Counterclockwise: console-quality graphics on phones

05 November 2017
Mobile chipsets rival computer and console parts in complexity, but the promise of console-like graphics never comes true.

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  • ?
  • Anonymous
  • Hx6
  • 06 Nov 2017

Hardware aside, its all about content.
After all, that's all PC gamers talk about when its Mac vs PC.

iOS kills Android in gaming content.

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    • AnonD-700134
    • PeN
    • 06 Nov 2017

    The NVIDIA SHIELD have many console games from PS360 generation, i was surprised to play games like Resident Evil 5, Tomb Raider 1, Half Life 2, Doom 3, Crysis 3, MGS 2 HD, Borderlands 2, MGS Revengeance, etc.
    The catch is the fps, some games have many slowdowns or unstable fps.
    In the iPad i played the Bioshock 1, but it doesn´t work with iOS 11 and was removed from appstore, that was the only PS360 generation game i already see in the appstore, but i played a few PS2 games, like GTA 3, GTA VC, GTA SA, Dragon Quets VIII, Max Payne 1, etc.

      Anonymous, 05 Nov 2017Yup.. The Nokia N-Gage was providing full 3D games on mobil... moreGBA was released in 2001 and ngage was released at 2003. Rapid advancement in chipset power that time made sure ngage was more powerful than GBA, but it was runing on heavy by console standard Symbian OS, so it was 3d machine, but graphically not much ahead of best GBA 3d titles, and ngage games had really port frame rates. In 2004 NDS came out, and basically ended short advantage of ngage in mobile gaming era

        • ?
        • Anonymous
        • j5$
        • 06 Nov 2017

        Anonymous, 06 Nov 2017Great so what is stopping you from using good alternative l... moreI would give you a nice badge for this comment, if I could.
        "25% of its potential"? WTF does that mean?

          Simple physics. Console has advantage in space, console dies are they bigger in diameter than any phone chipsets. Apple A chipset are much larger than any android chipset, that's why they destroys android chipset easely. So size metters, bigger chipset more transistor more powerful you can make it, but it draws more power. That's why phones can't compete, cause it is very power conscious. Plus no one pushes chipset limits on mobile games, cause it is dominated by poor, simple games to pass time not to play serious. In raw calculations, console market is ahead minimum 10 years comparing to mobile market. Best you can get on android is GTA San Andreas and some driving games in graphics, like asphalt 8 or Real Racing 3 and some Modern Combat fps, which barely reaches early graphics of Xbox 360 or not even that. Mobile chipsets are capable of reaching Xbox 360 level performance, thanks to Apple A, but developers need to push hardware too, which is not happening due to heavy fragmentation of OS and chipsets. Bottom line, want to play good games? play it on PC or Consoles, mobile market it is not even close to Console market, even you hearing this nonsense messages, what your phone is capable to reach console level experiences, which is not!

            • ?
            • Anonymous
            • j5$
            • 06 Nov 2017

            Future of gaming, 06 Nov 2017Good Graphics is only half the picture. Touch games can onl... moreOnly real game is fps

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              • Anonymous
              • 3Y2
              • 06 Nov 2017

              Android phones needs cool pipes, radiators and cooling fan system Android phones like V8 American muscle and iPhone like Japanese super cars Supra, GTR etc.. more reliable lol.
              Btw I’m an Android user

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                • Future of gaming
                • Kxw
                • 06 Nov 2017

                Good Graphics is only half the picture. Touch games can only go so far. Sure good for those casual games, and candy crush.. that hARdly use any GPU anyways. And those good graphics ones are so mind numbing simple its bad. AR on phone is fun for awhile.. then becomes JUNK for gaming, and fall into the casual playing.

                To advance this further, they need support for keyboard + mouse combos / more adv game controllers. Or a AR + VR headset that can emulate the keyboard / mouse or controllers and display a large gaming world. So it becomes truly mobile.

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                  • AnonD-706436
                  • 3Zd
                  • 06 Nov 2017

                  Comparison gpu's using flops - mistake!

                  Gpu includes arithmetic logic units (ALU), texture mapping units (TMU) and render output units, name as raster operations pipeline (ROP).

                  Quantity of flops depends on quantity of alu.
                  And quantity of flops doesn't depends on quantity of rop and tmu.
                  But quantity of rop and tmu is important for gpu's performance.

                  So comparison GPUs, using only flops isn't correct!

                  Apple a10 gpu have the same performance with adreno 540.

                  Apple a11 gpu now is most powerful gpu in smartphones.

                    • ?
                    • Anonymous
                    • S9u
                    • 06 Nov 2017

                    Akinaro, 05 Nov 2017fancy F look? xD where the heII you find that in my comment... moreGreat so what is stopping you from using good alternative like; K9 mail less crappie social shits like Telegram & Signal me by some of GTK software I mentioned. All Open Source & all without pile of bullshits from visual to functions you never will use over to the fact it's good written, secure & without adds. So it's easier to troll around o me o my it's so bad.
                    You don't even have a clue what Linux kernel really is nor represent.
                    Hire is a prime example how really bad users are:
                    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=video.player.videoplayer
                    It's top rated better than Kodi or VLC. But what it really is?
                    It's a fork of VLC with partially reworked interface all the libs used are from open source (again mainly VLC with FFmpeg addition even subtitles are from open subtitles org) & only ARM V7. It also volatile GPL licenses as licence text is nowhere to be found it also contains adds & in app purchase. But vast majority of consumers find this shameful, disrespectful rip off as a gift from heaven. So much about sheep's and how easy it to milk them.

