Apple Socs within two years. The most recent Mac Pro only has options with Intel processors, although a new Mac Studio desktop with M1 Max and M1 Ultra was released last year.

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