Apple iPad Air 2 GPU tested, outclasses Tegra K1

Someone has put the Apple iPad Air 2 through GFXBench's 2.7 T-Rex and 3.0 Manhattan's onscreen and offscreen (1080p) platform and we get to ogle at the framerates posted.

The results show the iPad Air 2 is just as good and even at times better than the promising Tegra K1 chip and its Kepler GPU, which was the previous graphics champ.

The scores below show the iPad Air 2 beat the Tegra K1 in both offscreen tests - the same tests that are both capped at 1080p and indicate the raw power of the GPU.

The onscreen tests offer less framerate because of the above-1080p native resolution of the iPad Air 2 but it still managed to pull ahead of the Xiaomi Mi Pad 7.9 which has the same screen resolution and Nvidia's latest chip inside.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPad Air 2
  72
• NVIDIA Shield Tablet
  65
• Xiaomi Mi Pad 7.9
  53.1
• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  44.6
• Apple iPad Air
  25

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)

Higher is better

• NVIDIA Shield Tablet
  54.2
• Apple iPad Air 2
  53
• Xiaomi Mi Pad 7.9
  39.6
• Apple iPad Air
  21

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPad Air 2
  32.7
• NVIDIA Shield Tablet
  31
• Xiaomi Mi Pad 7.9
  27.3
• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  18.6

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• NVIDIA Shield Tablet
  27.6
• Apple iPad Air 2
  24.7
• Xiaomi Mi Pad 7.9
  19.8

The Nvidia Shield Tablet was only able to beat the Apple iPad Air 2 on the onscreen tests as its screen resolution is 1080p. More importantly the iPad Air 2 achieved superb framerates in all but the onscreen Manhattan test - easily above the 30fps threshold.

We're eagerly waiting to see how much better the 64-bit Tegra K1 will be than the 32-bit one in the Shield Tablet and Mi Pad 7.9. As it happens GFXBench lists a Nexus 9 unit (the HTC-made Google tablet with the 64-bit Tegra K1) with scores in both T-Rex and Manhattan but there's nothing in the Info screen to indicate this is legitimately the Nexus 9.

Naturally we will be doing our own testing on the iPad Air 2 and Nexus 9 once we get our hands on them.

Thanks, Philo for the tip!

Source