A10X Fusion is more than twice as powerful as PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 but still consumes only a fraction of the power. The chip will be included in the upcoming ‘Apple TV 4K’, suggests leaked firmware. It was first reported by 9to5Mac.

’Apple TV 4K’
A new Apple TV with 4K and HDR is as good as confirmed because of leaked HomePod firmware. The leaked iOS 11 firmware now indicates that the new ‘Apple TV 4K’ (which appears to be the name) will feature the A10X Fusion chip.

This is the same chip that powers the latest iPad Pro. It is also Apple’s most powerful graphics chip and will likely continue to be the most powerful even if Apple introduces an A11 Fusion chip tomorrow because the company usually beefs up graphics cores in the X series chips.


 Game consoles: Graphics performance:

Apple TV (2015)
0,1 tflops
PlayStation 3
0,23 tflops
 Xbox 360
0,24 tflops
 Apple TV 4K
0,5 tflops (est.)
Xbox One
1.3 tflops
Xbox One S
1.4 tflops
PS4
1.8 tflops
 
Apple has not said specifically how powerful the A10X is but at launch it indicated that it is 40% faster than the predecessor A9X, which has approximately 346 gflops of graphics performance. This suggests around 500 gflops in A10X. It is worth pointing out that A10X in the iPad is constrained by the battery so it could probably be clocked higher when connected to a wall output.

If this is true, the new ‘Apple TV 4K’ will be more than twice as powerful as the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 but still significantly less powerful than PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. However, Apple’s A series chips are based on mobile ARM, which consumes only a fraction of the power, whereas PlayStation and Xbox are today based on PC hardware that can consume several hundreds of Watts – and produce heat and noise accordingly.

The new Apple TV is believed to feature 3GB of RAM.

The current Apple TV has a much less powerful A8 chip, which delivers approximately 115 glops of graphics performance.

A chip this powerful would surely be capable of delivering 4K video output but it could also indicate that Apple is preparing to focus more heavily on the gaming aspect of its living room box. The new ‘Apple TV 4K’ is furthermore expected to support HDR, including Dolby Vision. All signs point to Apple unveiling it at tomorrow’s launch event.
 
- Source: Steven Troughton-Smith via 9to5Mac