Don't believe 9x graphics speed.

[Piggie]

I've swear this is a bit of a con trick and it not what, on the face of it, it sounds like.
You say to the general public 9x graphics performance and they will think WOW that means all the games can move a 9x the speed.

We know what this REALLY means is that on some benchmark perhaps firing some test pixels on screen or drawing some lines on screen it can do so at 9x the original speed.

This will not, without question, mean, in general the overall speed up in all graphics in 9x as fast.

Of course any speed up is great and I welcome anything. But I think there is a bit of snake oil in this particular number.

 

[Kadin]

Is it faster than the current version? Yes. Beyond that, I couldn't care less to split hairs. Looks good to me.

 

[Mikee.Nu]

Does it really matter? 7x faster? 8x, 9x? Who cares. Shouldn't 2x faster be enough?

 

[neiltc13]

Is it faster than the current version? Yes. Beyond that, I could care less to split hairs. Looks good to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCUsPnKD1gk

 

[iBookG4user]

I've swear this is a bit of a con trick and it not what, on the face of it, it sounds like.
You say to the general public 9x graphics performance and they will think WOW that means all the games can move a 9x the speed.

We know what this REALLY means is that on some benchmark perhaps firing some test pixels on screen or drawing some lines on screen it can do so at 9x the original speed.

This will not, without question, mean, in general the overall speed up in all graphics in 9x as fast.

Of course any speed up is great and I welcome anything. But I think there is a bit of snake oil in this particular number.

That's usually what they do when they say it's 2x faster, 4x faster, etc. If you look at when the new Macs are released the 1.4x faster is comparing a benchmark of the old computer to the new one. There's nothing sneaky going on here, it's the same old same old.

 

[Davichi]

Yes, I new it would be like this. So, I could care less about this silent upgrade.

Oops, sorry my grammar...

Spelling is hard.

 

[Piggie]

Well, I guess we will see games that will crawl on the iPad1 very soon if this is in anyway true.

Be interested to hear from developers how much faster their graphics routines actually work in reality.

 

[arctic]

The first iPad is fast enough. I'm sure majority of the users won't be able to distinguish the speed difference. Bigger RAM on the other hand will reflect on less crashing because regular joes have a hundred apps in the background they have no idea how to shut thus causing every single app they try to crash . They don't even know how to do a restart. Then we'll see tons of app reviews about crashing or posts in the net: "my iPad is getting slower everyday".

For Graphics improvement, this will only matter to App Devs (esp hard core Games) so they can have more breathing room to do more graphics intensive game developing thus ensuing better looking and nicer eye candy. By the time we reach the faster iPad 4 or 5, tons of regular joes will complain why some games can't run on their iPads 1 and 2.

 

[bob5820]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCUsPnKD1gk

classic

 

[Sydde]

If the hype is 9x faster and the real world difference is 4x, will you be able to tell that it is not living up to what you expect? How about if part of that performance is being drawn into the CPU's process stream (e.g., GPGPU) to make everything faster and smoother?

 

[MRU]

Even if its only 3x better over all that coupled with the HDMI output of all apps means the iPad 2 is going to be a great gaming device and may give Sony & Microsoft a little competition this year.

 

[Piggie]

If the hype is 9x faster and the real world difference is 4x, will you be able to tell that it is not living up to what you expect? How about if part of that performance is being drawn into the CPU's process stream (e.g., GPGPU) to make everything faster and smoother?

To be honest, I'd be happy and surprised is this 9x figure is only 2x in reality.

Seeing an iPad2 game run at twice the speed as the same game running on the iPad1 would be reason enough to upgrade.

 

[Pressure]

Incidentally the ImgTec SGX543MP2 offers exactly 9 times the GFlops/sec compared to the SGX535 found in the Apple A4 at the same clocks.

Why is that so hard to believe?

 

[iPad 2nd Gen]

Its "couldn't care less" sorry to be the grammar police but that's one of my pet peeves.

I completely agree. Except it's not a matter of grammar. It's a matter of lack of intelligence of the person saying it. It's obvious they're just repeating what they think they've heard, regardless of whether or not they know what the **** they're saying.

Sorry it should be "show that you."

No, he's right. Adding a "that" is just wordy and for people who need to be wordy to get their point across because they don't know how to be concise with language.

 

[Piggie]

Incidentally the ImgTec SGX543MP2 offers exactly 9 times the GFlops/sec compared to the SGX535 found in the Apple A4 at the same clocks.

Why is that so hard to believe?

Saying "Nine times faster" makes people think you mean it will be nine times faster.

If I make a car that goes 100mph and I tell you my new car I just developed is nine times faster, then you would reasonably assume that means it goes at 900mph as that's what I've just told you.

