AfterDawn: News

Nvidia sceptical of Apple's A5X graphics performance claim

Where are the benchmarks?

Yesterday, Apple Inc. unveiled a new iPad with 4G (for the United States and Canada only), a new Retina Display screen and a new A5X chip with quad-core graphics. It went on to claim that the A5X delivers 4x the performance of Nvidia's Tegra 3 chip.



Immediately there was some chatter online about how Apple had shown no proof of this claim. The slide which showed a simple chart putting the A5X chip at 4x the performance of the Tegra 3 completely lacked any footnotes or information on benchmark testing at all, and the Apple staff didn't offer up an explanation either.

"We don't have the benchmark information," said Ken Brown, a spokesman for Nvidia. "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."

Brown said that Nvidia will get its hands on a new iPad and put the A5X to the test against other tablet PCs.

Written by: James Delahunty @ 8 Mar 2012 13:19

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• 7 comments

• xbkrypt0n

  Just sue them already Apple.

  8.3.2012 13:52 #1

• Morreale

  Originally posted by xbkrypt0n: Just sue them already Apple. Exactly, they're asking too many questions. Nvidia also has some popularity.
  

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  8.3.2012 14:00 #2

• harhumph

  I would trust Nvidia over Apple any day of the week. I would suspect Nvidia has more raw power but Apple will seem faster since their processor is optimized for one tablet made by one brand with one unified operating system (this will always make things more efficient). Having said that I would never buy an Ipad unless it had usb and mp3 support (no itunes)... good luck with that. My tablet is overclocked, custom roms, can use torrents, flash, and any usb travel drive I wish to store thousands of mp3's files!

  8.3.2012 15:10 #3

• plutonash

  In the graphics department, it should stomp the Tegra because its gpu is made from imagination technologies, the superior mobile gaming manufacturer. The new iPad has the same gpu in the play station vita actually.
  

  "Cable thief is a victimless crime."

  8.3.2012 16:00 #4

• Jeffrey_P

  Apple zombies will believe anything their beloved Apple tells them regardless if it is misinformation or not. They don't need to see benchmarks since the vast majority of Apple users do not know the difference between benchmarks and a park bench.
  
  Any fool who stands in line for days paying just to pay premium prices for a device that is already obsolete deserves what they get.
  
  Jeff
  

  Cars, Guitars & Radiation.

  8.3.2012 19:27 #5

• xtago

  I thought it was a bit questionable myself.
  
  I reckon it's a case of saying we really do have a quad core but really only have a duel core CPU.
  
  So many people where expecting a quad core CPU and Samsung had said Apple won't have one because it's not made, yet sites are saying it will.
  
  So many android phones and tablets will have a quad core CPU before an Apple product will, that when they finally do bring one people will be saying oh you caught up now.

  9.3.2012 05:36 #6

• molsen

  I think people are missing the GPU aspect. I believe Apple might be faster on the graphical side, but throughput.....Well I will have to give that to Nivida.

  9.3.2012 11:51 #7