Anandtech benches Krait and Adreno 225

[Bateluer]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5559/...mance-preview-msm8960-adreno-225-benchmarks/1

Nice . . .

Have to see how this evolves and stands up when the first A15 designs arrive too. Course, Krait will eventually get the faster Adreno 3xx GPUs too.

 

[smartpatrol]

It's abundantly clear that S4 smokes every current SOC CPU-wise.

Unfortunately, it looks like Apple STILL blows everybody away in the GPU department, nearly a year after their A5 SOC launched. (And yes, I am baffled that nobody else has used the PowerVR SGX543 MP2 in their SOC designs.)

 

[Bateluer]

It's abundantly clear that S4 smokes every current SOC CPU-wise.

Unfortunately, it looks like Apple STILL blows everybody away in the GPU department, nearly a year after their A5 SOC launched. (And yes, I am baffled that nobody else has used the PowerVR SGX543 MP2 in their SOC designs.)

This has me curious as well. Licensing agreements between PowerVR and Apple maybe?

Still, the Adreno 225 is a higher clocked 220, which is old. The real tests will come with the Adreno 3xx series.

 

[MrX8503]

Krait looks pretty impressive. Its GPU is similar to the MP2 and its CPU is faster than everything else out there.

However with A15 on the horizon and Apple supposedly beefing up their GPU, Krait may just be an average SOC come mid 2012. One thing is for sure, 2011 SOCs are starting to show their age.

 

[dagamer34]

It's abundantly clear that S4 smokes every current SOC CPU-wise.

Unfortunately, it looks like Apple STILL blows everybody away in the GPU department, nearly a year after their A5 SOC launched. (And yes, I am baffled that nobody else has used the PowerVR SGX543 MP2 in their SOC designs.)

Die size. Keep in mind that SoC vendors have to make chips that they think are going to sell well to phone OEMs and most would balk at the increased cost. Apple also has a built-in advantage because they are ordering millions of the same chip to be used in their iPhone and iPad, and I assume the A5 will eventually trickle down into the iPod Touch and Apple TV.

I also think nVidia, TI, and Qualcomm were caught flat footed because they never expected Apple to use the MP2 variant.

 

[MrX8503]

I think with Apple's volume purchasing strength and their early GPU dominance with the MP2, its allowing them to make the first jump into the retina tablet realm. Samsung, known for their powerful GPUs as well, will probably be the next one to release a retina tablet.

 

[sontin]

If we ignore Linpack* because i don't believe it's usable under Android the results are not very impressive. Sunspider and Browsermark only a few points faster because of the higher clock. No real Multithread-Benchmark like Antutu.

*Under iOS the A5 archives 160 MFLOPs/s with 900MHz...

 

[Bateluer]

If we ignore Linpack* because i don't believe it's usable under Android the results are not very impressive. Sunspider and Browsermark only a few points faster because of the higher clock. No real Multithread-Benchmark like Antutu.

*Under iOS the A5 archives 160 MFLOPs/s with 900MHz...

Didn't take long for the iFanatics to get here.

But, the 2x increase in Vellamo not enough?

Browsermark and Sunspider are much improved as well, though Krait doesn't utterly dominate in those. This is pre-release hardware, remember.

 

[sontin]

I have a Transformer Prime, so yeah, thx.
But Apple using a normal A9 Chip with NEON and Linpack is much faster under iOS than under Android.

We should wait for other Android 4 results from Vellamo. The ICS Browser is much faster than the Gingerbread one.

 

[Fire&Blood]

I also think nVidia, TI, and Qualcomm were caught flat footed because they never expected Apple to use the MP2 variant.

I agree, except, I think being caught flat footed applies within 3 months of particular product released. This is more like caught flat footed, executed by Apple and stuck watching the kill cam in loop.

I don't think there is a licensing agreement preventing non Apple OEM's using the SGX543, Vita has it. Besides, TI is working on the 4470 with the MP2 but I got the impression they don't want to release it while Obama is president, they are waiting for the 45th one to sworn in, can't come up with a better explanation why it's taking so long.

Decent 2012 CPU but anemic GPU, to summarize Anand's preview. To find the top Android performer we must look in Samsung's direction again and hopefully the Adreno 3xx parts perform better once they are released.

 

[ChronoReverse]

Krait looks decent but Adreno 3xx can't come soon enough.

