iPad 2’s GPU outstrips Tegra 2 in benchmark tests by up to 6x the speed
Makes the iPad 1 look ancient as a result
As anyone who’s seen a Desire and Galaxy S running any heavy 3D title in the past year, having the same clock speed for a processor doesn’t necessarily mean the same performance, especially if the two machines use different makes of GPUs.
The mobile graphics industry is in rather rude health right now, with a number of major competitors either producing their own chips or designing for licensees, unlike in the PC sphere where it’s just a straight fight between Nvidia and ATI (now owned by AMD).
This means there’s quite some difference when it comes to performance between the different models, as recent benchmarks of the Motorola Xoom and Apple iPad 2 published on anandtech show.
The former uses Nvidia’s dual-core Tegra 2 CPU/GPU, while the latter uses Apple’s own A5 chip - with a GPU design based off of Imagination Technologies’s SGX543MP2.
While both CPUs are clocked at 1Ghz, the tests reveal a large gap in horsepower between the two graphics processors, with the ITech model outstripping Nvidia’s baby by up to 6x the speed on certain test situations, and constantly remaining significantly ahead in all the other benchmarks.
It’s worth noting, however, that the Xoom is running at 16 per cent higher a resolution than the iPad 2, so the results can’t be completely taken as gold standard as to the relative speeds of the two graphics processors. Even still, it’s unlikely lowering the resolution to the same levels would result in the Tegra matching the iPad 2’s speed.
This latest series of test is also, strangely, good news for Sony fans, as the NGP uses a quad-core version of exactly the same graphics card to power its ‘PlayStation 3-esque’ graphics.
