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Benchmarks on Third-Generation iPad Reveal 1 GHz CPU, 1 GB RAM

brdeveloper said:
For me, future proof is a serviceable and upgradeable case. I love to upgrade ram, hard disk and processor (the last item is not upgradeable in macbooks but I already did it in some pc laptops).
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While I have also done this sort of thing, I have learned over the years that I have spent much more money upgrading than the differential between the selling price of my current equipment and the cost of buying new when Apple releases an upgrade. Just to use your example, it would cost approximately $500 to upgrade the RAM, HDD and CPU of a laptop. For that price, you're already half way to buying a new laptop that has better specs than the upgrades you just installed, and that's before you have sold the old machine.
 
Omg!

omegaphil6 said:
Havent you heard, they just came out with the Android Mantis Transformer X2000 Prime Galaxy Universe Tab Divider 8.9 3.14 Lightning Note Slate running Double Scoop Banana Split with 4D 4G technology
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They finally released the Android Mantis Transformer X2000 Prime Galaxy Universe Tab Divider 8.9 3.14 Lightning Note Slate running Double Scoop Banana Split with 4D 4G technology!? Yes!! Doesn't that have the triple octagon mega processor? This will be awesome! Until of course the Triple Scoop OS is released next week. As soon as my new iPad arrives its going straight into the garbage.
 
nofear1az said:
I think the big missing WOW factor here is, is the iOS. The iOS could use some improvements such as more gestures, better multi-tasking, stocks, calculator, weather, a full screen or sidebar notification center, etc. I and i'm sure others were hoping for some neat iOS features or at least a mention of an iOS upgrade later in the year like they did the last time.

Steve Jobs was always about the WOW factor and quite frankly it seems there's just no WOW in all of this. True, retina is awesome feature nothing wrong with that but you gotta add that extra pizzazz to get folks to WANT to upgrade no matter what....And that was something that Steve Jobs was really good at doing. This is a huge upgrade to iPad 1 owners but mostly incremental to iPad 2 owners. Add in iOS updates to the pie and you just added something more "wanting" added with the hardware. Remember, it's about the hardware and software.
Click to expand...

The software is coming. You will see it in June. And it's not like the iPad isn't selling well. It's sold out.
 
nofear1az said:
I think the big missing WOW factor here is, is the iOS. The iOS could use some improvements such as more gestures, better multi-tasking, stocks, calculator, weather, a full screen or sidebar notification center, etc. I and i'm sure others were hoping for some neat iOS features or at least a mention of an iOS upgrade later in the year like they did the last time.

Steve Jobs was always about the WOW factor and quite frankly it seems there's just no WOW in all of this. True, retina is awesome feature nothing wrong with that but you gotta add that extra pizzazz to get folks to WANT to upgrade no matter what....And that was something that Steve Jobs was really good at doing. This is a huge upgrade to iPad 1 owners but mostly incremental to iPad 2 owners. Add in iOS updates to the pie and you just added something more "wanting" added with the hardware. Remember, it's about the hardware and software.
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In terms of hardware specs and speed, I agree that it is a minimal upgrade from the iPad 2. It's really about the display and about how much the usability increases as a result of the display upgrade. Will it be like the transition from SDTV to 720p, or more like the less noticeable step up to 1080p? I think only time will tell.

Of course, as you say, it will be a much more substantial upgrade for those of us upgrading from the original iPad. If I had an iPad 2, I would be much more circumspect about upgrading at this time.
 
x-evil-x said:
yeaaaa, because apple is making no money...
they know what they are doing. If there isn't competition that is way past what is released they won't release something too much better when they don't have to...
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IF there is no competition then Apple would get shot down by the Government really fast.
 
Does this remind anyone of iPhone 3G?

Same CPU performance as iPad 2... This won't be good 2-3 years from now when iOS 8 comes out.
 
nofear1az said:
I think the big missing WOW factor here is, is the iOS. The iOS could use some improvements such as more gestures, better multi-tasking, stocks, calculator, weather, a full screen or sidebar notification center, etc. I and i'm sure others were hoping for some neat iOS features or at least a mention of an iOS upgrade later in the year like they did the last time.

Steve Jobs was always about the WOW factor and quite frankly it seems there's just no WOW in all of this. True, retina is awesome feature nothing wrong with that but you gotta add that extra pizzazz to get folks to WANT to upgrade no matter what....And that was something that Steve Jobs was really good at doing. This is a huge upgrade to iPad 1 owners but mostly incremental to iPad 2 owners. Add in iOS updates to the pie and you just added something more "wanting" added with the hardware. Remember, it's about the hardware and software.
Click to expand...

Fair enough if that's what you're interested in; but this was a hardware announcement. There's no way Apple can afford to schedule new iOS versions & features to be announced alongside every iOS hardware release. That's like why they moved away from Macworld-based announcements, so they're not tied into a fixed schedule - announce/release a new iOS when it's good and ready, not because of other events.

