News

Nvidia Wants Proof That Apple’s A5X Is Really 4X’s More Powerful Than The Tegra 3

137

If you tuned into Apple’s “The New iPad” announcement earlier today, you may have noticed a huge 20 foot chart that showed their new A5X processor boasting 4x’s the performance of comparable quad-cores, namely, Nvidia’s Tegra 3 processor. But you know who really noticed? Yup. Nvidia.

In an interview with ZDNet, Nvidia rep Ken Brown said that although “flattering” that they were mentioned during the press event, Apple failed to back up these claims with neither hide nor hair of a footnote, denoting proper benchmark tests.

“We have to understand what the application was that was used. Was it one or a variety of applications? What drivers were used? There are so many issues to get into with benchmark.”

We’ll have to wait for round 2 once The New iPad officially goes on sale and benchmarking applications can finally put these claims to the test. What do you guys think the outcome will be?

[ZDNet | Via Electronista]

Chris Chavez
I've been obsessed with consumer technology for about as long as I can remember, be it video games, photography, or mobile devices. If you can plug it in, I have to own it. Preparing for the day when Android finally becomes self-aware and I get to welcome our new robot overlords.

Verizon Wireless Sale: Droid 3, X2, Incredible 2 And Charge Only $10 – Rhyme Free

Previous article

Want To Change The Google Play Icon Back Into Android Market? Download This App

Next article

You may also like

137 Comments

  1. it will still sell better than other model of tablets. 

    1. Only to the dumb and lazy sheep.

      1. Which is A LOT of people in the world.

      2. actually, i just made up my mind, im switching to iphone once they release a 4g version. my GN just F me up, it said all my nandroid backup got an error…. great.. just great… 

        1. So you are blaming custom software, that you need root for on your Gnex?

          Sounds like  you are the perfect type of consumer that Apple  goes for.

          1. it’s my fault for using rom manager to do the nandroid backup and install rom/kernel. all my old backup cant be used. this isnt the first time it happen. it happened on my old htc droid before.. 

            i just reset my phone and lost a lot of things…. anyway, i am tired of dealing all those problems. 

          2. If its happened to you before than you’re clearly an idiot who shouldnt have tried to mess with your phone to begin with. You clearly have no idea what you’re doing, youre better of getting an iphone, nub.

          3. I personally would have booted into recovery and did the backup there. I don’t think anyone’s ever had problems going that route.

            And always back up the backup to your computer.

            But I agree with Halfway. Deciding to go the root / ROM route comes with its risks. Stuff like what you experienced can happen. You can’t completely blame Android.

          4. Rom manager? HAHHAHHAHHA
            This probably isn’t the last time I’ll say this but: Do not use Rom manager.
            If you are seriously dumb enough to use Rom manager for backups then you don’t deserve such a nice phone.

          5. And you think your jail broken iPhone is going to work flawlessly?

          6. @HalfwayCrook:disqus 

            whats the point of having an android phone if im not allowed to root and use other roms?

            @storm14k:disqus 

            but jailbreak iphone can get free apps :D quoted from my friends

            @google-cf6182c5de06c67d6599f7717b19922e:disqus 

            but i never had any problems with rom manager on my htc incredible. 

        2. iOS update 5.1 officialy  puts a 4G icon on the iPhone when on At&t HSPA+.
          lol

          1. this is actualy not wrong :)
            http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolved_HSPA

            Quote:  Currently both HSPA+ and LTE are termed as 4G technologies by the industry.

          2. HSPA+ and LTE are NOT 4G…….Again Apple and the industri are tricking people with crap….

          3. Nkolsen- HSPA+ and LTE are both 4G. The ITU decided upon this in December 2010. Try to keep up with year old news before spouting off. IMT-Advanced is a totally different beast.

        3. Julian, no one here believes you use Android, give it up already.

          1. Then don’t.

        4. Lol…laughing at how people here diss you because you decided to switch to iOS instead of trying to help you solve your problem…that said, if you’re going to switch to an iPhone and plan to jailbreak, don’t get anything earlier than the 4S, the 4 is fine but after a few jailbreak tweaks it starts to lag a little and it annoyed the hell out of me…peace!

