Tegra 3's GPU not so fast...

[runawayprisoner]

Well, preliminary benchmarks show that Tegra 3's GPU is not that impressive.

And even the iPhone 4S passes a 1.6GHz Tegra 3 chip easily if that graph is to be believed.

Source: http://www.nordichardware.se/nyhete...ingen-match-foer-apple-a5-i-grafiktester.html

My guess is that Apple's quad-core A6 will be an interesting chip when it finally shows up... hopefully in March 2012.

 

[smartpatrol]

It's about a 50% improvement over the previous Android performance champ, the Mali 400. I wouldn't call that disappointing.

 

[Genx87]

They hit their performance mark of doubling Tegra 2's performance. Not bad. Wayne will be an interesting chip.

 

[Medu]

Have to disagree. Those figures are impressive.

Remember that the Tegra3 is suppose to be 80mm2 while both the A5 and Exynos are both 120mm2 even though it is a quad(+1) core.

 

[SlitheryDee]

While the improvement over the previous gpu is impressive, I was expecting it to outperform the ipad 2. I'm disappointed. In a way this doesn't make sense to me either. The graphics on some of the tegra 3 demos I've seem looked subjectively better than most of the stuff I've seen on my ipad2. Perhaps the tegra 3 gpu doesn't lose much performance even when the graphical complexity is ratcheted up beyond what the ipad 2 is capable of?

 

[poofyhairguy]

The graphics on some of the tegra 3 demos I've seem looked subjectively better than most of the stuff I've seen on my ipad2.

That is because on those demos Nvidia uses all four cores, PS3-style.

Overall I am not disappointed. Once released it will be the most powerful Android GPU. It beats Mali, and Mali is enough to play games at decent framerates at the 720p many tablets run at.

I kinda guessed it was not going to beat out Apple's top GPU. Apple shocked the industry when they put such a large chip in the iPad 2. Apple is ready to go retina display next gen, Android is not....

 

[Bateluer]

Apple is ready to go retina display next gen, Android is not....

Android already has, the 720p displays in 4.3in devices have equal PPI than the vaunted Retina display, but an industry standard resolution.

Edit - No reason to be disappointed either, Tegra 3 meet the performance goals that Nvidia promised while being a small, easily/cheaply manufactured chip. Thats a huge bonus. And while Nvidia is able to claim sub-300USD Tegra 3 tablets within a year and not be laughed at.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

That is because on those demos Nvidia uses all four cores, PS3-style.

Overall I am not disappointed. Once released it will be the most powerful Android GPU. It beats Mali, and Mali is enough to play games at decent framerates at the 720p many tablets run at.

I kinda guessed it was not going to beat out Apple's top GPU. Apple shocked the industry when they put such a large chip in the iPad 2. Apple is ready to go retina display next gen, Android is not....

The Rezound has a higher PPI at a 4.3" S-LCD screen.

ICS is 720P standard.

Your insinuations are invalid.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Android already has, the 720p displays in 4.3in devices have equal PPI than the vaunted Retina display, but an industry standard resolution.

Yeah, sorry I didn't mean phones. I should have been more clear. I meant Retina Display-level tablets. You know, 1080p shoved into a 10 inch form factor.

 

[alent1234]

While the improvement over the previous gpu is impressive, I was expecting it to outperform the ipad 2. I'm disappointed. In a way this doesn't make sense to me either. The graphics on some of the tegra 3 demos I've seem looked subjectively better than most of the stuff I've seen on my ipad2. Perhaps the tegra 3 gpu doesn't lose much performance even when the graphical complexity is ratcheted up beyond what the ipad 2 is capable of?

I've been using nvidia since the late 1990's. tech demos and real world performance are two very different things.

nvidia is the king of hype and vaporware. they release a tech demo which is just a video to keep people from buying a competitor's product and when the real thing comes out it's never as good as the tech demo

I actually remember when nvidia ran PowerVR out of the desktop graphics market by being the performance king. but they are late comers to mobile and have to work around all the patents of the existing players

 

[Bateluer]

Yeah, sorry I didn't mean phones. I should have been more clear. I meant Retina Display-level tablets. You know, 1080p shoved into a 10 inch form factor.

