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iOS/Android game dev claims Tegra2 surpasses iPad 2 tech
- Thread starter tuatha
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My only personal feeling of slight disappointment in that the new honeycomb tablets about to launch will, in my mind anyway, only be using Tegra 2
As I said, Tegra 2 was talked about last year and launched for real around November, so for me anyway, it feels an old product already.
Seen than, done that, I want the next one.
I would of liked the new Honeycomb models to have been launching with a cutting edge, never seen before Tegra 3, but I guess that would of been stretching things a little.
It's just as I say, Tegra 2 has been out a while, so I'm personally looking at Tegra 3 to excite me in a new product. Hopefully we will see some Honeycomb Tablets with Tegra 3 later this year, which will be very interesting.
On a side note: Apple needs to get their fingers out their butts and not fall behind yet again, they have a year head start so it would be shameful if they let this happen.
As I said, Tegra 2 was talked about last year and launched for real around November, so for me anyway, it feels an old product already.
Seen than, done that, I want the next one.
I would of liked the new Honeycomb models to have been launching with a cutting edge, never seen before Tegra 3, but I guess that would of been stretching things a little.
It's just as I say, Tegra 2 has been out a while, so I'm personally looking at Tegra 3 to excite me in a new product. Hopefully we will see some Honeycomb Tablets with Tegra 3 later this year, which will be very interesting.
On a side note: Apple needs to get their fingers out their butts and not fall behind yet again, they have a year head start so it would be shameful if they let this happen.
That's like saying I live in a cave and it's fine and I'm happy as I have nothing to compare it with
If you had never seen Crysis, and lived by yourself on a dessert island, then Pong may still impress you.
That may be misleading. You might say the SGX5 series has 4 cores, and that might be reasonably correct. But those 4 cores are units that perform different functions (each of which has more power on its own than several 80s era PCs and or Macintoshes combined). Be aware that the hypists will bend semantics as much as possible to make the object of their affection sound more impressive. Also, be aware that simply pairing or quadding full GPU arrays may not be the best or most efficient way to improve performance.
The race, right now, is for the best overall user experience, not for bragging rights. For its application, the iPad gracefully exceeds adequate in a way that works well for several million users and for most of them demands only minimal improvement.
Apple will not make iPad v2 into teh awesomeness, they will make it just a little better. It may have the Cortex A9, but only one core (in future, one core will be plenty, supplemented by a GPGPU, so going multicore only to go back to single core later would be pointless, especially given the enormous PITAs that multicore implementations involve. The GPU will probably be the latest they can put in, but it will not outperform your beloved Tegra 2 GPU. iPad's performance is not terrifically in need of internal hardware improvements, just some solid work on iOS and some key apps, plus a bit of glitz like the screamed-for camera(s) and better weight and screen.
You may be underwhelmed, Apple has a whole different set of people to get on board. They will be back for you later.
If Apple sticks with a single core CPU and marginally improved GPU they WILL lose a lot of marketshare to honeycomb tablets. There's only so much optimizing that you can do with software if the CPU/GPU performance gap is that enormous.
We shall see. The iPad's performance is smooth and nice and clean and simple: enough, for the most part, for it to keep a decent pace without needing massive improvements. Apple will lose large marketshare to android, it is inevitable, no way for them to fight it off after all Apple owns the market right now, for them to not lose ground would be ridiculous (IOW, if Android cannot pull in half share this year, they will have a huge hill to get over next year).
What I am saying is Apple's broadest market segment (grandma) will not be fleeing iPad over some specs that mean very little in practical performance terms except to gamerz. Right now, it is down to UI and usability, things iPad handles quite well already, for the most part.
It really does look better, too, without all those wonderful ports up the edge.
I wouldn't worry about that too much. Apple's mobile devices so far have always used some of fastest chips on the market and the A5 will follow that suite. With the chips mostly using the same core - dualcore A9 - I doubt we'll see much difference in the processor performance in real life situations.