      3. That’s because no other tablet is better than the iPad. You can’t deny it, the iPad is the leader of all tablets. Quality product with excellent hardware specs.
         

        1. I cant say you are wrong but I also cant say you are right, why? It all depends what you will be using it for and what you prefer! when will people learn this?

          I like Android for the freedom and the possibility to leagaly using custom roms etc.

        2. Too bad it has iOS.  It is a beautiful device but the operating system leaves much to be desired. 

          1. Ipad 1 still run smothered than my galaxy nexus.

          2. Too bad for everyone in the world “smooth” isn’t the only factor for an OS to have.

        3. I prefere my metal case + gorilla glass + micro hdmi port + usb2 port + microSD port + SDHC port + abillity to plug an NTFS hard drive or usb key + widgets that makes my screen look like something 21st century not something from the past century + 16/10 screen ratio wich makes it more suitable for multimedia + a better browsing experience without any limitations + ability to download struff from websites if I want to and the list is far from exhaustive.

    2. Wow just wow

      I like all these comments saying ZOMG HIGH REZ SCREEN
      Yet I look at the Tegra 3 specs and it clearly states Tegra 3 can do
      2048×1536 on LCD display * simultaneously too, no adapter, OH BTW the board on the transformer prime supports adding external memory as well,up to 32gigs*. Now I know the screen itself is 1200X800 on the prime but essentially it can do the exact same as the iPad 3, they just choose not to put 129.99$ LCD screen panels in their tablets like Apple, THAT WAY they can price chop come 4 months and the iPad 3 will never see such a price loss due to its baseline cost for materials.SO what does apple do? 399$ Apple Ipad 2, But will you ever see a price drop till iPad 4? Must be nice to be blissful

  2. Kids…kids..

  3. Maybe Apple exaggerated, maybe not. However, it probably is faster and they probably will continue their GPU dominance for some time to come with the new iPAD.

    1.  From my previous days of working a sales consultant at Oracle, and today’s technology developments I can say that 4x or even 2x is not a effing exaggeration. They mislead the customers on purpose. You’ll see – once they agree to publish the tests, they will be done in some weirdass metrics that no one used up to this point. This sh!t happened before and will happen after.

  4. Defamation suit…..engage!

    Problem is…..no matter if Nvidia wins, the bully has spoken and Nvidia will look like the pouty kid that says “nuh uh!”

    1. Actually they won’t. Apple has already talked about Nvidia. Nvidia is just backing themselves up.

      So it’s more along the lines of, “You’re all talk, Apple, so let’s see what you can do”.

        1. Do you have better things to do in your life than troll this site?

          1. how is that trolling.

            The ipad 2 mud stomped the Tegra 3 at this point.

    2. Nvidia is a business partner of Apple. Lot of Nvidia graphics go into Macs. Nvidia knows not to bite the hand that feeds it.

  5. I’d really like to see the proof of this, although knowing apple, we most likely won’t. 

    http://www.tech-thoughts.net/2012/03/new-ipad-tablet-market.html 

  6. It’ll probably be roughly accurate.

  7. #FAIL APPLE.

  8. Apple misleading its customers? Unheard of.

  9. Good job for Nvidia to be speaking out.  And I especially agree with it since Apple used them in their presentation.   Curious to see how this plays out.  Nvidia got beat once by Apple, something tells me I don’t see this happening for too much longer.  Who makes the GPU for Apple?  

    1. But Apple are right, the old iPad gpu was faster than the Kal-El GPU, and the new one is even faster.

      Who makes the gpu? Imagination Technologies.

  10. Apple benchmarks are always bullcrap. Remember the ‘PPC is 4x faster than Intel’ campaign? Which was true if both CPUs were doing 100% NOPs (no operations), but completely false if either were doing anything useful. I certainly haven’t seen any indication that iPad 2 is 2x more powerful than Tegra 3 or that new iPad is 2x that – it’s almost certainly not given that nothing is a 100% multiplier.