It's an "off the cuff" remark and not really Apple's way as it won't relate to real world. A lot a chip people have done this before, you make something that has a million different tasks, drawing polygons, filling polygons, plotting points, etc etc etc. and in some of these functions the new chip may be able to, lets say, put 9 times the amount of single pixels on the screen as a individual function.

The implication though is not that, it's that you are saying in a bold statement it, as a whole is 9x the speed.

Meaning say a game could animate a 3D scene at 9 times the speed than the current model, but that's not true, although that's what the statement implies.

I don't care. 2x or 3x REAL WORLD performance would be a breakthrough.

If a new game comes out for iPad2 and runs at 30 frames a second, but on the iPad1 is only can run at 10 frames a second THEN I will be impressed.

This type of thing is the real test behind speed claims.

Not some obscure 1off function a chip can do.

 

[BaldiMac]

Don't believe it. Even though it's true. But it's only true in certain circumstances. They should have put "up to" 9x. Oh, wait. They did.

http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/

 

[Pressure]

Saying "Nine times faster" makes people think you mean it will be nine times faster.

If I make a car that goes 100mph and I tell you my new car I just developed is nine times faster, then you would reasonably assume that means it goes at 900mph as that's what I've just told you.

It's an "off the cuff" remark and not really Apple's way as it won't relate to real world. A lot a chip people have done this before, you make something that has a million different tasks, drawing polygons, filling polygons, plotting points, etc etc etc. and in some of these functions the new chip may be able to, lets say, put 9 times the amount of single pixels on the screen as a individual function.

The implication though is not that, it's that you are saying in a bold statement it, as a whole is 9x the speed.

Meaning say a game could animate a 3D scene at 9 times the speed than the current model, but that's not true, although that's what the statement implies.

I don't care. 2x or 3x REAL WORLD performance would be a breakthrough.

If a new game comes out for iPad2 and runs at 30 frames a second, but on the iPad1 is only can run at 10 frames a second THEN I will be impressed.

This type of thing is the real test behind speed claims.

Not some obscure 1off function a chip can do.

Graphic performance is measured as GFlops/sec so I see nothing wrong with the statement they made.

You will see amazing real world speed-ups across all games and even the limited hands-on time several sites have shown, it appears to hold water.

To give you a frame of reference the PSP 2 is using the SGX543MP4 and has 18 times the GFlops/sec compared to the original iPad.

However, it doesn't mean games will run 9 times faster.

 

[maflynn]

Does it really matter? 7x faster? 8x, 9x? Who cares. Shouldn't 2x faster be enough?

Agreed. I usually don't believe apple's battery statements and this 9x GPU speed falls under this category. With that said, it is faster, who cares if its only 7x or 8x. Its much faster and that's a good thing for those who are wanting the iPad 2.

 

[Piggie]

As I say, what will sell this to me is if I see things, and I guess I'm meaning games, that run lovely on the iPad2 that cannot run on the iPad1 as it's too slow.

Once we start to get games that can't run very well on iPad1 then that's all the convincing I will need.

I wonder how the app store will handle this?

Say, I'm a dev and I make a game that only runs well on the iPad2.
Anyone know how the system deals with this scenario we will face soon?

 

[goMac]

I wonder how the app store will handle this?

Say, I'm a dev and I make a game that only runs well on the iPad2.
Anyone know how the system deals with this scenario we will face soon?

The App Store would only let you buy the game on the iPad 2.

 

[dejo]

Say, I'm a dev and I make a game that only runs well on the iPad2.
Anyone know how the system deals with this scenario we will face soon?

The developer is responsible for denoting which devices the app can run on.

 

[marksman]

OP is lying, Apple is telling the truth.

 

[Piggie]

OP is lying, Apple is telling the truth.

I very much look forward to seeing the games, any games that prove me wrong.

I would oh so love to see a game with graphics running at 9x the speed they do currently. I would be so so happy to see that.

I'm sure we all would. So it's now up to the devs, using the new iPad, to make this a reality for us.

 

[fertilized-egg]

They should have put "up to" 9x. Oh, wait. They did.

http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/

Yeah I don't see what's the OP's problem. Apple clearly stated it's 9 times faster only in specific instances by including the words "up to."

The rumor always has been that the A5 beats even Samsung's latest chip and Apple has quite possibly the fastest mobile graphics chip being sold in large volume right now just as they did with the 3GS.

Funny thing about all this people crying about specs is, even when Apple DOES have the best spec on something, they are never happy. I mean, they have what is simply fastest chip on the market right now. Isn't that a good thing for spec lovers? Why aren't you happier?

Say, I'm a dev and I make a game that only runs well on the iPad2.
Anyone know how the system deals with this scenario we will face soon?

The devs can change the frame rate and use lower quality texture depending on the device. They have been doing that since the release of the 2nd iPod Touch.