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                      • AnonD-142729
                      • f}3
                      • 06 Nov 2017

                      This was a very informative article. Kudos gsmarena.

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                        • AnonD-706436
                        • 3Zd
                        • 06 Nov 2017

                        Compare gpu's, using flops - it is mistake!!!


                        Gpu include tmu, rop and alu supplies. Amount of alu determines amount of flops, but amount of rop and tmu supplies doesn't effect to flops ! But amount of rop and tmu is very important! So flops don't show real gpu performance.

                        Apple a10 gpu has the same performance with adreno 540.

                        Apple a11 gpu is the most powerful.

                          • K
                          • Kangal
                          • uCX
                          • 06 Nov 2017

                          Aslipundit, 06 Nov 2017Lol. Only based on pointless Geekbench scores, completel... moreWhile I accept your premise; Geekbench sucks comparing different processor types and systems. I don't accept your justification.

                          You know most of those limitations are because of the Operating System; you're comparing a mobileOS to a full-fledged Windows 10 build.

                          First of all, 6th-gen, 7th-gen (and 8th-gen) Core M processors (well, they're actually SoC's) are quite identical... and they're all advanced and powerful. An in-order processor like the ARM Cortex A35 cannot compete against it, let alone the Cortex A53 and the Cortex A55's.
                          However, out-of-order chips have been getting quite sophisticated. The Cortex A72's can scratch the Core M's for performance, and the Cortex A73's perform almost as well while using even less battery life. The Cortex A75's will push the envelope further.

                          I think you will find 10nm Quad-Cortex A75's surpassing 14nm Dual-Core M's in 2018. And they would do so with a power deficit (2W vs 4W TDP). As for Apple, they have diverged from the usual ARM blueprints back in the day of the Apple A7 (iPhone 5S). The Apple A8 was very similar to the A7, however, the Apple A9 was a further design. At that point, Apple's single processors were exceeding the performance of a typical A72 or A73 chip, and resembled something more like the upcoming A75 chips. The A11 chip is similar to A10 from the microarchitectural point, however, has a more efficient lithography and more resources.

                          So basically: Apple A7, Apple A8, Kryo 200, Cortex A72, and Cortex A73 can contend against the Core M's.
                          However, the Apple A10, Apple A11, QSD 845, Cortex A75 can match the Core M's.

                          I believe Intel is hard at work to push beyond their current performance and efficiency levels (which have been stagnant for the most part since Sandy Bridge). They can't achieve this with a smaller node (eg 7nm), they need a more advanced architecture. So that's what they're working on now.

                          In the meanwhile, ARM processors will get more advanced and play catch up to their less thermally constrained x86 competitors. This is called progress, and this is what we should be striving for in a market with healthy competition spurred due to Capitalism.

                            Lol.

                            Only based on pointless Geekbench scores, completely meaningless when comparing two different platforms.

                            A Core M 6th or 7th gen will run rings around the A10/A11 or whatever. I am not talking about doing things like opening a mail or running the camera. Complex tasks will make it crawl at a snails pace , given the inherent shortcomings of ARM.

                            Try this:

                            Open a reasonably heavy XLS file on your phone, start entering data. Then press the home key and open photoshop mobile. Play some lossless music in the background as well.

                            Open the browser and go to UEFA.com. Open the desktop version. Start the multitasking panel and copy some random text from the website into the XLS you have open. Music should be playing in the background.

                            Tell me how great your experience was. No reloads should happen.

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                              • Anonymous
                              • p{}
                              • 06 Nov 2017

                              "The A11 wipes the floor with the Snapdragon" GSMArena sentences that sting the readership lol.

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                                • Anonymous
                                • kXE
                                • 06 Nov 2017

                                Techfan21, 06 Nov 2017resolution isn't the end of the world. The iPhone X has a g... moreIt doesn't have a 2K display? Well that's true. It definitely has more than 2K.
                                What you meant was it doesnt have a 2.5K display. 2K is almost 1080p. Just a hair over it.

                                  • ?
                                  • Anonymous
                                  • f{9
                                  • 06 Nov 2017

                                  Anonymous, 05 Nov 2017iphone has mediocre Screen obviously score higher than 2k s... morecheck out the of screen benchmark

                                    Techfan21, 06 Nov 2017resolution isn't the end of the world. The iPhone X has a g... moreResolution isn't the end of the world, but it surely affects the benchmarks.

                                      Anonymous, 05 Nov 2017iphone has mediocre Screen obviously score higher than 2k s... moreresolution isn't the end of the world. The iPhone X has a great display. Sure maybe it doesn't have the 2k resolution but viewing angles and saturation are all on point.

                                        iphone 8 plus or x. probably has in the region of 1.2k gflops as the switch is just under 1k gflops, on the other hand, xbox one s 1.4k gflop and ps4 slim has 1.8k gflops, while ps4 pro has 4.2k gflops and xbox one x is at 6k gflops, considering that iphone 8 plus/x has only 3gb ram, if they had 6gb of ram, it will surpass xbox one s and be close to ps4 slim,

                                        regardless of power the lack of native support or standardised external controller ( see how many ios games supports it) is the reason why it's not a true gaming machine and will never, look at the quality of games ( gameplay as oppose to visuals) of apple tv to see it's a very big difference to triple aaa games such as Forza 7, gran turismo sport, resident evil 7 biohazard, horizon zero dawn, zelda breath of wind, last of us, unchartered 4, etc.

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