Its going to happen, and probably closer for Android tablets since they already have the right 16x9 aspect ratio.

I've been using nvidia since the late 1990's. tech demos and real world performance are two very different things.

nvidia is the king of hype and vaporware. they release a tech demo which is just a video to keep people from buying a competitor's product and when the real thing comes out it's never as good as the tech demo

I actually remember when nvidia ran PowerVR out of the desktop graphics market by being the performance king. but they are late comers to mobile and have to work around all the patents of the existing players

I remember PowerVR's Kyro products a little differently. They had serious driver issues, prone to instability and graphical corruption. Whether that was the resolve of game's just optimizing for 'standard' rendering instead of TBR, Nvidia's hardware, etc, is debatable. PowerVR pulled out of that market rather than continue to compete with the far more established Nvidia. PowerVR is making serious cash now on their mobile SoC designs though.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Its going to happen, and probably closer for Android tablets since they already have the right 16x9 aspect ratio.

I guess we will see. I still think Apple crosses that boundary first. In fact, I think that is why they put such an overpowered GPU in the iPad 2- so they can keep the same GPU next year with high-res tablets.

 

[Aikouka]

I guess we will see. I still think Apple crosses that boundary first. In fact, I think that is why they put such an overpowered GPU in the iPad 2- so they can keep the same GPU next year with high-res tablets.

Someone did make a good point on here a while back that Apple simply transitioning from the MP2 to the MP4 is a decent possibility. Theoretical doubling of performance for probably significantly less rework than transitioning to an entire new and faster (than the MP2) GPU. I'd imagine that since it's really just twice as many cores, the software (driver) side of things would be easier as well.

 

[Mopetar]

Its going to happen, and probably closer for Android tablets since they already have the right 16x9 aspect ratio.

I'd guess that Apple will do it first simply because they can afford to place orders for tens of millions of panels than just hundreds of thousands. They also reportedly sunk a lot of money into several display manufacturers several months back.

Eventually the technology used to make such panels for the iPad will make its way to Android devices, but other than Apple there aren't many companies that can pour the amount of money into developing large, high-dpi screens, especially if the production runs aren't going to call for large, sustained amounts of product.

 

[alent1234]

Its going to happen, and probably closer for Android tablets since they already have the right 16x9 aspect ratio.



I remember PowerVR's Kyro products a little differently. They had serious driver issues, prone to instability and graphical corruption. Whether that was the resolve of game's just optimizing for 'standard' rendering instead of TBR, Nvidia's hardware, etc, is debatable. PowerVR pulled out of that market rather than continue to compete with the far more established Nvidia. PowerVR is making serious cash now on their mobile SoC designs though.

never said PowerVR was good compared to nvidia in that time but they reinvented themselves. meanwhile nvidia is the king of making a $500 graphics card that needs the hoover dam to power it

 

[badb0y]

I am disappoint.

 

[MrX8503]

Yeah, sorry I didn't mean phones. I should have been more clear. I meant Retina Display-level tablets. You know, 1080p shoved into a 10 inch form factor.

A retina 10" is going to be even better than 1080p. Think ~2560x1440 resolution. Definitely drool worthy.

I also think that apple may be the first to a retina 10" because their track record for powerful GPUs and being able to afford millions of screens.

 

[Mopetar]

I am disappoint.

Why?

The Tegra 3 can playback HD well and is more powerful than any other Android tablet/phone GPU. What more do you need?

I'm not sure how much GPU optimization has been stepped up in the newer releases. Assuming it's still nowhere near the same level as iOS has, what's the point of including a beefier GPU that is only really useful for gaming? While that's important for some people, when the most popular games are things like Fruit Ninja or Angry Birds, having something that can crank out ridiculous graphics isn't terribly necessary for the majority of people buying the phone/tablet.

I feel that way too many people around here have put far too much emphasis on generally meaningless benchmark scores. Disappointment is fine, but at least provide some justification, because as far as I'm concerned there isn't a whole heck of a lot to be legitimately disappointed with.

 

[Mopetar]

A retina 10" is going to be even better than 1080p. Think ~2560x1440 resolution. Definitely drool worthy.

