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And according to Epic, shading languages will be obsolete sooner than people think due to CPU rendering. So maybe Apple not having great OGL drivers isn't gonna matter for too long.

OpenGL Shading isn't disappearing. That claim states that more of the GPU is being absorbed into a hybrid CPU/GPU. The Shading code will still have to be written. You're not getting away from vectors, eigenvalues, eigenvectors, tensors, etc.
 
Let's be honest here, Apple totally screwed up, and lost out big time on the desktop games market. This games market pushed PC hardware forwards at an amazing rate and sold PC's at an amazing rate.

You strongly overestimating the number of PC gamers. Sure, they are a very vocal minority, but a minority nonetheless.

It's business that makes the PC dominant. (Though Apple is a niche player there, too.)

And look at the most popular games in the App Store. Very few of them are GPU bound. Apple isn't going after "gamers" there, either. They're pushing games on regular users. That's why they're successful. (Go ask Sony, how their PSP is doing? They went for hardcore gamers and got their asses handed to them. First by Nintendo, and now by Apple.
 
Not yet, developers are just wating for these devise to come, and some of them are already on it.

That remains to be seen. I think that developers may be scared of developing for the android market because the revenue stream is less assured (both through proven sales and piracy concerns) and they have a to test on a larger number of devices.
 
OpenGL Shading isn't disappearing. That claim states that more of the GPU is being absorbed into a hybrid CPU/GPU. The Shading code will still have to be written. You're not getting away from vectors, eigenvalues, eigenvectors, tensors, etc.

Not in intermediary languages like OGL though. Raytracing is going to be fast enough on its own.
 
Let's be honest here, Apple totally screwed up, and lost out big time on the desktop games market. This games market pushed PC hardware forwards at an amazing rate and sold PC's at an amazing rate.

......
.....

If they get lazy and hold things back that they could do now, for next year and get into that as a habit, you will without question find firms, probably running Honeycomb and future Android versions that will offer customers the best that's out there.

Apple have to opportunity to be and stay the leaders here. Brushing aside Android, Sony and Nintendo for the ultimate platform of choice.

There is only 1 company that can damage Apple's chances of dominating this market, and that's Apple themselves.

Good points here.. As an Apple shareholder, I hope they play it right time, since one aspect of mobile devices is fun and entertainment. The threat is, on the Android side, there will be 10 manufacturers with different release cycles hopping on the latest hardware, giving Apple a good challenge.
Of course, latest hardware specs are not the only thing that attracts people to devices, so Apple does not have to necessarily go toe-toe with every Tom, Dick and HTC to keep up the momentum. Interesting times ahead!!
 
Not that bad, but a Tegra 2 is much better when it comes to the number of polygons per second.

Oh.....

I was hoping as Tegra2 has been out a while and I think they have pretty much finished Tegra3 that the next Apple offering would at least match the current Tegra2 speed.

I know it's not all about numbers, but will be a shame if the Android Tablets all have more graphics power than the iPad2

Even if the iPad2 does get this new chip.
 
You strongly overestimating the number of PC gamers. Sure, they are a very vocal minority, but a minority nonetheless.

It's business that makes the PC dominant. (Though Apple is a niche player there, too.)

And look at the most popular games in the App Store. Very few of them are GPU bound. Apple isn't going after "gamers" there, either. They're pushing games on regular users. That's why they're successful. (Go ask Sony, how their PSP is doing? They went for hardcore gamers and got their asses handed to them. First by Nintendo, and now by Apple.

They have have make the PC dominant in numbers but it's games that pushed the hardware to the level it is today.
 
My bets are that the iPad 3 has these type of chips, thus being able to support a higher res screen.

No, it can't have.

Tegra2 is out now (it was out last year in even cheap tablets)

If Tegra2 is faster than the chip/s we are talking about here, you can't have an iPad3 in April 2012 being slower graphically than a late 2010/early 2011 Android tablet.

It would look really bad to lag that far behind. I know as I said it's only numbers, but if you have games side by side running smoother with more things on screen on Android tablets it's not going to look good.