If anything the iPad's processor will probably be faster but that doesn't mean too much since the Tegra2 has been around the block for some time and and the iPad2 will be using a new, presumably a more up-to-date IPs. I do have heard the new 3D is a pretty killer though. But the more importantly, the iOS family devices get the developer support. My Android phone has a great 3D chip but other than emulators there's no Rage or Infinity Blade to show it off fully.
Plus I'm not even convinced the gap between the current A8 chip and the Tegra2 is "enormous" unless you do optimize your software. We already have cheap Tegra2 tablets and they aren't all that fast with the stock Froyo.
I would expect an iPad 2, using the best chip Apple can offer for this premium product, that is going to be available to the general public in April would at the very least have the same performance as the Tegra2 which was available to the public in devices almost 6 months earlier.
At the moment, we are looking as though Tegra3 devices, which will be tablets by other brands running Honeycomb, may be available for sale to the public half way through the iPad2's lifetime.
If the iPad2 is slower than the Tegra2 at launch, then how bad is the iPad2 going to stack up against Tegra3 ?
If Apple select to use other chips/architecture then at least pick those that at least match what other makes are using.
At the moment, we are looking as though Tegra3 devices, which will be tablets by other brands running Honeycomb, may be available for sale to the public half way through the iPad2's lifetime.
If the iPad2 is slower than the Tegra2 at launch, then how bad is the iPad2 going to stack up against Tegra3 ?
If Apple select to use other chips/architecture then at least pick those that at least match what other makes are using.
Not only that, but Google has chosen this group to showcase their app, so what would anyone expect them to say on the matter?
Someone should ask these guys if they plan to make any money on Android.
Oh, come on. Even if it launched in early November, the thing is just three months old! Do chip manufacturers have to release a new chip every month to keep you happy?
No, I mean Tegra2 has been availiable in a Tablet from November, so by the time iPad2 launches it will be 6 months since Tegra2 launched in a product for the public.
Nvidea have been saying Tegra3 was pretty much finished before Christmas (I guess last few bits to get done) and they are now saying that Tegra3 will be launched late this year.
Some even saying it could be sooner, but they are holding back as they don't wish to overshadow Tegra2 too early.
Tegra 4 work is already underway also.
If Tegra3 did launch in late 2011 products as is being hinted, it would be pretty much exactly 1 year since Tegra2 launched to the public, which would be about right don't you think?
And if this did happen, and it's only an "if" I grant you, then iPad2 would only be 6 months old when Tegra3 could hit the market.
I've no doubt, as soon as the Honeycomb Tegra2 tablets are out in numbers in the next few months, the makers will be looking at their next Tegra3 products to follow on from them.
This is what Apple are going to be up against.
Um, so, I'm not sure what you want Apple to do about that? I mean, sounds to me like natural progression of the technology market. A chip released half a year after iPad 2 would of course be better than the one in iPad2, unless the manufacturer of the later device was REALLLY incompetent.
Who cares? Android isn't iOS. It doesn't have the quality of apps that Apple has, and it certainly doesn't have the slick hardware to back it up. There are elements of Android I really like, but for a tablet device, who cares if Tegra2 is 15.25% more powerful? Like it really matters.
What I said was that I hoped the iPAd2 would have a chip at least as good as Tegra2 when it launches.
I know we can argue about how much specs matter all night
But, it would be sad if Apple's iPad2 on launch day in April was behind a then, 6 month old Tegra2, and then in 6 months from then (Nov ish) be even further behind a Tegra3 for the next 6 months of it's life.
Especially as Apple have a years head start on everyone else.
If this were to be the case, and I admit it's a big if, it's almost feels like they would of allowed themselves to be lapped by other runners after just one and a half laps of the long race which would be poor form for the industry leader.
I just want the same as most other Apple owners, I want Apple to stay at the top and not lag behind, esp not at this early stage with their undisputed massive lead over others.
