iPhone X Intel Vs Qualcomm Modem Speed Tests Show “Significant” Performance Difference

DooKey

DooKey

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Apple continues to outsource the production of modems for its new iPhone to both Intel and Qualcomm, with speedtest crowdsourcing company Speedsmart discovering that Intel’s offering, though behind its Qualcomm counterpart in many other ways, is a “significantly” faster on certain networks. Is this really true is hard to say based on the sample size, but if it is true it makes it that much easier for Apple to kick Qualcomm to the curb in the future.

The company behind the test, quoting a 10% difference in download and upload speeds on AT&T and a 15% difference on T-Mobile, both in favor of the Intel chip, advises users on said networks against opting for the Qualcomm variant.
 
All I know is that on the PC I look for Intel NICs. Forget the Broadcom, Killer, Realtek, etc, etc junk. Can't wait till they bring 10G NICs from their server cards to motherboards.
 
This is to be expected. They couldn't meet the demand with only one supplier, so they used another with slightly lower speeds. Both chipsets are within spec, and the difference isn't all too dramatic from the graphs.
 
Gasaraki_ said:
All I know is that on the PC I look for Intel NICs. Forget the Broadcom, Killer, Realtek, etc, etc junk. Can't wait till they bring 10G NICs from their server cards to motherboards.
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Good God yes.

Years ago had a 2 hour Dell Tech Support conversation about a client's new server we were setting up for a migration where it refused to start the DHCP service. Finally we get pushed up the chain enough where when dude hears our problem immediately says go into the registry and do X and voila , it worked. He told us that yeah they'd had issues with the integrated Broadcom NIC.

On the server motherboard they were selling , I about lost my shit that was a known issue to at least some up there and still shipping that chipset.

First thing I check on any server orders we place for clients or they are doing is it better have an Intel server nic added in. Same for my own desktops and laptops if at all possible , don't trust any wireless or wired NIC chipsets other than Intel.
 
SerbiaNem may have the right of it. That said, wireless (and wired? ) chipsets can be wonky. For instance, I know that I have a lot of ARM-powered media boxes that use AmLogic chipsets (the best in their low cost field - S812, S905, S912. Way better than Rockchip etc..) and I found after purchasing that their WiFi is absolute crap - to the point that they sometimes have difficulty streaming when on 802.11N etc... even though they can handle it easy when hooked up to wired (sometimes only 10/100 on the older kit) ethernet, despite having hardware that can handle decode of X264 / X265 locally. They just aren't built so the wifi elements of the SOC can't really stretch their legs, I'm told. So it doesn't surprise me at all if there are some differences between Intel, Quallcom and others.

The real question is how much of an issue is it and how close are they, effectively. Like SerbiaNem said, perhaps they needed more than one supplier - after all, it isn't like Apple is using full Intel or Qualcomm SOC, so they're just grabbing radios and whattnot. I am curious however how this stacks up to Android devices that use a full Intel or Qualcommm SOC high end model; is it the same radio, same performance, or not?

I too must admit that Intel does make some great networking hardware on the PC - their NICs are well supported under Linux even and have great performance with lots of latest features. I would say that right now, only Atheros comes close or replicates a similar experience (and they didn't always; now their drivers are open source and mainlined to the kernel) but I haven't checked out a main shoothout between the two. I am curious about 10G though - it seems that many of the high end mobo or PCI-E cards with 10G Ethernet are AQuantia; I am curious to see how Intel responds
 
Had tons of issues with Broadcom back in the day, not as much recently. Still always try and put Intel in all my servers but for desktops/laptops the realtek stuff is totally fine. My users rarely need the throughput to tax those chipsets.
 
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Apparently my A1901 is the Intel model, cool.
 
Xaeos said:
The real question is how much of an issue is it and how close are they, effectively. Like SerbiaNem said, perhaps they needed more than one supplier - after all, it isn't like Apple is using full Intel or Qualcomm SOC, so they're just grabbing radios and whattnot. I am curious however how this stacks up to Android devices that use a full Intel or Qualcommm SOC high end model; is it the same radio, same performance, or not?
Click to expand...

In America you can't use model with Intel chip everywhere, simply because Intel doesn't support CDMA networks, only GSM. That is why Apple needs Qualcomm chips - for Sprint and Verizon.

Or rather, they didn't had CDMA modem until not long time ago, so next iPhone might be all-Intel.
 
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