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

[bertman]

Same GeekBench score as my 7-year-old 1.7GHz 0.5GB Sony Pentium-M ultraportable..

Very interesting data point! So 2012 iPad =-ish 2005 portable. So in 2015 we'll have 2008 core-2 duo performance in an iPad form factor?

Whaddayathink?

 

[KPOM]

Lack of retina made me bypass the iPad 2.

Now that it finally has it, American LTE and 1 GHz make me want to stick with the iPad 1 another year. It doesn't seem complete.

It is still running DC-HSDPA and HSPA+. Also, a quad-core CPU would do nothing much besides drain the battery even faster. I think the iPad (3rd Generation) is a good point to upgrade. Then in 2 years, when LTE is built out and power consumption and weight are addressed (by more efficient chips), you can upgrade again. I don't think much will change in 2013 in terms of hardware besides adding EU LTE and maybe boosting processing power a small amount.

 

[Sensamic]

So does this mean that the iPhone 5 will also have the A5X or the new quad core A6??

 

[cube]

It is still running DC-HSDPA and HSPA+. Also, a quad-core CPU would do nothing much besides drain the battery even faster. I think the iPad (3rd Generation) is a good point to upgrade. Then in 2 years, when LTE is built out and power consumption and weight are addressed (by more efficient chips), you can upgrade again. I don't think much will change in 2013 in terms of hardware besides adding EU LTE and maybe boosting processing power a small amount.

I didn't ask for quad core, but I'm disappointed the clock rate is not higher than the iPhone.

I don't like it marketed as "4G" when it only has LTE for the US. If it didn't have any LTE at all, but only increased the HSPA speed I wouldn't be complaining.

 

[klover]

It is not double the resolution. It is quadruple.

Correct! It's really hard to believe that one iPad 3 display is now the pixel-equivalent of four,1st/2nd generation iPad screens.

 

[AidenShaw]

No - it's DPI, not DPI²

It is not double the resolution. It is quadruple.

No, it is double, not quadruple

Resolution is in DPI - "Dots Per Inch", not in DPI² - "Dots Per square Inch".

 

[cube]

No, it is double, not quadruple

Resolution is in DPI - "Dots Per Inch", not in DPI² - "Dots Per square Inch".

The absolute resolution is quadruple, monitors are not sold in dpi.

 

[the8thark]

I'm waiting for the iFixit tear up of this iPad (3rd Gen). Then we will know all about it. That's the proof I will believe.

 

[Snowy_River]

It is not double the resolution. It is quadruple.

The absolute resolution is quadruple, monitors are not sold in dpi.

Well, actually it is double. Resolution is typically given in linear DPI or linear pixel counts (i.e. 1024x768), not by total pixel count. The total pixel count is quadruple, but the resolution (both DPI and linear pixel count) is double.

I didn't ask for quad core, but I'm disappointed the clock rate is not higher than the iPhone.

Uh... But it is. The iPad has been at 1GHz since the iPad 2 was released. The iPhone 4S is running at 800MHz.

I don't like it marketed as "4G" when it only has LTE for the US. If it didn't have any LTE at all, but only increased the HSPA speed I wouldn't be complaining.

So a marketing term is making you think you don't want one?

4G is such total marketing jargon that it has essentially no meaning to me. I pretty much ignore such things, and to the extent that I care, I look only at their theoretical connection speeds.

 

[SlugBlanket]

Upgrade fever madness

I have to smile every time that I see a post like "It's only a small increase" or "It can't wipe me (I'm an arsehole) yet so no upgrade here".

To those types of posters, if you have an iPad 2nd gen why the heck would you need to by a new one yet?

If you like the new model and want it then buy it, if you don't like it then don't buy it but why oh why do you need to sound so "holier than thou" when you decry Apple's offering? As far as I can tell it's still the benchmark by which all other tablets are measured and whilst it may not be perfect for everyone, it still seems to be good enough for most.

I don't yet own an iPad but I thought now was as good a time as any to buy one for my daughter and i'm certain that it will meet her needs perfectly.

 

[Apollo 13]

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.