As for not offering anything to iPad 2 users, you're right, it doesn't. But then not many people can afford to replace their iPad (or iPhone, or iMac) every single iteration. I'd imagine iPad 2 users are the least likely to buy a new iPad now, regardless of its specs & features. It'll be bought more by iPad 1 owners, and new users; and people wanting a second iPad. For all of those groups, the announcement did offer something new and desirable.
 
Macopotamus said:
Oh how awful, Apple is going to fail and go bankrupt for sure. Well the solution here is obvious, we should all sell our iPads and get the Android Mantis Transformer X2000 Prime QuadDivision Deluxe Touch with 4G LTE Carbon Extreme Edition. The name just rolls off the tongue, and really, who needs an iPad when you can get the faster Android Transformer Mantis Optimus Prime X2000 Touch Extreme Edition? It's running Android Bean Cheese Burrito Edition with Green Taco Sauce v6.2, such a good release.
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LOL that's too funny!
 
Incremental upgrade ?

I bought an HP Touchpad. Here are the specs :
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core APQ8060
Processor speed: 1.2GHz
Graphics: Qualcomm Adreno core
Storage: Choose 16GB or 32GB
Memory: 1GB

Please note the specs are similar to the iPad. Except the CPU is faster on the HP. Same amount of memory.

I hacked it with ICS 4.0. It is a terrible tablet. The response sucks. It is slow.

Very slow compared to the iPad.

Specs don't mean squat. I'm going to say there is no tablet on the market that is as fast as the iPad. Period.

The apps on the android market can't even take advantage of the specs on the HP because it doesn't have the beefy graphics needed.

This tablet market is a lot more than specs. I can almost guarantee you the A5X is faster than the A5. I don't care what the ( unreliable ) geek bench score says. I have never relied on that benchmark for anything except for CPU intensive transcoding of a video. That's all that score is good for.

Do people plan on transcoding video on their iPad. If they do , the GPU , which seems to be at least twice as good will do most of the work.

Upgrading from the iPad 2 to the iPad will be a very nice upgrade.
 
whooleytoo said:
Fair enough if that's what you're interested in; but this was a hardware announcement. There's no way Apple can afford to schedule new iOS versions & features to be announced alongside every iOS hardware release. That's like why they moved away from Macworld-based announcements, so they're not tied into a fixed schedule - announce/release a new iOS when it's good and ready, not because of other events.

As for not offering anything to iPad 2 users, you're right, it doesn't. But then not many people can afford to replace their iPad (or iPhone, or iMac) every single iteration. I'd imagine iPad 2 users are the least likely to buy a new iPad now, regardless of its specs & features. It'll be bought more by iPad 1 owners, and new users; and people wanting a second iPad. For all of those groups, the announcement did offer something new and desirable.
Click to expand...

I'm one of those users with an iPad 1 who's upgrading to the the 3rd gen. The upgrade is well worth the buy for me. Sold my iPad 3G 16GB on Amazon for a decent price, so the upgrade isn't that hard of a it, and the old iPad was well used.

As for the wow factor, the screen is the wow factor this time around. Apple seems to have that one wow factor each time it releases an iOS product. This time it's the Retina Display. iOS 6 (or whatever they will call it) will be announced at WWDC so developers have something to get into right in time for the fall launch, so wait for it then.
 
We've entered a period where technological improvements have slowed a bit. I'm still using the dSLRs I bought in 2004 and 2006. My laptop is 3 years old and does everything I need. I expect my iMac to go 4 years or so. I'm not sure why anyone thinks this is a bad thing.

I upgrade my iPhone and iPad every year, handing the old one down to my wife and her old device down to my 5 year old (plus an otterbox 🙂). So..I've got a lot of iOS devices in action at my house, and honestly, there's not THAT much difference even across 3 generations (3GS vs 4S). The new stuff is a bit better all around, but they do mostly the same things.

Any improvement after the initial device is going to be incremental. That's engineering. Some more sensors, a slightly faster processor, some more RAM, etc. Apple is working with pretty obvious constraints (dimensions, weight, power consumption, cost) and no fantastic new technology has emerged and become usable in the last couple years. There's only so much they can do. And there's only so much that they need to do to stay on top.

Part of what makes iOS great is that the hardware remains constant and stable. A developer knows they've got tens of millions of almost identical devices to sell to, so they're happy to invest tons of time writing great code that's highly optimized for (at most) 8 devices but really only about 4 all running an identical OS. Your iPad is just a screen and a couple buttons. It's a box with lots of sensors and radios and it doesn't *do* anything. It's a dumb brick without apps and those apps continue to to improve at an astronomical rate.

Compare that to Android. Sure, there are some Android phones/tablets that have faster hardware and more memory. Why? BECAUSE THEY NEED IT. They need to compete on specs, and since the OS isn't as tightly constructed a lot of the RAM and CPU cycles are used just to generate heat. The result is rotten battery life, inconsistent software and general linux-like levels of ******** across the board (this is being typed on an Ubuntu box, for the record).