We need this chip in iPad2 and a much faster one in iPad3 to keep it on a level playing field.
 
Oh.....

I was hoping as Tegra2 has been out a while and I think they have pretty much finished Tegra3 that the next Apple offering would at least match the current Tegra2 speed.

I know it's not all about numbers, but will be a shame if the Android Tablets all have more graphics power than the iPad2

Even if the iPad2 does get this new chip.

Apple has invested in Imagination Technologies who is markedly behind Nvidia in graphics prowess. Unfortunately, I don't see them catching up any time soon, nor switching to Nvidia when they have that vested interest in ImgTec.

Fortunately, it's what you do with it that counts, and apple has a very strong developer community, and I'm sure their customs SoCs are going to beat Tegra2 devices in battery life, hands down.
 
It's also interesting to look at the SGX 545, which offers more polygon performance (40M versus 35M) but the same fillrate.

So, it sounds like the 543 is the second fastest GPU ImgTec offers right now. We'll have to wait for the 6 series to see anything faster. Perhaps the 545 is too power hungry or over-featured (DirectX 10.1).

As far as I can tell, no other SoC on the market supports the 543. TI's OMAP platform has the SGX 540, but I am having a difficult time getting performance numbers.

BTW, all of this evidence is pointing more towards a new SoC for at least one of the iPad 2 and iPhone 5. (iOS shows full new device numbers for next iPad and iPhone, as opposed to when the 3G only was a 1,2 instead of 2,1). They are not resting on their laurels with the A4.
I'm kind of surprised by the choice of the SGX543XT as well. It admittedly hasn't reached market in devices yet, but no longer has the limelight against the SGX544XT and SGX545. The SGX554XT has also been announced and of course the 6 series which is still further out.

Given Apple's previous choice of the SGX535, I too thought that the SGX545 is the next logical choice. These were both designed to fully target desktop graphics standards compared to their cohorts, DX9.0c and OpenGL 2.x in the case of the SGX535 and DX10.1 and OpenGL 3.x in the case of the SGX545 while the PowerVR SGX520, SGX530, SGX540, and SGX543XT were focused on OpenGL ES 2.0 which is a subset of OpenGL. Going with the SGX545 would have allowed Apple more flexibility in functionality since the additional desktop capabilities can be exposed through extensions in OpenGL ES. The SGX545 also supports the full desktop OpenCL profile whereas the SGX54XT3 only supports the embedded profile, which is again a subset of the desktop spec.

At the very least I thought Apple would use the SGX544XT, which adds DX9.0 Level 3 and OpenGL 2.1 support to the SGX543XT. It was also designed for OpenCL 1.1 embedded profile in mind whereas I believe the SGX543XT predates OpenCL 1.1.

Personally, I'll be interested see how big the A5 is. The A4 already uses the 45nm process. Samsung's 32nm process was reported as not being ready until closer to the end of 2011. It's hard to see how Apple could fit a dual core A9 CPU with a SGX543 or greater on the same 45nm process without sacrificing battery life. Perhaps they really are going to stick with a single core, but even that should still result is a noticeably bigger die than the A4.
 
Apple has invested in Imagination Technologies who is markedly behind Nvidia in graphics prowess. Unfortunately, I don't see them catching up any time soon, nor switching to Nvidia when they have that vested interest in ImgTec.

Fortunately, it's what you do with it that counts, and apple has a very strong developer community, and I'm sure their customs SoCs are going to beat Tegra2 devices in battery life, hands down.


In the end, this is a huge part of it. It's the whole package, the entire execution, and that's where I expect Apple will continue to lead, at least for a while, until they don't :).
 
ipad 2 will not have higher resolution display!!! not this generation, maybe ipad 4 will have a higher res

What makes you believe so? Not retina, but i am quite sure it will have a higher resolution than the actual iPad.
 
Apple has invested in Imagination Technologies who is markedly behind Nvidia in graphics prowess. Unfortunately, I don't see them catching up any time soon, nor switching to Nvidia when they have that vested interest in ImgTec.

Fortunately, it's what you do with it that counts, and apple has a very strong developer community, and I'm sure their customs SoCs are going to beat Tegra2 devices in battery life, hands down.