  11. False! But I still would like to see what great excuses come after benchmark testing proves this wrong!!

  12. Sue the bastards

  13.  Apple love to make false statement, and false claims, only their idiot fan boys listen and believe it.

    1. Only idiots try to prove it wrong without any facts.

      1. Only the idiots Apple fanboys come to an Android forum just to troll.
        Epic fail.

      2. And where are your facts, beside your trolling…

  14. The apple fanboys will be too busy touting apple’s new invention called 4g lte to notice nvidia’s dispute with this.

    1.  boom

  15. True apple seems to have their own testing set. Also seems
    true the avg (not all) apple user just believes what they claim.

    Still, I love apple products for my dysfunctional family!

  16.  P.S. Note that while Tim Cook spent a lot of time talking about the new
    iPad’s four core GPU, that does not make it a “quad-core tablet.” That’s
    the graphics processor. The CPU (the main processor) is
    dual-core. By comparison, the Transformer Infinity has a quad-core CPU
    and at 12 core GPU. Got it? Good. And yes, they were deliberately sneaky
    about that, knowing that only geeks would know the difference.

    1.  that’s how they make sells, remember when they first put that crappy cameras in iPhone 4 and iPad 2 and convinced everyone that it’s the sensor that matters not the mega pixels (as a medium-to-advanced photographer I agree but it’s the combination of great sensor and good amount of pixel that make a picture amazing) but then they put a 8MP camera in iPhone 4S. now they ignore the CPU completely which is exactly the same same CPU as A5 only clocked at a higher speed and focused on GPU because a quad core GPU sound like a Quad core CPU and that’s what they want,

      1. iPhone 4 did not have a crappy camera, and it’s kind of funny how you basically just said “the A5X is the same but different”.

        1. Yes it did, the first good camera Apple delivered is the IPhone 4s’ camera

          1. Except the original iphone 4, and maybe even 3gs for that matter, had a better camera than any android device I or any of my friends have owned

          2. No they didn’t, keep dreaming, or having nightmares, I really don’t care, Samsung cameras, HTC cameras, even LG cameras were better, but most of all Nokia’s cameras were and still are a lot better.

          3. I work in an all-Apple environement.  And listen to my coworkers complain about how much faster my HTC Amaze can take pictures and how much better they look than the ones from their iPhone4ses.

          4. lol ok? That doesn’t disprove my point.

            I don’t work in an apple store, i just have numerous friends and family with iphones, and numerous friends and family with androids. And the iphones took better quality pictures than the androids ones.

            I’m not saying the iphone 4 had the best smartphone cam on the market, that there isnt any android or windows phone with a better camera….but im saying you can hardly consider it trash when i know a variety of handsets (android,blackberry) that took worse pictures.

          5. LOL….your a clown.  The iphone 4 camera gets clowned by my vibrant, thunderbolt and of course my gnex laughs at it!

          6. despite everyone saying how horrendous the gnex camera is? What are you even saying. Stop the fanboyism and have an objective point of view for once. If Google thought the way you people think. There would be no changes since android 2.2 since everything is already perfect.

            Jeez, i have an evo 4g, not an iphone, but when i got my phone and my friend got his iphone4, i could easily compare the pros and cons. Get over your despise for steve jobs and just judge a phone for what it is.
            Again, i never said the iphone was better than every android camera but it is better than a lot of them so it cannot be considered “garbage” . but of course you didnt hear that cuz iphone 5 will be as good as android 1.9 in your eyes.

          7.  I’ve seen test pics of GNex on Anandtech (sorry) , they’re not horrible at all, actually it’s a pretty good camera

          8. Nope 

          9. because you know every single android device i’ve owned? Or because the iphone 4 has a worse camera than the G1 from like 2008? Stop being ridiculous. Did steve jobs touch you inappropriately when you were a child or something?

          10.  and which Android devices have you and your friends owned?  comparing the camera on a G1 or LG Optimus One doesn’t really add weight to your statement.