Interestingly enough, it looks like 225 is as fast as the 4S GPU at the 4S's native resolution (1024x600 has the same number of pixels as 960x640) but cannot scale up nearly as well. Might be some CPU limiting going on here.

We should wait for other Android 4 results from Vellamo. The ICS Browser is much faster than the Gingerbread one.

True but the Galaxy Nexus is running ICS.

 

[Mopetar]

Looks like a pretty damned good SoC. This makes me even more curious to see what some of the competition comes out with in the near future as well.

Would have liked to see a comparison with the Tegra 3 thrown in there so I didn't have to jump back and forth between articles, but it looks like this beats the Tegra 3 in pretty much every benchmark. Even the GPU is better.

 

[alent1234]

I agree, except, I think being caught flat footed applies within 3 months of particular product released. This is more like caught flat footed, executed by Apple and stuck watching the kill cam in loop.

I don't think there is a licensing agreement preventing non Apple OEM's using the SGX543, Vita has it. Besides, TI is working on the 4470 with the MP2 but I got the impression they don't want to release it while Obama is president, they are waiting for the 45th one to sworn in, can't come up with a better explanation why it's taking so long.

Decent 2012 CPU but anemic GPU, to summarize Anand's preview. To find the top Android performer we must look in Samsung's direction again and hopefully the Adreno 3xx parts perform better once they are released.

it takes 3 months just for FCC approval

apple comes out with a nice GPU, it will take you months to redesign you SoC, everything around it and then get approved

these things have 18-36 month design cycles. by the time apple ships something if you don't have anything as good to ready to ship or test you are toast

 

[Fire&Blood]

it takes 3 months just for FCC approval

apple comes out with a nice GPU, it will take you months to redesign you SoC, everything around it and then get approved

these things have 18-36 month design cycles. by the time apple ships something if you don't have anything as good to ready to ship or test you are toast

That would make for a good excuse except, all of those lengthy procedures apply to Apple too. Considering the OS efficiencies and the number of Android players and their caliber, it should have been the other way around, Android should have had better hardware all along. I was stupid to think the SGS2 was sign of things to come, it's just the lone bright star among dozen of meh products.

 

[smartpatrol]

TI, Qualcomm, Samsung , and Nvidia will catch up just in time for Apple to release the A6 and outclass the competition by more than double the GPU power, again. That's what it's looking like anyway.

 

[alent1234]

That would make for a good excuse except, all of those lengthy procedures apply to Apple too. Considering the OS efficiencies and the number of Android players and their caliber, it should have been the other way around, Android should have had better hardware all along. I was stupid to think the SGS2 was sign of things to come, it's just the lone bright star among dozen of meh products.

apple and samsung control 90% of mobile phone profits. chances are that the other phone makers can't afford to license it

 

[ilkhan]

I still wouldn't put any investment into Krait until its paired with Adreno 320 and we know what the Exynos 4x12 is doing for GPU.

 

[sciwizam]

I still wouldn't put any investment into Krait until its paired with Adreno 320 and we know what the Exynos 5250 is doing for GPU.

FTFY

 

[poofyhairguy]

But, the 2x increase in Vellamo not enough?

Meh. Vellamo is the most NEON dependent benchmark. Snapdragons have ALWAYS had good NEON support. Last gen it was everywhere else they sucked.

Would have liked to see a comparison with the Tegra 3 thrown in there so I didn't have to jump back and forth between articles, but it looks like this beats the Tegra 3 in pretty much every benchmark. Even the GPU is better.

Um, no. I don't think the GPU beats a Tegra 3.

My Prime (with the new Nvidia driver update) gets 68 fps offscreen in GLBenchmark 2.1 Egypt. Not the 4s, but faster than the Adreno.

On GLBenchmark 2.1 Pro offscreen, my Prime gets 81fps while the Adreno 225 gets a 62.2. Again not the 4s, but it is faster.

As far as the CPU, I need to overclock my Prime to the same speeds to really test. At 1.4ghz I get a 1903 on Sunspider and a 104676 on Browsermark. I think Krait might be a little faster, but I have twice the cores.

