Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Status
Not open for further replies.

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,194
30,135



Clkoerner (via OSXDaily) put together this graphic showing the relative number of pixels offered by various devices, including the rumored iPad 3. Also for reference, he includes a 1920x1080 Full HD screen to show that the new iPad's screen may dwarf them all.




Click for full size​
That is, assuming that the iPad 3 does come with the long rumored "Retina Display". The most recent evidence suggesting that it is the case was a New York Times report last week in which an anonymous Apple employee said the new iPad would have a "truly amazing screen". Other evidence has leaked out over the past year with Apple including double-resolution iPad artwork in their applications, and numerous supply chain reports.

The graphic shows all screen resolutions relative to each other assuming that they all had the same DPI (dots per inch). The iPad 3 screen is actually believed to be the same physical size as the iPad 2, but carry twice the density of pixels. This should result in a much sharper images on the iPad 3 as compared to the previous models. 3rd party applications will have to be updated to support the higher resolution display and Apple is reportedly lining up demos for the March launch.

Article Link: An iPad 3 'Retina Display' Comparison Graphic
 

DESNOS

macrumors 6502
Aug 24, 2011
374
1
YouTube 4k will actually have a use. 1080p wont be enough to use all the pixels.
 

the8thark

macrumors 601
Apr 18, 2011
4,628
1,735
That is, assuming that the iPad 3 does come with the long rumored "Retina Display".

For once MacRumors did not say "X unreleased Apple product will have X feature". MacRumors just said "assuming it has".

Well done. Hope this is not a one off. And all the future articles can be like this. I don't have any high hopes of this happening though. But hey we all could be pleasantly surprised with some better worded articles in the future. That'd be nice.
 

boss.king

macrumors 603
Apr 8, 2009
6,130
6,796
Pretty impressive, but I feel it's kinda wasted on the iPad. Rather offer it on a laptop display where it will actually be of use to people.
 

neiltc13

macrumors 68040
May 27, 2006
3,125
19
Do people honestly think this is going to happen :confused:

If it did ship with a 2048x1546 display, then it would be capable of rendering images at a higher resolution than all video game consoles currently on the market.

However, game developers already struggle to produce games that run at 1920x1080 due to the power of the consoles - are people seriously saying that they think iPad 3 will have a better CPU and GPU than PlayStation 3 / Xbox 360?

Games aside, what content is there to take advantage of that display?
 

iLilana

macrumors 6502a
May 5, 2003
807
300
Alberta, Canada
thats an awful lot of screen

.. for the processor to cope with. running games and movies like that is going to suck for battery life.
 

Rizzm

macrumors 6502a
Feb 5, 2012
618
41
Seems impractical for any kind of graphics streaming app to run at this kind of resolution.

I could only see app icons and text based apps being more crisp.
 

KingJosh

macrumors 6502
Jan 11, 2012
431
0
Australia
Pretty impressive, but I feel it's kinda wasted on the iPad. Rather offer it on a laptop display where it will actually be of use to people.

I bet there will be a 2k HD option display on the next line of macbook pros and probably imacs. Just another incentive to go mac and only mac will have these displays for a short time until everyone else copies (of course) when they realise macs are leaving them even further behind
 

colmaclean

macrumors 68000
Jan 6, 2004
1,702
348
Berlin
Games aside, what content is there to take advantage of that display?

I can see this being most useful where pixelation of small text is an issue on the existing iPad. i.e. maps, books, magazines, pdfs etc. Also remote connections to a Mac will look amazing.
 

moose.boy

macrumors member
Dec 23, 2003
30
0
UK
All you sad, number obsessed, tech fanboys please feel free to vote down my post as I know you will; it won't help you to lose your virginity

Actually, being quite experienced in sex, i can certainly say it's about quality not quantity - which is exactly what this new screen is about.

If you use an iPhone 4/4s with the retina display and then go back to your iPad - then the display does seem pixelated and blocky. They could have chosen HD resolution - but then you are left with the issue of upscaling graphics - but if you double the resolution then you have a really simple method of achieving this, via a method most developers will be familiar with.