Apple knows what it's doing.
 
What is the iPad's speed "vs." a desktop computer?

I know, I know, they are different animals. Old PeeCees may not have even been able to run a display with this resolution, and even with a faster processor, not had this smooth of graphics, but...

What would you say was the equivalent desktop computer configuration to the iPad? (2 or "new")

This should be fun (I hope!)
 
bawbac said:
It's simple. Look at the Change column. There isn't much between the iPad2 & new iPad. 😀
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Funny, when i went to the same site, I found that the difference between benchmarks of the second and third generation iPads was anywhere from 4% to 38%, depending on the benchmark. OTOH, the difference between the original and third generation iPads was quite striking, with improvements ranging from 90% to 1600% (not a typo BTW).
 
Dillenger said:
I like all of the improvements of the new iPad, I just wish they would have gone to a 128 gig of memory. I would have paid the additional $.
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I agree with you. But instead of paying a 100 bucks more for a possible 128GB iPad (which didn't come this year), I've chosen to invest part of this money in iTunes Match which saves 12 GB on my iPad.
 
shurcooL said:
Does this remind anyone of iPhone 3G?

Same CPU performance as iPad 2... This won't be good 2-3 years from now when iOS 8 comes out.
Click to expand...

Not at all. The RAM doubled (iPhone 3G still got 128MB), the Resolution doubled, camera is much better, it has the newest bluetooth and the graphics performance is leading the competition. You can be sure, that the new iPad will be a very good device for more than the next 2-3 years.

By the way: here in Germany the LTE-function of the iPad is useless because our carrier are using different frequencies which are not supported by the iPad (and never will be until the next new iPad comes out).
 
bertman said:
I know, I know, they are different animals. Old PeeCees may not have even been able to run a display with this resolution, and even with a faster processor, not had this smooth of graphics, but...

What would you say was the equivalent desktop computer configuration to the iPad? (2 or "new")

This should be fun (I hope!)
Click to expand...

It would have to be a computer than can run a AMD 5780 at least.
 
A higher resolution screen is going to slow down the graphics, especially on this type of low power cpu.
 
Peace said:
Incremental upgrade ?

I bought an HP Touchpad. Here are the specs :
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core APQ8060
Processor speed: 1.2GHz
Graphics: Qualcomm Adreno core
Storage: Choose 16GB or 32GB
Memory: 1GB

Please note the specs are similar to the iPad. Except the CPU is faster on the HP. Same amount of memory.

I hacked it with ICS 4.0. It is a terrible tablet. The response sucks. It is slow.

Very slow compared to the iPad.

Specs don't mean squat. I'm going to say there is no tablet on the market that is as fast as the iPad. Period.

The apps on the android market can't even take advantage of the specs on the HP because it doesn't have the beefy graphics needed.

This tablet market is a lot more than specs. I can almost guarantee you the A5X is faster than the A5. I don't care what the ( unreliable ) geek bench score says. I have never relied on that benchmark for anything except for CPU intensive transcoding of a video. That's all that score is good for.

Do people plan on transcoding video on their iPad. If they do , the GPU , which seems to be at least twice as good will do most of the work.

Upgrading from the iPad 2 to the iPad will be a very nice upgrade.
Click to expand...

And I'm sure this was also without a custom "skin" on top that would make it even worse. 😎
 
Same GeekBench score as my 7-year-old 1.7GHz 0.5GB Sony Pentium-M ultraportable with a dead fan. Heck, take away the keyboard, CD drive, ports, and hinge, add wireless & a flat battery, and (screen of awesomeness aside) it's pretty much the same thing.

(Don't get me wrong, I adore my iPad - just a bit of a shock to find the benchmark numbers as similar as they are.)
 
Dan-- said:
If I did this right, the comparisons look like this:
Code: 
                              iPad 2   iPad 3  Change
Egypt Fixed Time       ms      47551   47261    -1%
Egypt High             Fps     59.3    59.9      1%
Egypt Offscreen 720p   Fps     90.1    140.9    56%
Egypt Standard         Fps     59.6    59.9      1%
Pro Fixed Time         ms      20868   20857     0%
Pro High               Fps     59.3    60        1%
Pro Offscreen 720p     Fps     151     252.1    67%
Pro Standard           Fps     60      60        0%
Click to expand...

Just remember that most of these tests are intentionally limited to 60 frames per second, which is why there is no difference at all. The two tests that are not artificially limited show the iPad 3 56% and 67% faster.


shurcooL said:
There is a change. The resolution is 4x as many pixels. Yet it's able to maintain the same FPS. Isn't that incredible?
Click to expand...

These benchmarks draw to the screen, and that is artificially limited to 60 fps. No matter how fast the graphics is, it will never draw to the screen at more than 60 fps. So we do _not_ know which one is faster.
 
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