Overall a disappointment. Next gen TI and Samsung stuff is going to kill Krait, and this time Quallcomm won't be able to run back to its LTE shelter.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Krait looks fantastic. I never liked Snapdragon, but Krait has taken Qualcomm from abysmal IPC to market-leading. Kudos to them! Now we just need to see the actual power consumption in phones to see if the 28nm process has improved power as well as performance.

 

[ChronoReverse]

Meh. Vellamo is the most NEON dependent benchmark. Snapdragons have ALWAYS had good NEON support. Last gen it was everywhere else they sucked.

Care to quantify that statement? The Snapdragons have been saddled with a relatively terrible GPU for a long time so it's not surprising GPU tests (as opposed to CPU tests) have traditionally been poor for them but CPU-wise they've always been comparable.

That is to say where the older Scorpion core beats out Exynos (i.e., Vellamo), it's not a huge edge nor does where Exynos beats out Scorpionin in a CPU test (e.g., Linpack) it's not an enormous edge either.

But the new Krait clearly is almost twice as fast as the Scorpion clock for clock. It clearly shows how the next generation chips will perform.



I do expect A15 cores like the next gen Exynos to be faster than Krait based on what we've been hearing. Should be interesting to see if Adreno 3xx will finally be competitive.

 

[Fox5]

Krait looks decent but Adreno 3xx can't come soon enough.

Interestingly enough, it looks like 225 is as fast as the 4S GPU at the 4S's native resolution (1024x600 has the same number of pixels as 960x640) but cannot scale up nearly as well. Might be some CPU limiting going on here.



True but the Galaxy Nexus is running ICS.

It might be because the 4S's PowerVR GPU is a tile based deferred renderer? The test says off screen right? Maybe the hardware isn't drawing anything at all, making it a purely a geometry or shader test on PowerVR hardware.

Also, drivers matter on PCs, why not on Android. I wouldn't be surprised to see PowerVR and nvidia leading in driver quality on Android, having the most experience in the game.

Android should have had better hardware all along. I was stupid to think the SGS2 was sign of things to come, it's just the lone bright star among dozen of meh products.

Android is a just a continuation of the same old phone market the way it's always been. Android is the BREW and Windows Mobile of the modern day, and once in a while you'll have someone release kick ass hardware, but most of the hardware will be years old outdated hardware.

 

[Fire&Blood]

Many of my early pro Android arguments I made in 2010 simply haven't materialized. I was convinced back then that TI, Nvidia and Qualcomm would have gotten more done than they actually did. A more heated battle on the hardware front would have benefited us all.

OMAP4470 should have been out before 2011 was over. And Krait should have featured the Adreno 3xx from the get go. Thank you Qualcomm for shooting yourself in the foot. Please don't forget to make superior modems for Apple and make sure no 3xx parts hit the market before the iphone 5 launch. HTC, do find a way to cripple or limit your Fall lineup so that the iphone5 can take the stage without any interruptions.

 

[Mopetar]

Many of my early pro Android arguments I made in 2010 simply haven't materialized. I was convinced back then that TI, Nvidia and Qualcomm would have gotten more done than they actually did. A more heated battle on the hardware front would have benefited us all.

OMAP4470 should have been out before 2011 was over. And Krait should have featured the Adreno 3xx from the get go. Thank you Qualcomm for shooting yourself in the foot. Please don't forget to make superior modems for Apple and make sure no 3xx parts hit the market before the iphone 5 launch. HTC, do find a way to cripple or limit your Fall lineup so that the iphone5 can take the stage without any interruptions.

Perhaps actual execution is harder than you originally thought. Maybe the high clocks that TI was shooting for was giving the chips poor power consumption and more aggressive binning had to be employed. It's no good launching a new chip if you can't supply enough of them to your partners. Perhaps Qualcomm realized that the Adreno 3xx wasn't fully baked yet and that they could either release the Krait with something from the 200 series, or delay their part by several months and lose a lot of potential sales.

It's doubtful that any of these companies are intentionally trying to fall short. Hell, even Apple may not be immune. The latest rumors suggest that the iPad 3 will have an A5X SoC rather than an A6. No one knows if that's just a naming change, or if their next SoC isn't going to live up to the expected hype that people wanted from an A6.

 

[ChronoReverse]

Still, I don't understand why nobody else has used the SGX543MP2. There's going to be an Atom with that soon so it's not like it's Apple exclusive. Are all the various companies all too proud to use that solution and wanted to push their own?