When you move to a smaller process node, you have a choice between improving performance or cutting power. (or some mix of both)
Apple seems to have taken the power reduction with the A14 and M1 on TSMC 5nm, not the performance increase.
>The one explanation and theory I have is that Apple might have finally pulled back on their excessive peak power draw at the maximum performance states of the CPUs and GPUs, and thus peak performance wouldn’t have seen such a large jump this generation, but favour more sustainable thermal figures.
I think the latest Ryzen 5800x CPUs kind of prove it's the TSMC fab process. You've now got M1s, Graviton2s, and Ryzens all crushing it to similar levels.
Apple seems to have taken the power reduction with the A14 and M1 on TSMC 5nm, not the performance increase.
>The one explanation and theory I have is that Apple might have finally pulled back on their excessive peak power draw at the maximum performance states of the CPUs and GPUs, and thus peak performance wouldn’t have seen such a large jump this generation, but favour more sustainable thermal figures.
https://www.anandtech.com/show/16088/apple-announces-5nm-a14...