GLBenchmark 2.5 Performance on iOS and Android Devices
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Brian Klug on July 31, 2012 8:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- GLBenchmark
- Mobile
- Tablets
- SoCs
Earlier today we published our first results using GLBenchmark 2.5, the long awaited update to one of our most frequently used mobile GPU benchmarks. As a recap, here's a quick introduction to the new benchmark:
GLBenchmark 2.5.0 primarily addresses a few shortcomings from the previous version of the Egypt test, primarily by moving to a more challenging version of Egypt. The new game test is named Egypt HD, and moves to a much more complex scene while keeping roughly the same test animation. Geometry count has increased, texture resolution has increased, there's a new water shader, more reflections, and more shadowing. In addition, the offscreen test has now moved to a default resolution of 1080p instead of the previous 720p, for a more challenging workload. This offscreen resolution is now customizable, but we'll be running 1080p for ease of comparison. In addition, the "classic" Egypt test is also a part of GLBenchmark 2.5.0 for those wishing to compare to 2.1.5. In addition, the triangle and fill subtests also stay around for a lower level look at OpenGL ES 2.0 performance. It should go without saying, but GLBenchmark 2.5 is still an OpenGL ES 2.0 test.
In our first article we ran GLBenchmark 2.5 on devices based on Samsung's Exynos dual and quad SoCs, Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4, NVIDIA's Tegra 2/3 and TI's OMAP 4. We had problems getting older devices to run, which is why we only had the abridged set of starting data on Android. In addition, GLBenchmark 2.5 for Android only supports Android 3.x and up.
GLBenchmark 2.5 is already available in the Google Play store, however the iOS version isn't quite ready for public release. Thankfully we've been able to get our hands on the iOS version and now have results for the new iPad, iPad 2 as well as the iPhone 4S. Just as before we've split results into tablet and smartphone performance. Let's tackle the tablets first.
Tablet Performance in GLBenchmark 2.5
Apple's A5X SoC is a beast as we found in our investigation of the chip earlier this year. The SoC marries a quad-core PowerVR SGX 543 with a quad-channel memory controller, good for up to 12.8GB/s of memory bandwidth. The combination of the two is a GPU that significantly outperforms anything else on the market today.
The A5X's dominance extends to GLBenchmark 2.5. Low level performance ranges from 33% faster than NVIDIA's Tegra 3 on the low end to over 3x the performance at the high end. Even Apple's A5 found in the iPad 2 tends to be the second fastest SoC in these tests.
Egypt HD continues to be unrelentless in its punishment of mobile SoCs. The A5X is able to just keep up with the A5 thanks to the new iPad's significantly higher native resolution. Even the A5 running at 1024 x 768 can only muster 22 fps in the new Egypt HD test. It's going to take another generation of mobile GPUs to really sustain playable frame rates here.
The offscreen test runs without vsync enabled and at a standard 1080p resolution for all devices. In the case of the new iPad this works out to be a significantly lighter workload, which is responsible for the 20% higher frame rate. Even at 1080p though, the A5X isn't enough to sustain 30 fps.
The classic Egypt benchmark once again gives us a good indication of present day gaming performance, which for the most part is fine on any of the latest SoCs.
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repoman27 - Tuesday, July 31, 2012 - link
I don't think it means what you think it means.hurrakan - Wednesday, August 1, 2012 - link
Inconceivable!vision33r - Tuesday, July 31, 2012 - link
Everyone on this site hates Apple but look who came out on top in the most important performance category.Yet, people keep touting how much better the Samsung Galaxy phones and tablets are and here we are the iPad 2 and iPad 3 is just beasting these benchmarks.
I don't really game on Android anyways, lack of high quality games. Only thing worth playing are emulators and most of the good games are iOS ports.
Pipperox - Wednesday, August 1, 2012 - link
Well that's true in the tablet division, but not in the smartphone.The triangle / fill rate tests are meaningless, they do not represent any actual workload that will ever appear in any game or application.
In the Egypt tests, the Galaxy SIII comes out on top, although the iPhone 4S performs pretty well.
robinthakur - Wednesday, August 1, 2012 - link
Yet the iphone has infinitely better looking games and the interface is smoother (versus the sometimes smooth, sometimes choppy SGS3 especially when you start to use its internal storage. Unless you buy your devices to run benchmarks on them exclusively, then Apple wins here.amdwilliam1985 - Wednesday, August 1, 2012 - link
My retired Motorola Razor flip phone is smoother than iPhone 4s, does it make it a better phone than iPhone 4s?Yes, I purposely comparing a "dumb" phone against the "smart" phone. I'll pick the flip phone over iPhone any day, that's how much I'm against Apple. Sad...
Luckily I don't have to, my SGS2 is working as a champ.
TEAMSWITCHER - Wednesday, August 1, 2012 - link
Could you at least try to convince us that you're not a Troll. Try being a little more subtle. Keep practicing, as there will be lot's of great Apple stories this fall for you bitch about.UltraTech79 - Wednesday, August 8, 2012 - link
Your Razor has a shit old UI. The UI in iOS and Droids is a modern one. So nice try there, troll.vision33r - Wednesday, August 1, 2012 - link
The Int. SGS3 is fast but the downfall is the OS. There are hardly any worthy games on Android which is why I picked the SGS3 USDM since Android is CPU + memory hungry.iOS is clearly made for avg folks but there are just too many good games and apps that Android will always be behind.
Android phone + iPad 3 is the best combo right now.
c4v3man - Tuesday, August 7, 2012 - link
android phone + Nexus 7 + Xbox360 or PS3 > Android Phone + iPad3 for games when it comes to a ~$700 outlay.Besides, there's plenty of fine games on Android, which play even better with a PS3 controller. On-Screen controls for graphically demanding games typically suck. Games that play best with touchscreen controls are typically not graphically demanding.