[throw34]

That’s an interesting take given this thread because Apple has explicitly stated they don’t prioritize performance, they prioritize performance per watt, which is not the same thing. And that also shows there’s a whole design space here and just focusing on one dimension, process node, is overly simplistic.

[modeless]

Top end performance is power limited, so optimizing for performance per watt is almost the same thing as optimizing for performance.

[throw34]

I’m not sure what point you’re arguing anymore.

I’m arguing against this statement. I don’t think it’s true.

“ You're looking in the wrong place. The magic comes from TSMC, not Apple.”

My point is a good process is necessary but not sufficient to make a part competitive with Apple on performance per watt. There’s a lot of “magic” to go around.

[xyzzy_plugh]

I think the argument is that Apple would have significantly less magic were it not for TSMC, which seems to be correct regardless of process or design (vertical integration).

[fomine3]

Yes. Now every computers tend to be power limited (or say heat limited).