Your are talking about a tablet that was made for web os not android. I have a ics tablet right now and its smooth, but I'm getting an ipad for other reasons.

 

[perealb]

Uhh, yeah they do. Here is an article on it.

Content is displayed the same, but at the same zoom level the images will appear "pixelated" compared to the text unless the site provides @2x marked images for safari. The text will be rendered normally, but to get the same scale on the images they have to be pixel doubled.

They don't have to be updated, but those that want to provide the best iPad experience will be updating.

Nonsense again. That is talking about applications and web sites that target mobile phones. The resolution of websites in general has been influenced by laptops and desktops displays that already have had higher resolutions than the one from the new iPad for a long time.

 

[bawbac]

First off, you can attach files from iBooks and the Photos apps, both of which are free. Second, the cost of apps like GoodReader and iAnnotate are pretty paltry for the deeper functionality they offer.

Finally, to your point that you can't attach a file to a reply. Yes, you are correct. Due to the app centric philosophy of iOS, there is no way yet to access files that another app is sitting on without going to that app first. This philosophy is certainly different than the standard PC OS philosophy (Mac, Windows, Linux), but that doesn't mean that it is inherently bad.

Consider the following two work flows in the two different settings:
First:
Fred sends me an email asking me to send him the XYZ123.pdf file.
On my iPad:
I exit Mail, launch GoodReader, navigate to the file and hit "Email file". I then fill in Fred's email address, type in a subject and a brief message.
On my Mac:
I hit reply, and type a brief message. Then I click on the "attach" button, navigate the file system to the file and select it.

Second:
Fred sends me an email with ABC789.pdf file attached to it, asking me to review and mark any comments or changes.
On my iPad:
I open the attachment in iAnnotate (or GoodReader). I read and markup the file. I hit "email file" and send it off, adding subject and message as needed.
On my Mac:
I open the attachment in Preview. I read and markup the file. I save the file to some appropriate folder. I switch to Mail and create a new email (or reply to Fred's original email), adding subject and message as needed. I click on the "attach" button, navigate the file system to the file and select it.

As you can see, neither process is truly all that arduous, and each has it's pros and cons. In the case of simply attaching a file, especially to a reply, yes, the Mac workflow is a little more efficient. In the case of being asked to markup a file and send it back, on the other hand, the iPad workflow is actually more efficient.

I expect that at some point Apple will create some sort of central file depository that could be used to attach files to emails created in the Mail app, quite possibly with that depository being located in iCloud, as opposed to on the device itself. I'm sure that they're just trying to work out a method that meets with their approval as far as having a really good user experience goes. Until then, there are, as you say, work arounds. And many of those work arounds, in my opinion, are much better than a poorly implemented filesystem would be...

And this process loses the ability to create a single email thread to capture the email conversation.
Now you must search through multiple emails on a single subject or to review a previous response/request.

 

[Edd.Dantes]

Very interesting data point! So 2012 iPad =-ish 2005 portable. So in 2015 we'll have 2008 core-2 duo performance in an iPad form factor?

Whaddayathink?

Wrong comparison.

My 2002 iBook G3@700mhz had a geekbench score of around 800-900, if my memory is correct.

It was running OSX

iOS is OSXlite, so this iPad, and iPad 2, are running at around 2002 G3 speeds [OSX 10.0].

I'm not really sure why people are buying what Apple is selling [Post-PC Era] marketing.

A 1 watt ARM processor is not a desktop or laptop replacement

Mine will be here Friday but I'll never, read it again, never, be able to run Solidworks or other terribly useful [for me] things on a tablet.

It is great for e-mail, web-surfing [not iPad 1], and media [social and entertainment]. That is what I will use it for

 

[Snowy_River]

And this process loses the ability to create a single email thread to capture the email conversation.
Now you must search through multiple emails on a single subject or to review a previous response/request.