          11. No the 4 was good and 4S was better. Deal with it.

          12.  No the 4 was … Apple Style, it seems to be good’ cause it’s very colorful, then looking at pictures you should realize (unless you’re caught into the distorsion field) that:
            1) they are oversaturated, very very oversaturated
            2) contrast is pushed to the limits, well even beyond, killing many many many details
            3) there’s noise, lot of noise

            so if you’re ok in loosing a lot of details just to have colors scream at you, then yes, iPhone 4 camera is great, besides, if you want details and colors matchin’ reality, no it sucks

          13. Not sure you’re aware, but we are talking about a nearly 2 year old phone, it was good for the time.

          14. Yes Sir, I do …
            Another tech blog, slightly biased toward Apple, just posted the Sony Xperia S review, now they put an iPhone4’s pic comparing it to the SXS’ pic and they actually seems to prefer the former, people are still insulting them in the comments below, that just shows how strong Apple distorsion field can be and how you should not trust everything on the web

        2.  well yeah it’s the same shit different speed. when you overclock your CPU it doesn’t make it a better CPU it’s a same CPU but slightly a faster one, Apple advertised A5 as dual-core 1GHZ but they clocked it @ 800MHZ, I assume now they clocked it @ 1-1.2GHZ.

          1. And there’s no evidence of it just being the same processor at higher clock speed. You think the 1000+ engineers Apple employs specifically for their SoCs spent a year adding a new GPU and just overclocking? You probably also think a quad core outperforms dual core in every application.

          2.  if I’m not mistaken Samsung makes Apple chips so first part of your argument is invalid, and no I don’t think that, but as you said there is no evidence as of now, I wrote it bc I read somewhere (not sure if it was Gizmodo or elsewhere) that it’s just clocked at a higher speed. and no I don’t think Every Quad-core CPU outperforms every Dual-core.

          3. Apple designs them. Samsung manufactures them. I heard from another blog that the A5X is also a die shrink, 45 nm to 28 nm, but it’s pointless to argue about it now when no one outside of Apple (and Samsung) knows yet.

          4.  I wanted to reply to your last post but I can’t reply anymore so I do it here: I believe Samsung also design them, I was googling right now to show you a post I read when A5 first came out that they put it under a microscope and showed how similar it is to Samsung chips, but since it was a long time ago I couldn’t find it, maybe you have a better chance checking ifixit or similar blogs, anyways, I agree that arguing right now is stupid, as soon as ifix it gets their hands on it we’ll know more.

      2. There’s a lot of fallacies in your statement…while I get the general idea, there’s signs that you didn’t proof read this…you sort of threw around a bunch of apple product names and got them mixed up…

        1.  care to explain more? BTW you know that comment was a reply to another comment not a comment I made about the article?!

          1. You said they put a crappy camera in the iPhone 4…this isn’t true. You also made mention of the idea apple was trying to push across that megapixels aren’t everything…which is true. But then you present their putting an 8MP camera in the 4S under a bad light. Apple didn’t just up the number of megapixels in the 4S camera, thy did other stuff too which I don’t need to get into. Hope that helps…the stuff about the quad core is a little messy, but I understand your point and it is valid…

          2.  Actually what I got from it is that Apple said MP don’t matter, but then they made the next camera 8MP, which kind of goes against their previous statement that MP don’t matter.

            Basically he’s saying Apple are hypocrites.

    2. The amount of cores don’t really matter until we get to know more about the CPU.
      And the SGX 543MP4 is a quad core gpu, nvidias Gefore gpu is not.
      And actually Apples claims are completely correct, the old iPad 2 creams the Tegra 3, and this one just….. yeah..
      Actually I belive OMAP 5 will be the only SoC this year that can beat it.

      Haha, knowing that only geeks would know the difference…
      You are correct, only geeks would know that Apples design is better, while the majority (thats you) think Nvidia are better because:
      HURR DURRR 12 CORE GPU!!
      4 COORE CPU OMGG BETTARR

      1. Try again…
        http://www.anandtech.com/show/5163/asus-eee-pad-transformer-prime-nvidia-tegra-3-review/3
        Don’t look at the off-screen tests, they don’t matter much.  The GPU on the iPad 2 is VERY SLIGHTLY better than the Tegra 3 on the Transformer Prime when it actually matters…when using the screen.  And that difference is with the Prime handling more pixels than the iPad 2.  The new iPad was probably tested against the Prime off-screen, and after running several tests, they took the best result to post.  However, when handling the screen, the new iPad is going to have to deal with a huge number of useless pixels (i.e.-Retina).  So here’s the new breakdown:
        Screen Res- iPad (winner, in a way you can’t see from 6 inches +)
        Screen Tech- Prime
        CPU- Prime
        GPU- iPad
        Thinness- Prime
        Weight- Presumably iPad, by maybe an ounce
        Connectivity- Prime by a mile
        Cameras- Prime, by another mile
        RAM- Tie
        Storage- Tie
        Build- Prime (Aluminum & Gorilla Glass vs Plastic & Tempered Glass)

        So, some wins on both sides, but the iPads seem to be, as usual, more superficial.  Finite.

