ARM processors like A12X are nearing performance parity with desktop processors

There’s nuance in every corner, but after working through common arguments and misconceptions, such as that the RISC (ARM) instruction set architecture is inherently inferior to CISC (x86), that the benchmarks spruiking excellent ARM performance are inaccurate, that the performance gap is explained by different operating systems, and more, I’ve found that the central claim of these articles largely holds true: ARM processors, particularly those produced by Apple, have caught up to high-end x86 processors in most perspectives of performance. The first response I saw many employ against ARM parity was that x86 chips are based on the CISC Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) and are therefore inherently superior to mobile chips based on the RISC ISA. In the meantime, ARM Holdings (keeping in mind that ARM stands for Advanced RISC Machine) started to develop chips for mobile devices where efficiency, not raw performance, was the initial focus.

Source: reveried.com