Well you've not exactly made me happy with what you've written.

I must admit I'm a sucker for the best graphics out there.

Going to back as far as why I bought an Amiga and not an Atari ST.

If Devs bring out games that run on both the iPad and Honeycomb tablets over the next few years (and the Android tablet marketplace will be massive in time, so they won't ignore it) I will be disappointed if we see Android tablets with much enhanced graphics than Apple offer.

I want Apple to keep it's lead and not go down the path like the iMacs and become 2nd best for GPU speeds.
 
Just to ask again (hoping somebody reads this and tries it out).... Does the latest pairing of iOS 4.3 beta for iPhone and iOS 4.3 beta for Apple TV resolve the picture orientation issue when you airplay a photo slideshow from iPhone to Apple TV?

Specifically, if you take a picture with the iPhone with the iPhone upside-down, the accelerometer in the iPhone ensures proper to display of the photo when viewing it (i.e.: it knows the camera was upside-down so it flips the photo). However, when you airplay that same photo to Apple TV with iOS 4.2, the photo displays upside-down on the television.

I'm really hoping they fixed this.
 
Nice!

If iPhone 5 has SGX543, it's going to be awesome! I wonder if they'll try for dual core CPU and dual core GPU?

Oh.....

I was hoping as Tegra2 has been out a while and I think they have pretty much finished Tegra3 that the next Apple offering would at least match the current Tegra2 speed.

I know it's not all about numbers, but will be a shame if the Android Tablets all have more graphics power than the iPad2

Even if the iPad2 does get this new chip.

Who cares what Android uses, it doesn't even have a Hardware UI acceleration. Android is like running Windows 98 on Intel Core i7 CPU.
 
I'm kind of surprised by the choice of the SGX543XT as well. It admittedly hasn't reached market in devices yet, but no longer has the limelight against the SGX544XT and SGX545. The SGX554XT has also been announced and of course the 6 series which is still further out.

Given Apple's previous choice of the SGX535, I too thought that the SGX545 is the next logical choice. These were both designed to fully target desktop graphics standards compared to their cohorts, DX9.0c and OpenGL 2.x in the case of the SGX535 and DX10.1 and OpenGL 3.x in the case of the SGX545 while the PowerVR SGX520, SGX530, SGX540, and SGX543XT were focused on OpenGL ES 2.0 which is a subset of OpenGL. Going with the SGX545 would have allowed Apple more flexibility in functionality since the additional desktop capabilities can be exposed through extensions in OpenGL ES. The SGX545 also supports the full desktop OpenCL profile whereas the SGX54XT3 only supports the embedded profile, which is again a subset of the desktop spec.

At the very least I thought Apple would use the SGX544XT, which adds DX9.0 Level 3 and OpenGL 2.1 support to the SGX543XT. It was also designed for OpenCL 1.1 embedded profile in mind whereas I believe the SGX543XT predates OpenCL 1.1.

Personally, I'll be interested see how big the A5 is. The A4 already uses the 45nm process. Samsung's 32nm process was reported as not being ready until closer to the end of 2011. It's hard to see how Apple could fit a dual core A9 CPU with a SGX543 or greater on the same 45nm process without sacrificing battery life. Perhaps they really are going to stick with a single core, but even that should still result is a noticeably bigger die than the A4.

It will be the SGX545 based GPU as that is the only OpenCL 1.x compliant GPGPU from ImgTec.

http://www.imgtec.com/news/Release/index.asp?NewsID=516

Las Vegas, USA, 8th January 2010: Imagination Technologies, a leading multimedia chip technologies company, announces POWERVR SGX545, the first and only DirectX10.1 capable embedded graphics IP core available for immediate licensing. SGX545 will also deliver OpenGL ES 2.x and OpenGL 3.2 to deliver class leading 3D graphics performance, and will also support OpenCL 1.0 full profile capability which will enable mobile and embedded applications to take maximum advantage of the capabilities offered by these GPU APIs for both 3D graphics and general purpose applications.
 