It has been my experience that email threading leaves a tremendous amount to be desired, whether you're using an iPad or a desktop/laptop, whether you're running Windows or MacOS, whether you're running a native email client (i.e. Mail on the Mac or Outlook on Windows) or a third party email client (i.e. Thunderbird or Eudora). I can't tell you how often I've seen emails not get properly threaded when they were direct replies, or emails get properly threaded when they were new messages that had the subject line retyped. So, until such bugs as that get sorted out, I don't see that argument as holding that much water.

I will grant that there are shortcomings in the way iOS works. The inability to attach a file directly to an email is one of them (you'd think that Apple could at least allow you to grab files from core apps, like Photos, the same way you can insert photos into Pages documents). But these shortcomings really aren't that big an issue from a productivity standpoint. And when measured against the increase in productivity that the iPad itself grants, these are nothing.

Further, from everything that we've seen so far, iOS is continuing on a path toward improvement. When I first got an iPad, what was my one biggest wish? Printing. I implemented a workaround at the time, but I still wanted proper printing. Six months, or so, later, what did I get? Printing.

As I said, I'm sure that Apple is working to implement a means of allowing file attachments (and website uploads, too), but they have a pretty high standard of user experience. And or that I'm glad. I'd rather have them take the time to develop a really elegant system and deal with workarounds for the moment than to have them implement a kludge that then wouldn't get the attention it really needed because "there's something there that works".

In any event, it seems to me that you're arguing because you want to argue and you want to hate the iPad. Given that, no matter what I say, you'll still see the iPad as bad and the desktop/laptop as the only good. So, as you've shown that you're not interested in having a reasonable discussion, I'm done.

 

[chukronos]

I remember when the iPad 2 came out, and how many people said they wouldn't upgrade unless it had the Retina display. Now it has the Retina display and they won't upgrade till it has a Quad-core.

Whatever.

When the iPad2 came out, I was one of those people. However, when the retina display was announced, I pounced! I wasn't going to pass it up. If everything else stayed the same as the ipad2, I would still be in heaven. I wanted the beautiful retina display. I've got it (in 3 days) and so much more! I couldn't be happier with my purchase!

 

[bawbac]

In any event, it seems to me that you're arguing because you want to argue and you want to hate the iPad. Given that, no matter what I say, you'll still see the iPad as bad and the desktop/laptop as the only good. So, as you've shown that you're not interested in having a reasonable discussion, I'm done.

File attachment & the inability to support flash (not everyone is moving to HTML5 and there's nothing more frustrating than accessing a flash only website with your iPadx) are my 2 pet peeves with the iPad.

We have an iPad and iPad2 in our house hold and countless iterations of iPhones & iPods. We like apple products because their ease of use and quality and for the most part, adequate for our usage.

I just find it mediocre that a $500+ device can not perform the simplest task of attaching a file to an email reply.

Beside my 2 pet peeves, the iPads have served us well.
For casual web browsing, social networking, watching video's and playing games, it's hard to even tell the difference between performance between the iPad and iPad2.

We leave the 2 iPads on the coffee table & we just grab one when we need to use it without even thinking about "did I grab the iPad2 or iPad" because a 1-2 delay on loading a webpage or game is not even noticable once it's loaded.
The weight and form factor between to the two is also negligible.

 

[chukronos]

If I did this right, the comparisons look like this:

                              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%

Not sure if it was posted already, but your numbers are incorrect.

according to glbenchmark.com Egypt Fixed time: iPad2 (64202 ms) iPad3 (47261 ms) 26%
Pro Fixed Time: iPad2 (22892 ms) iPad3 (20857 ms) 9%

Edit: Nevermind. The ipad 2 numbers have now changed to what you originally posted. Not sure what happened. Weird.
Edit 2: I found the difference. The numbers I found were revealed when you check the box next to: GLBenchmark Team Tested only

 

[chukronos]

Windows 8 on the other hand??? I know it wont be out until next fall but I think we can all assume how the market trend is going shift from then on.

If Apple desires customer loyalty it needs to reward us with more future-proof hardware. Don't you think?

Do you really think Windows 8 will make a dent? They are getting to the market late. 55 million iPads were in the wild prior to the new iPad release. I hope MS does well with their release. I would love for there to be some good competition. But, Does MS understand what people want? Is W8 going to be to tablet OS's what the Zune was to mp3 players?

