Yes, they are binned different, I could have phrased that even more clearly (whether bins of the same silicon should be considered different SOCs or not, I can see arguments for either though agree more with the former), but that does not affect the point I made.
Let's look at Nvidia again. AD102 is used in the RTX 4090 Ti, RTX 4090, RTX 4080 Ti, as well as a less common variant of the RTX 4070 Ti. Each uses the same underlying silicon, just differently binned with certain parts fused off, similar to Apple.
Yet, and this was the point I made, what Apple currently does would be equivalent to Nvidia just calling all of them RTX 4090 Ti (they are the same underlying design after all), with reviewers and customers left to hunt down the specific core counts and differences between them.
And as mentioned, Nvidia tried something even more egregious with the 4080 12Gb, though (this time) were faced with such backlash that they pulled it back. Whether with Apple, Qualcomm, Intel, Nvidia or AMD, every time these practices aren't pointed out by the media, we get closer to a world were a 4080 12Gb will be pushed onto consumers who assume launch day reviews of the "proper" 4080 show equivalent performance.
Let's look at Nvidia again. AD102 is used in the RTX 4090 Ti, RTX 4090, RTX 4080 Ti, as well as a less common variant of the RTX 4070 Ti. Each uses the same underlying silicon, just differently binned with certain parts fused off, similar to Apple.
Yet, and this was the point I made, what Apple currently does would be equivalent to Nvidia just calling all of them RTX 4090 Ti (they are the same underlying design after all), with reviewers and customers left to hunt down the specific core counts and differences between them.
And as mentioned, Nvidia tried something even more egregious with the 4080 12Gb, though (this time) were faced with such backlash that they pulled it back. Whether with Apple, Qualcomm, Intel, Nvidia or AMD, every time these practices aren't pointed out by the media, we get closer to a world were a 4080 12Gb will be pushed onto consumers who assume launch day reviews of the "proper" 4080 show equivalent performance.