        1. Uh, you have no idea how much RAM the iPad has.  Also, the Prime has expandable storage (more so with the dock) so not a tie.  And while the Prime has aluminum backing, it’s a big part in blocking its radios.  I love my Prime, but if its GPS got a better signal, I’d be happier.

          1. Many sites (including this one) are listing the new iPad as having 1 GB of RAM.  I initially put “ports” instead of Connectivity, and that would have included the SD slots. I guess I should have stuck with Ports. Alas, I’ve never had a problem with the GPS or the Wi-fi on my Prime.  I have a lock from 3-9 meters always when driving, and even when inside.  Maybe Latitude is a factor?  I’m in the north.  And the Wi-fi is way better on the Prime than either my SGS or my two laptops.  I’m calling the software updates a win for the Prime.

          2. Haha, I don’t know much about ASUS because recently they’ve been doing pretty good on the update side…hopefully they are better than samsung does…

        2. You forgot one category:

          Sales: iPad by a mile :-)

        3. Apple also mentioned their quad-core GPU as being so much better than Tegra’s 8-core.  The Tegra2 had an 8-core GPU – and I would believe that the A5x probably does perform 4 times better than the Tegra2.  The Tegra3 however is packing a 12-core GPU.  I honestly do think that the SGX 543MP4 probably is better than the ULP GeForce, but not by the amount that Apple is claiming.

        4. How about price? Who wins at the 32 gb level?

          1. It’s a tie as well for the 32GB Wifi versions, although there will be a plastic cased version of the prime that will be a little cheaper.

        5. Actually the new iPad is 1.4 lbs. The Transformer Prime is 1.3 lbs. 

          The new iPad is also a full 1 mm thicker than the Prime.

        6. How does the Prime beat the iPad in terms of connectivity “by a mile”…the iPad has got LTE, wifi and 3G(GSM and CDMA) radios…the prime (as far as I know) has only got wifi…explain please…I would really like a rational explanation…

          1. The Prime has HDMI out, micro SD, full SD, full USB, and a keyboard port.

            As for radios, I’m comparing wifi to wifi. If you want the 3G/4G device comparison, take a look at the Asus Padphone.

      2. How Old are you 5, learn how to spell.

        First of all “And the SGX 543MP4 is a quad core gpu, nvidias Gefore gpu is not.”

        You are right it’s not, it’s a 12 Core GPU! In case you were dropped on your head that’s 8 yes count them 8 more cores than the new iPad 3. Boosting performance way beyond any apple product on the market, second of all Apples iPad 3 has a Dual Core CPU where as Nvidia’s Tegra 3 has a Quad Core + 1 CPU – The +1 is a companion Core to offload tasks to enhance battery life and improve performance.

        We know Nvidia is better because they bench mark their products and post the results online for people to see; Unlike Apple.
        It’s funny I was getting really mad about this last night (Before This Was Posted) then I come into work this morning and see this article online.

        BTW Read Apple Fanboy:
        http://www.nvidia.com/object/tegra-3-processor.html

          1. Hahahaha, I’m waiting to see how apple hater would respond to this…I’m expecting a rational/logical response though, so I hope he doesn’t go off into some weird cursing rant..

    3. if you want to count cores the way Nvidia does, the SGX543MP4 is a ’16 core’ GPU. i do agree with Nvidia though about wanting to see what benchmarks Apple used.