I guess Apple's desire to go with this extended resolution relates to the perceived quality of the display. It isn't necessarily intended for games, but for all uses of the iPad. Remember that small thing called Newsstand in the iOS 5 update - this would turn the iPad from an acceptable magazine substitution, into a really impressive one - same for all documents really.

Lastly - we're not the ones who are obsessed by virginity (don't worry, it will be the best 5 seconds of your life when it happens)
 

VPrime

macrumors 68000
Dec 19, 2008
1,722
86
London Ontario
Do people honestly think this is going to happen :confused:

If it did ship with a 2048x1546 display, then it would be capable of rendering images at a higher resolution than all video game consoles currently on the market.

However, game developers already struggle to produce games that run at 1920x1080 due to the power of the consoles - are people seriously saying that they think iPad 3 will have a better CPU and GPU than PlayStation 3 / Xbox 360?

Games aside, what content is there to take advantage of that display?

Difference is that consoles support many different shaders, and much higher poly counts.

A 3d iPhone game will generally have a main character model at 1000 polygons..
Comparable to at least 10,000 for consoles. (I remember reading somewhere that the models for uncharted 3 were in the 30,000 polygon range).
console games also have tones of shader effects like shadows, advanced lighting,ndifferent simulated material surfaces all happening at once. Where with a high end iOS device (iPhone 4, iPad 2) you will generally have none of these.. Or a very limited( graphically) set of shaders.


So it is very possible for a mobile Patform to push current graphics at that resolution... It just limits what we are capable of down the road.. but really apple will have a more powerful version next year to "fix" that ;).
 

boss.king

macrumors 603
Apr 8, 2009
6,130
6,796
I bet there will be a 2k HD option display on the next line of macbook pros and probably imacs. Just another incentive to go mac and only mac will have these displays for a short time until everyone else copies (of course) when they realise macs are leaving them even further behind

Ummm what? You know there have been monitors with resolutions greater than this out for a while now right?
 

jmpnop

macrumors 6502a
Aug 8, 2010
821
34
Do people honestly think this is going to happen :confused:

If it did ship with a 2048x1546 display, then it would be capable of rendering images at a higher resolution than all video game consoles currently on the market.

However, game developers already struggle to produce games that run at 1920x1080 due to the power of the consoles - are people seriously saying that they think iPad 3 will have a better CPU and GPU than PlayStation 3 / Xbox 360?

Games aside, what content is there to take advantage of that display?

The current iPad's screen resolution is quite low, text kinda looks pixelated. Higher resolution will make even the tiniest text look crisp (compare iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4). I do think 2048x1536 is a bit overkill but doubling the resolution in every dimension makes it easier for developers to upgrade..
 

Porco

macrumors 68040
Mar 28, 2005
3,314
6,908
Crisper text, graphics apps, less demanding games will be able to look stunning. Anything that needs more oomph can use 2x pixel doubling and it'll still look great.

The PS3, for example, has most games in 720p. Those in 1080p look brilliant, but it's obviously more demanding on the hardware.

Something else that strikes me looking at the comparison graphic is it looks just about right to serve as a TV controller with a live stream and some soft buttons underneath... Hmm...

All that said... to still be selling low bit-rate 720p movies on iTunes will look even sillier when this thing is released. I have to admit it'll be a bit amusing reading many of the same people that told Blu-ray fans like me that there's no real difference between watching things in 720p and 1080p on a small screen fawn over the new display.

But anyway... higher resolution is great, as long as the hardware can handle it, which I'm sure it will.

Now what I'd really love is to make it PS3 and/or Xbox controller compatible and get major games companies on board with it. That would be interesting.

Does anyone else hate the marketing term 'Full HD' ?

Yes, but it's not as bad as Apple calling their low bit-rate 720p iTunes vids 'HD'. And neither are as bad as 'HD Ready'. My living room was 'HD Ready' in about 1950. It had a plug socket!

But I agree. For me, 720p / 1080i/1080p are more useful terms. What are they going to call 2k or 4k? Super Full HD? Super Full HD Turbo Championship Edition With A Cherry On Top? Maths Is Too Difficult For The Likes Of You HD?
 