Personally, I'll be interested see how big the A5 is. The A4 already uses the 45nm process. Samsung's 32nm process was reported as not being ready until closer to the end of 2011. It's hard to see how Apple could fit a dual core A9 CPU with a SGX543 or greater on the same 45nm process without sacrificing battery life. Perhaps they really are going to stick with a single core, but even that should still result is a noticeably bigger die than the A4.

That's why I'm half expecting a single core A9 design this time around. That allows them a 32nm dual-core design next year to keep the yearly upgraders coming back. Finally, in 2013 we can start talking about Eagle designs hitting the market.

Well you've not exactly made me happy with what you've written.

I must admit I'm a sucker for the best graphics out there.

Going to back as far as why I bought an Amiga and not an Atari ST.

If Devs bring out games that run on both the iPad and Honeycomb tablets over the next few years (and the Android tablet marketplace will be massive in time, so they won't ignore it) I will be disappointed if we see Android tablets with much enhanced graphics than Apple offer.

I want Apple to keep it's lead and not go down the path like the iMacs and become 2nd best for GPU speeds.

You have to do more than just compare it to Tegra 2's 71 M/Polys per second. It also matters how fast it's clocked, what the RAM speed is in addition to how close real world performance matches the theoretical numbers. You can still expect iDevice games to stay in the lead because developers are more willing to dump effort into the platform because it's a more guaranteed revenue source. Tablets like the Xoom may change that, but it won't be overnight.

I'm also anxioiusly awaiting Tegra2 tablet and handset battery life numbers. They put a 1930 mAh battery in the Atrix :eek: That's either really good, or really bad.
 
It will be the SGX545 based GPU as that is the only OpenCL 1.x compliant GPGPU from ImgTec.

http://www.imgtec.com/news/Release/index.asp?NewsID=516
OpenCL has a full profile and an embedded profile subset that is supposed to be easier for mobile devices to implement. The SGX545 is ImgTec's only full profile (desktop class) OpenCL GPU, but the Series5XT series like the SGX543XT, SGX544XT, and SGX554XT support the OpenCL embedded profile. I'm not sure how significant the embedded limitations are, but from a marketing perspective, I doubt Apple will try to distinguish it to customers, but in the end a SGX543XT iPhone will be OpenCL compliant.
 
That a great spec for a three year old video card.
They should name it the 8600.
That's a joke for MacBook Pro owners. :D
 
As far as I know, the screen on the iPhone 4 is the highest DPI ever made. So, it's not a dream. And if you stick 9 3.5" screens together (2880x1920) in a 10.5", that's more than enough pixel density to cover 2048x1536 (iPad resolution doubled) in a 9.7" screen. It'll be expensive, but it's certainly doable with today's technology.

Notice I said with today's PRODUCTION as well!!! Could Apple make a prototype, SURE! Are there facilities to mass produce such a screen at the scale of iPad sales for a price that is economically feasible with the bill of materials, NOT EVEN CLOSE!!!

This doesn't even take into consideration driving the display with CPU/GPU and battery life!

Maybe in iPad 3!

People need to reality check themselves! :rolleyes:
 
Nice!

If iPhone 5 has SGX543, it's going to be awesome! I wonder if they'll try for dual core CPU and dual core GPU?



Who cares what Android uses, it doesn't even have a Hardware UI acceleration. Android is like running Windows 98 on Intel Core i7 CPU.

To be honest, I don't care what Android uses.

I know games are not everything, but I will care if we see game after game being reviewed side by side, like they may do with the PS3 and 360

And time and time again the, then, Android tablets give better textures, smoother animation and more detailed models from higher polygon count.

If the iPad looks like the poor mans gaming choice then I will care, and I hope Apple don't let that happen by picking poor hardware that is behind what Android is using.

Hopefully given a whole host of reasons this won't happen. I'm just saying I very much hope Apple won't let it.
 
According to Wikipedia the SGX543 will also be used in the upcoming PSP 2. Sony is rumored to implement an 8-core version which would provide "532M poly/s, fill rates in excess of 16Gpixels/sec @400 MHz".

And Tegra 2 is only 10-30% faster than the single core SGX540, so no big deal.
 
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