      1. Could someone link us to an explanation of this “core counting” method?

    4. preface: owner of an evo 4g, im an android fan and visit this website everyday waiting for my dream quadcore android phone to come out…

      But i must admit, ignoring apple’s of lack of “custom”-ability and being forced to live within the constraints of iOS, what apple does, it does well. really well. i do care about being able to customize things, but i care a little more about it working well, fast, along with good battery life. I was going to wait for the galaxy note 10.1, but due to its lack of quad-core, i will hold back. I will likely get an iPad 3 so that i can enjoy apps i dont get on my phone, and because i know for a fact it will operate better than an android tablet i could ever currently purchase. even though it will be limited to the apps that Apple mandates, so long as they operate well, fast, and dont kill my battery life, ill live (happily). i will get the wifi only version and tether from my android phone :) despite only being a dual core processor, and quad-core graphics, the transformer infinity’s quad-core and 12 core gpu WILL NOT, operate as smoothly as the ipad, it’s only hope is to match it in terms of real life performance. 

      i dont care about benchmarks…. most android fans are arrogant and think all apple users are idiots and technological morons and have to be spoon fed software – stop being so haughty. apple products perform better. period. thats, in part, why they sell. and it’s largely due to MIUI’s replication of the iOS that makes it so popular. benchmarks mean nothing. sales mean everything. the ipad sells because it is beautiful and performs like a dream. 

      note: regarding the benchmarks. my EVO custom ROM – mik 3.0, has some of the lowest benchmarks (compared to other evo roms), but operates smoother than all of them combined. its about software, nothing else. 

      The EVO 4G development community has long been a leader, with more xda posts and people following those forums than any other phone. reason? because the phone sucks on its own. battery is horrible. OS is slow and laggy, and the battery is horrible. therefore, people flock to the community for solutions because they are stuck with it for 2 years. the evo’s development popularity and outrageous number of custom roms is due to two reasons:  google handed out Evo 4Gs to developers at the I/O conference in 2010 (https://phandroid.com/2011/05/05/google-io-giveaway-its-already-yours-contest/) … AND because the phone sucks so bad. 

      i wish i didnt have to flash so many roms… just give me one that works well! FAST! and good battery life!! that’s been the cry of my EVO 4G heart since i bought it….
       
      i had a transformer prime. surfing the internet was still choppier than the ipad 2, apps take just as long or if not longer, and over time, the tablet began to have operational hiccups, even with ICS. i know people are going to chime in – “my prime is as smooth as butter and never stutters” – mine wasnt. neither was my friend’s, nor his friends. maybe we got lemons. or maybe ICS and Google’s OS and Android app developers have no idea how to utilize four cores, or 12 core gpu… i dont care that google has true multitasking, i only have one set of eyes, and apple switches between apps faster than google does, period

      i will now buy the most beautiful mobile tablet ever created until samsung releases its quad-core note (likely at the end of this year or next). but for the next 9 months to a year, i will enjoy the speed, consistency and resilience of the ipad. 

      but i my next phone will hopefully be the galaxy S 3. that will be beautiful. 

  17. I just figured it out! Apple has that Jedi hand wave down solid.

    “This tablet is four times more powerful” followed by hand wave and profit.

    “We invented breathing. You will give us a patent for it.” hand wave, sues everyone, more profit.

  18. Anandtech’s tests showed the iPad 2 beating the Tegra 3 in GPU tests. It would make sense that The New iPad would blow it away.

    1. The iPad 2 didn’t “beat” it, it absolutely creamed it.

      1.  the PowerVR GPUs are fantastic but the only area the ipad 2 really beat the Transformer prime was in gl benchmark offscreen, the rest of the results were pretty close,

        off screen is not really revelant to real world performance, since, we need a screen for us humans to see the damm thing.

        also its worth rembering that the test you point to are based on the prime running honeycomb and unoptimised glbenchmark.

        either way it dosent really matter, i wouldnt buy tegra 3 based device having owned a tegra 2 based device and seem how closed source they are, not any better than Apple really.

        I’ll be waiting for the sgs3 and samsungs 11 inch tab before making any new purchases

  19. Apple probably tests their tablets against the competition and always wins, because they run down the batteries of the competitors before the test so they lose….haha!

  20. well I believe what they meant was Tegra 2 not Tegra 3, this is not the first time Apple makes mistakes like this, I rememebr Steve Jobs used to call Android “Droid” and once he said manufacture like Motorola blah blah and android (!!!).