Expee

macrumors newbie
Jan 24, 2012
11
0
Do people honestly think this is going to happen :confused:

If it did ship with a 2048x1546 display, then it would be capable of rendering images at a higher resolution than all video game consoles currently on the market.

However, game developers already struggle to produce games that run at 1920x1080 due to the power of the consoles - are people seriously saying that they think iPad 3 will have a better CPU and GPU than PlayStation 3 / Xbox 360?

Games aside, what content is there to take advantage of that display?

Plain textreading ist what makes the higher resolution worth getting for me.
Having used my iPad 2 extensively for the last couple of weeks for studying for my written exams...
I must say I got sick of the crude resolution of the display
 

APlotdevice

macrumors 68040
Sep 3, 2011
3,145
3,861
Difference is that consoles support many different shaders, and much higher poly counts.

A 3d iPhone game will generally have a main character model at 1000 polygons..
Comparable to at least 10,000 for consoles. (I remember reading somewhere that the models for uncharted 3 were in the 30,000 polygon range).
console games also have tones of shader effects like shadows, advanced lighting,ndifferent simulated material surfaces all happening at once. Where with a high end iOS device (iPhone 4, iPad 2) you will generally have none of these.. Or a very limited( graphically) set of shaders.


So it is very possible for a mobile Patform to push current graphics at that resolution... It just limits what we are capable of down the road.. but really apple will have a more powerful version next year to "fix" that ;).

I'd just like to add that the PS3 and 360 could easily pump out 1080p. The developers choose to sacrifice resolution so they can devote more power towards those other graphical aspects.
 

afd

macrumors 65816
Apr 12, 2005
1,134
389
Scotland
Looks like I'll need to buy a new pair of glasses...

Does seem a bit of overkill and a lot of pixels to move around.
 

The Tech Fish

macrumors member
Jan 31, 2012
33
0
United Kingdom
Pretty impressive, but I feel it's kinda wasted on the iPad. Rather offer it on a laptop display where it will actually be of use to people.

I wouldn't say that it's wasted on an iPad. I mean if you look at the difference between the iPhone 3Gs screen and the iPhone 4 screen, you can see that it's not wasted.

I'm pretty sure that super high resolution or (retina displays) will make their way onto the laptops pretty soon. However producing a panel of this quality is no easy thing to do, and it's much easier at smaller sizes. Don't forget that it's also a LOT more pixels for the graphics card to handle.

Personally i would like to see this DPI on all the apple products, imagine it on a 27" iMac!

I'm sure it will come, just not quite yet.

I mean what is the point of doing this? I don't hold my iPad up to my eyeball and very much doubt it will make a blind bit of difference to my enjoyment. Constant improvement is to be lauded of course but it seems like Apple are just desperate for a new gimmick. I hope the new iPad has more than a higher resolution screen and a speed bump.

Firstly read above.

To say 'what is the point of doing this' is to me an ignorant remark. Where would we be now if that was the attitude people had towards the valve -> transistor migration. Your home computer would be bigger than your house and would still be running at 100Hz.

I agree that this is nothing life changing, but it is a very nice feature to have. At the end of the day, it WILL give a better user experience, with clearer text, and images etc. Therefor there is a point.

Joe
 

Eric5h5

macrumors 68020
Dec 9, 2004
2,487
582
If it did ship with a 2048x1546 display, then it would be capable of rendering images at a higher resolution than all video game consoles currently on the market.

And? So? Do you have any idea how old the current consoles are? Hint: in tech years, about 789 years old. They are ancient.

However, game developers already struggle to produce games that run at 1920x1080 due to the power of the consoles - are people seriously saying that they think iPad 3 will have a better CPU and GPU than PlayStation 3 / Xbox 360?

See above.

Games aside, what content is there to take advantage of that display?

Games actually are the least likely to take advantage of it. You can run them at 1024x768 if the GPU isn't fast enough to run full res at a good enough speed, and they will still look good, generally speaking. Things like, I dunno, text, maybe, might make use of the full resolution....

We've already been though this whole thing with the iPhone's resolution going from 480x320 to 960x640, so it's not a matter of speculation. It makes a huge difference, and you're not viewing the iPad from across the room. It will make at least as much of a difference on the iPad, or else you really do need to get your eyes checked.

--Eric
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.