ipad3 vs new s4pro tabs

[stormkroe]

I must say that I'm pretty pumped about the performance of the s4pro with adreno 320. I'm guilty of being a fanboy of qualcomm/adreno I suppose, but some of the comments I'm reading on other websites are driving me insane. Particularly people downplaying s4pro because the ipad3 is still faster gpu-wise. First, I'd like to say, why not make a performance per watt analysis here like is all the rage with desktop GPU. It actually REALLY matters in mobile use, and in this area, ipad3 has been obliterated by several different SoC's (exynos, krait, possibly t3).
Secondly, coming from the other direction, why hasn't anyone taken the apple/samsung approach and slapped together an adreno or geforce ulp mp2 or mp4? It works with powervr's 543s and mali 400s with no observable downside.

 

[Mopetar]

I'm assuming the new s4 SoCs are being made on a 28 nm process, in which case they're going to easily be more efficient than older chips like the A5X. Sure the GPU will still be more powerful, but it needs to be in order to drive the iPad 3's display. Otherwise, performance is getting to the point where for most tablet applications, the SoCs that we have now are good enough. The new quad-core Qualcomm SoCs are going to be performance monsters, but most of the time they won't run anywhere near their full potential. Which, as you mentioned, means that performance per watt is going to be more important.

To answer your other question, probably because there isn't a lot of demand for them. At least not yet. There are very few Android tablets that are both 10" and using some kind of retina display, and I'm not sure what kind of quantity they're selling in. Going forward, we might see other companies start designing SoCs like this, but unless you need that kind of power, it's largely wasted. Also, with Google subsidizing tablets like the Nexus 7, it doesn't leave other manufacturers a lot of room to add more expensive parts where the need is hard to justify.

Perhaps the introduction of the Nexus 7 (as well as the next Kindle Fire) will drive more manufacturers to the high end where they still have a chance to make a profit. This is turn will probably drive the need for more powerful GPUs to run the higher resolution displays in these tablets.

 

[dagamer34]

Smartphone OEMs don't design the GPUs that go into chips, so Motorola, LG, and HTC's hands are all tied behind their backs. And the development time for any individual SoC is so long that reacting to a move done by a competitor today means your response will be ready 2-3 years from now.

Though honestly, GPU power isn't really that important since most iOS games use the iPhone 3GS as their standard, and few games really pull off the impressive 3D graphics that would actually require the GPU in the iPhone 4S or iPad 3. And it doesn't really make sense to stick that much time and energy into a game when the best selling apps are Angry Birds and Where's My Water that can run on the original iPhone!

I wouldn't worry as much about raw GPU power as optimizations from OEM vendors. Especially when Windows RT and Windows Phone 8 roll around with the same SoCs in Android phones and tablets today, we'll see what truly matters more, raw power or hardware optimizations.