Assuming that they double the dimensions, like they did with the iPhone, the next iPad would have a display with 2048 x 1536 pixels. Assuming that they keep the same 9.7" screen that works out to approximately 264 pixels per inch, which is about the same as an EVO.

Not sure about what distance you would have to hold the device at for it to be considered a "retina display" but it's probably around the distance that most people would probably hold it so they might keep that moniker.

 

[ponyo]

A retina 10" is going to be even better than 1080p. Think ~2560x1440 resolution. Definitely drool worthy.

I also think that apple may be the first to a retina 10" because their track record for powerful GPUs and being able to afford millions of screens.

2560x1440 on a 10" screen? You think Apple will buy the screen from Samsung? I think the ultra high res fans will be disappointed.

 

[badb0y]

Why?

The Tegra 3 can playback HD well and is more powerful than any other Android tablet/phone GPU. What more do you need?

I'm not sure how much GPU optimization has been stepped up in the newer releases. Assuming it's still nowhere near the same level as iOS has, what's the point of including a beefier GPU that is only really useful for gaming? While that's important for some people, when the most popular games are things like Fruit Ninja or Angry Birds, having something that can crank out ridiculous graphics isn't terribly necessary for the majority of people buying the phone/tablet.

I feel that way too many people around here have put far too much emphasis on generally meaningless benchmark scores. Disappointment is fine, but at least provide some justification, because as far as I'm concerned there isn't a whole heck of a lot to be legitimately disappointed with.

I do game on my iPhone and iPad 2 a lot so the GPU matters to me the most. I have sensitive eyes so I can pick up screen tearing/lag quickly and it bothers me a lot. On top of that I can't believe no SoC has come out to beat the Apple's A5 and it's been almost a year now. This quad-core Tegra can't even do it with twice the cores lol, I was considering switching over to the Prime until the iPad 3 came out but now I think I will stick with the iPad 2.

 

[Mopetar]

I do game on my iPhone and iPad 2 a lot so the GPU matters to me the most. I have sensitive eyes so I can pick up screen tearing/lag quickly and it bothers me a lot.

You can still end up with this on any platform if you try to push the visual quality too far. Most games can probably step it back a notch or two without much noticeable effect in terms of overall quality.

On top of that I can't believe no SoC has come out to beat the Apple's A5 and it's been almost a year now.

Once again, there's largely no point to do so. Historically Android didn't use GPU acceleration to the extent that iOS did so there was little to gain outside of better gaming performance. When the majority of games are those that can be run with much less powerful GPUs there's not a lot of incentive of make something bulkier. Nvidia could have added more GPU power, but it would have made their chip more expensive for a use case that probably covers less than 1% of users.

It's generally not profitable for a mass market products to be targeted at small niches. Eventually the tablet market might become large enough that Nvidia starts producing some SoCs with powerful GPUs, but expect to pay 580-levels of markup for something like that.

 

[manly]

2560x1440 on a 10" screen? You think Apple will buy the screen from Samsung? I think the ultra high res fans will be disappointed.

those are the persistent rumors of "iPad 3" dating back to the summer but you may be right it will take longer.

badb0y, any ARM licensee can buy the PowerVR GPUs but they probably cost more than other options. NVIDIA doesn't need to since they have their own IP to retarget to Tegra, even if they're not class-leading.

 

[badb0y]

badb0y, any ARM licensee can buy the PowerVR GPUs but they probably cost more than other options. NVIDIA doesn't need to since they have their own IP to retarget to Tegra, even if they're not class-leading.

I understand that, I would think that Tegra 3 needs the GPU power now more then ever as more phones are moving into the 720p resolution but to each his own I guess.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Assuming that they double the dimensions, like they did with the iPhone, the next iPad would have a display with 2048 x 1536 pixels. Assuming that they keep the same 9.7" screen that works out to approximately 264 pixels per inch, which is about the same as an EVO.

Not sure about what distance you would have to hold the device at for it to be considered a "retina display" but it's probably around the distance that most people would probably hold it so they might keep that moniker.

An EVO does not have a 264 ppi. That's a 3.7" device like the Droid. A 4.3" device is around 220. Look a the SGS2 for instance. Now if you meant Evo 3D then yeah it's a little higher at 256.