 

[50548]

This thread has derailed a bit, but for me the conclusion is simple:

- those having an iPad 1 (like me) should be able to upgrade in a heartbeat (quadruple the RAM first and foremost, plus retina display);

- those with an iPad 2 will have more difficulty justifying the upgrade, although it clearly is more than just a minor improvement;

- another important tidbit: it is possible that the LTE frequencies used in iPad 3 will NOT be compatible with European and other international 4G standards. Therefore, LTE may only appeal to US customers...people should bear this in mind as well.

 

[mandis]

Do you really think Windows 8 will make a dent?

I don't know. It's too early to tell. I suppose it will depend on hardware specs/capabilities, software availability, os integration with its desktop counterpart etc.

They are getting to the market late. 55 million iPads were in the wild prior to the new iPad release.

That doesn't matter so much when you consider the overall market capacity. Assuming tablets were to become a viable laptop replacement then 55 milion would only amount to a minor share of that overall market.

I hope MS does well with their release. I would love for there to be some good competition.

I agree! Competition is always good!

But, Does MS understand what people want? Is W8 going to be to tablet OS's what the Zune was to mp3 players?

If windows phone 7 is anything to go by then i'd say no. We really just have to wait and see...

 

[MythicFrost]

I just noticed this on the benchmark...

The ASUS has NO L1 or L2 or L3 cache...BAHAHAHA.

All the GHz in the world won't save you from ZERO CPU cache...

Probably ran out of room on the die for the 4-cores.

Right there, iPad 3 > Asus by a mile.

Haha, I'm sure that it's just left out of the test for some reason.

It is a poor assumption. It is possible that the GLBenchmark runs at native resolution. I am sorry if that was kinda confusing. It would seem that the speed increase isn't known because there is no way of turning off vsync.

Ah right, it's possible either way at this point but the off screen tests at 720p (which isn't limited by v-sync) are a pretty good example.

 

[jonnysods]

That thing is smokin. It's got a bit more work to do to push those pixels but it will fly!

 

[smulji]

Do you really think Windows 8 will make a dent? They are getting to the market late. 55 million iPads were in the wild prior to the new iPad release. I hope MS does well with their release. I would love for there to be some good competition. But, Does MS understand what people want? Is W8 going to be to tablet OS's what the Zune was to mp3 players?

"Do you really think Windows 8 will make a dent?"

I absolutely do. Windows 8 is high-quality full-fledged OS. It also has seamless integration with all of MS' cloud services such as Skydrive, Xbox Live, Office 365, etc which are also either improving rapidly or are very good already. It's the only platform out there, in my opinion, that can give iOS a run for its money. Plus, MS has worked hard to really optimize Win8 for mobile devices, making it run lean & mean and as a result fast.

Don't forget the fact that enterprises / businesses arena is still dominated by MS & Win8 will integrate nicely with MS' server products and the fact that Office 15 will run on Win8 tablets, and not a watered down version either like iWork.

"55 million iPads were in the wild prior to the new iPad release."

I give Apple full credit for their success with the iPad and really pushing forward a new category of devices but this alone doesn't guarantee success. There's no doubt they have the hardware down pat, but they really need to get moving on the software side of things because competition, mainly MS, is starting to catch up.

No doubt Apple makes great products (and I've ordered an iPad 3 by the way) but they'e not unbeatable like some Wired article was mentioning a few days ago. MS has gotten their act together in terms of delivering quality software and they're not close to being out. Don't be surprised if the tablet market becomes an Apple vs MS world like the good ol' PC days. Only this time I don't envision MS taking 90% marktshare.

 

[chukronos]

MS has gotten their act together in terms of delivering quality software and they're not close to being out. Don't be surprised if the tablet market becomes an Apple vs MS world like the good ol' PC days. Only this time I don't envision MS taking 90% marktshare.

I hope you are right. Having great products competing with one another drives innovation. I would love a good old fashioned Apple vs MS circa mid '90's.