    1. I highly doubt it.

      1 Tegra 2 gpu = 1 SGX 540

      1 SGX 543 = 2 SGX 540

      4 SGX 543 = 8 SGX 540

  21. Here’s the deal… The A5X may be faster than a Tegra 3 in some graphics tests (The PowerVR GPU’s Tile-based deferred rendering helps quite a bit with that stuff and is arguably a bit of a cheat) but… BUT… the power efficiency sucks.

    The new iPad has a whopping 42.5 Whr battery. The Transformer Infinity (1920×1200 display with a 1.6 Ghz Tegra 3 which has yet to be benchmarked) has a 25 Whr battery. They’re both supposed to get 9-10 hrs of use.The Transformer Prime with a 1.3 Ghz Tegra 3 has a 22 Whr battery life and manages a 9-10 hour battery life.

    nVidia was focusing on performance per watt. That’s a bit of a big deal for mobile devices.

    Tha A5X will never see the inside of a Phone. The Tegra 3 will be powering many phones and tablets.

    PS – TBDR is also used by Adreno and Mali GPUs. It’s great now (it saves the GPU from drawing unseen geometry) but as mobile graphics get more complex geometry, nVidia’s IMR approach will actually give a much better visual experience. Right now, game devs are using pixel shader effects in place of high polygon counts. That’ll start to look crappy as mobile games get more complex and displays go higher res.

    1. Adreno and Mali have TBDR? Nope.
      The iPad has a higher resolution display, and a much much more powerful SoC, so battery life isn’t really surprising.

      1. More powerful ? How much ? …muchmuch.56 or muchmuch.62 ?

      2. Backlight is important, iPad display is smaller

      3. Uh, Mali definitely does.

        Mali”Advanced tile-based deferred rendering and local buffering of intermediate pixel states”

        http://www.arm.com/products/multimedia/mali-graphics-hardware/mali-400-mp.php I did make a partial mistake on the Adreno 220 series. It apparently is a TBEZR.

    2. I’m pretty sure that by the time the next iPhone is about to debut, it might be a A-15 chip…que the A6 processor…so while the A5-X might never see the iPhone, the A6 will…and whatever ‘magic’ apple did to get LTE to still yield 9-10hrs of battery life will as well…

      1. Apple’s magic with LTE was packing a 42.5 whr battery into the new iPad. The 10% hit on battery life equates to 4.25 whrs which is almost an entire phone battery. For reference, the iPhone 4S has a 5.3 whr battery.

        Sent from my ham sandwich

        1. This is true…In fact everything is true….and your comment about the tiny 4S’ batter makes me doubt that the LTE radio would make it to the next iPhone…but being able to fit that battery into the iPad 3 despite its current dimensions is rather interesting IMO. I’ve played around with a few iDevices and the iPad 2 is pretty much all battery by itself…the same thing might probably be said about the Prime(I haven’t seen the prime’s internals)…I’m curious though how they were able to increase the power density of the cells to make it fit into the chasis. Anyway, this is good for everyone, first time I’ve seen an LTE tablet that seems to have rather good battery life. I hope more OEMs figure this out and rid the world of this seemingly battery draining effect of LTE…

          1. i agree. power per watt is a big thing. but its even more impressive when you can fit that large of a battery in the ipad and only increase the size incrementally (which no one notices because most people use a case). 

  22. OH MY GOODNESS!!! iPAD gets voice dictation, and iSheep around the web are already acting like Apple invented something new again.

    Android has had voice dictation (the microphone button) for a while now.

    Android needs better marketing. They need to SHOW OFF EVERYTHING Android does, so stupid Apple can’t claim it as something new and original.

    Google, if you are reading this, make a commercial to highlight everything Android does please.

    1. it’s hard for google to show what it can do when every manufacturer puts their custom skin over it and unlike apple, google isn’t the ones making the phone. 

      1. Exactly. The OEMs will never market Android itself. They just talk about their skins. And the carriers don’t care.

    2. Your best very is to make your own video in comparison and try to make it go viral.

  23. As usual, Apple is full of cherry-picking shiite.

    How’s that for mixing-and-matching :)

  24. What does a 4-core GPU even really mean?  GPUs usually have various specialized cores (texture units, etc) that number in the hundreds on PCs/laptops.  So ‘quad-core’ doesn’t really sound that impressive next to that.  Perhaps they’ve embraced a new design philosophy with these mobile SoC designs?  Anyone able to clarify?