Despite what Apple lovers say specs do matter as Apple fans are the 1st to shout out loud when Apple specs are above others. Just as they have done for ages about the Retina Screen.
Trust me on this.
If the iPad2 is 15.25% faster than Tegra2 than Apple fans will care. Boy will they care. It's all you will hear for ages, how the iPad2 is more powerful than Android systems.
What I said was that I hoped the iPAd2 would have a chip at least as good as Tegra2 when it launches.
I know we can argue about how much specs matter all night
Gotcha. And yes, we can argue about whether the specs matter, lol. I know personally I don't care as long as my apps don't crash and run at a reasonable speed.
I may or may not be most Apple owners - unless you mean stockholders! - but I just don't care how Apple is doing compared to other companies. I buy Apple because right now it seems Apple is making the best products on the market. If a few years from now Apple is no longer on the top and it's Sony or HP or IBM or Samsung or some other company we haven't yet heard of, I'll happily buy from them instead.
Oh I'm sure that would be the case. If it turns out the be the reverse, the Apple fans will be claiming how hardware power is not as important as the OS and software for it.
Indeed and I remember poking fun on Apple faithfuls after they switched to Intel and Apple began to tell how wonderful the new Intel processors are.
But really, so far Apple has always been near the cutting edge in processor speed and I don't see that change anytime soon. The new GPU should be really really fast.
It's looking like everything is going to be really really fast from now on! There's just no room for screw ups and half-assed products from either Google and their affiliates or Apple anymore.
I'm not really a gamer, find video games a bit dull, but the thought of something like Rome Total War on a tablet makes me oddly excited.
I'm not really a gamer, find video games a bit dull, but the thought of something like Rome Total War on a tablet makes me oddly excited.
That's pretty much where the "battle" lies. Nvidia will likely have an upper hand due to their history. Still, I think both the Tegra 2 and the A5(8?) of the iPad2 will be plenty powerful enough to enjoy great apps when developed for.
That's pretty much where the "battle" lies. Nvidia will likely have an upper hand due to their history. Still, I think both the Tegra 2 and the A5(8?) of the iPad2 will be plenty powerful enough to enjoy great apps when developed for.
Agreed
But don't forget Nvidia is used to working on a 3-6 month cycle because of GPU's. And if you look at the roadmap they put out that is where they are.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/24/nvidia-tegra-3-equipped-with-1-5ghz-quad-core-madness-teased-b/
That really means unless the CE's get very fast at turning stuff out it will be obsolite by the time it hits the market. There is already a speed increase for spring from Nvidia to 1.2 same speed as the rumor for the iPad2. And by fall we are talking another increase to 1.5 and adding 2 more cores.
Let the games begin. Now that Nvidia is back in the phone market if battery life can keep up we are going to see an explosion within the next 2 years then things will slow down some.
This is going to be much like it was in the personal computer market buy something and it is already dated. Lucky that has changed for the most part due to things getting fast enough that even with improvements it does not matter as much.
Or more accurately, when there are hardware AND software optimized for the hardware.
I have a phone, a Samsung Galaxy S, that was supposed to spank everything on the market 3D-wise, but guess what, there's nothing to show off its 3D prowess. I can pull out my iPod Touch 4 and show Rage and Infinity Blade to people to impress them but with my phone, there's simply no game that's on the same level. What's the point of having all the power if there's nothing to utilize it?
We've had Tegra2 tablets with Android before, and they were all nothing to write home about even with the increased processor speed. Hardware is nice, but in a mobile context you really need software to take advantage of the said hardware.
It'll be interesting to see how long it takes developers to really start pushing this new graphics hardware; my money is on it being a while. The selling price of phone and tablet games has already been established at a level a lot lower than either living room or mobile consoles. I think developers will try to make up for this with quantity and to do this they will have to keep their baseline hardware low. If they create a game that only works well on Tegra2 or iPad2 level hardware then currently they'll have a tiny market. Even in a year's time I doubt this sort of hardware will be in the majority if you look at both phones and tablets.