Inside Metal: How Apple plans to unlock the secret graphics performance of the A7 chip
Recall that when Apple first introduced the iPhone 5s' advanced A7 chip, it was first greeted with media skepticism wondering if it was even "truly 64-bit," followed by a communal (and wholly incorrect) story that suggested 64-bit mobile chips didn't matter until devices had "4GB of addressable RAM," and that, in the most extremely ignorant coverage, the A7 was "marketing fluff and won't improve performance."
We're only just beginning to see the fruits of Apple's purchase of P.A. Semi back in 2008. For $278 million (or 1/70th the price Facebook paid for WhatsApp), Apple was able to take control of its technological roadmap and ensure it would have the most power-efficient CPUs in the mobile industry. With the help of Metal, they've now shown that the A7 might be the fastest GPU in the industry as well.
The A7 is both literally and figuratively a game changer.