    1. Nah, with 4 Core they mean that they put 4 SGX 543’s in one package.
      Nvidia are taking a different approach with the whole core thing.

  25. Its a lose or lose situation for nvidia here. In previous GPU benchmarks between A5 and Tegra 3 (http://www.anandtech.com/show/5163/asus-eee-pad-transformer-prime-nvidia-tegra-3-review/3),  A5 was able to outperform Tegra 3  somewhere between 20 to 90 %. Now, considering A5X GPU is  2x faster than A5 (most likely the exact same GPU of PsVita) , in the best case scenario doing the same tests , T3 would be 2.5-3x slower than A5x, leaving Nvidia into an ugly and embarassing position.
    Bottom line : yes, its not 4x better , only 3x, happy Nvidia?

    1. 20-90% is 1.4x-2.8x, not 2.5x-3x and definitely not 4x. and yes what would make Nvidia happy is to see where the numbers came from. 

    2. They would like to see numbers, not your 1st grade maths…..

  26. Get over it people. It is not the end of the world yet. Chill out! If it is or not. What about the high gas prices? What about the unemployment?
    Lame.

    1. Tech blog… not a current gas price or unemployment blog. We are here to discuss tech news not global economy.

  27. What if it is 4x better lol nvidia will feel stupid, or even 2x better!

  28. does matter about specs apple still has the software and Google doesn’t so who cares

    1. iOS is the worst part of an iPad what are you talking about?

    2. Yea if android was ported into an ipad I would tottaly buy it, why the hell would I buy an iPad with iOS when an iPhone 4s does the exact same thing and more lol

  29. This is one area I think Apple is under-appreciated (and I hate Apple). They are incredible at misinforming the consumer, and making blogs jump to conclusions (and outright lies) for them, without having to lie about what their product does themselves.

  30. It doesn’t surprise me to see Apple making this claim. It’s not the first time Apple has bent three truth to make themselves look better. This is the company that says Android is a stolen technology, knowing full well that Android was a concept long before the first iPhone launched. They are trying to steal customers from the competition, however they will need to watch what they say, as naming specific companies and products could open them up for lawsuits.

    1. I am not protecting anyone here, but the launch date of the first iPhone should not be the comparable factor. If we are talking about Android being a concept then we should talk about when the iPhone was a concept. Now that we have gone back that far, how similar was Android, as a concept, to iPhone, as a concept? I don;t necessarily know the answer to all of these questions, but it IS something to think about I think.

  31. If the guys at nVidia want to really verify apple’s claim I reckon that Nvidia should smash the iPad 3, rip out the processor, shove it in tegra 3 striped transformer prime and check if the GPU benchmarks of the PROCESSOR ALONE (as it is what apple was talking about) and compare it to the tegra 3 chip in another transformer prime. However, I think it would probably be a waste of a well built transformer prime…

  32. I saw the keynote and the most interesting thing was Infinity Blade: Dungeons lol.

  33. Apple is misleading their customers as how Sony mislead their’s with the PS Vita 3G/WiFi which stated free month of 3G service and a game which technically you don’t get those until after you pay for the first month service and then you get the free game on the second month…

  34. it looks like the ipad 3 use of “quad core” graffics is closer to something like SLI.

    They dont seem to count cores the same way as Nvidia

  35. Lol I would love to see an iPad 2 that can stream a 1080p video with ought any lagg or stumble and as flawlessly as my Tprime , the truth is it can’t so how is it possible that the graphics processor in the iPad 2 is better then the tegra 3 but can’t render graphics anywhere close to as seemlesly as the tegra 3 , I bet there’s something wrong with the benchmark apps their running cause in real life experience the tegra 3 blows it away, and its evident, hell for all we know those apps are suited better for iOS then they are on the android OS

  36. Well they also said that the glass on the iPhone 4 was nearly indestructible and equivalent to the strength of Gorilla Glass and we all know how that turned out.

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More in News