Dual Core Snapdragon GPU Performance Explored - 1.5 GHz MSM8660 and Adreno 220 Benchmarks
by Brian Klug on March 30, 2011 4:29 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Snapdragon
- Qualcomm
- Adreno
- MSM8660
- MDP
- Mobile
GLBenchmark 2.0
GLBenchmark 2.0 – as its name implies – tests OpenGL ES 2.0 performance on compatible devices across multiple software platforms. The suite includes two long benchmarking scenarios with a demanding combination of OpenGL ES 2.0 effects - texture based and direct lighting, bump, environment, and radiance mapping, soft shadows, vertex shader based skinning, level of detail support, multi-pass deferred rendering, noise textures, and ETC1 texture compression. In addition, there's a large suite of subtests and feature tests.
GLBenchmark 2.0 is the best example of an even remotely current 3D game running on this class of hardware–even then this is a bit of a stretch. GLBenchmark 2.0 is still our current go-to test as it is our best best for guaging real world performance, even across different mobile OSes. Keep in mind that with GLBenchmark 2.0 we still cannot run at any resolution than native – in this case 800x480 (WVGA) – and the same applies for other devices in the suite, they're all at respective native resolutions. GLBenchmark 3.0 will fix this somewhat with the ability to render into an off-screen buffer of arbitrary size.
We never formally reviewed the T-Mobile MyTouch 4G, but have one nonetheless and have included it in our benchmark numbers a few times. Likewise, I purchased an HTC Inspire 4G for personal use which we'll review soon. The importance of these two devices is that they represent the current generation of single-core Snapdragon SoCs with Adreno 205 graphics. Comparatively, the 1.5 GHz MSM8660 with Adreno 220 is 2.2x faster than the 1 GHz MSM8655 with Adreno 205.
Interestingly enough our run through Egypt came slightly higher with Vsync on than it did off - we're just showing the margin of error here.
Pro is a less challenging test than Egypt, as it's simply the GLBenchmark 1.x main suite with OpenGL ES 2.0 features and shaders. Already we're at the framerate cap here on both MSM8660 and likely OMAP 4430. Pro likewise demonstrates huge gains from Adreno 205 to Adreno 220 - in this case 3.7x.
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michael2k - Friday, April 1, 2011 - link
Um, the benchmarks for OpenGL ES2 and Egypt run on the iPhone and iPad.mfergus - Friday, April 1, 2011 - link
I was referring to 3dmark, that was his question.Omid.M - Wednesday, March 30, 2011 - link
Except, the MSM8960 is what we should be looking for, due to the integrated LTE antenna. Right?Does the 8960 have the Adreno 220? I forget. I think 28nm 8960 will be substantially faster and more power efficient than Tegra 2, assuming T2 doesn't improve that much architecturally by the time 8960 is in mass produced devices.
jordanclock - Wednesday, March 30, 2011 - link
The MSM8960 will perform identically, except it will have LTE. All MSM8x60s will have the same hardware, with the sole difference being the cellular antenna. Since this MDP has no cellular connectivity at all (or even WiFi) it's a moot point, anyway. They can't test any of that kind of stuff yet.Omid.M - Thursday, March 31, 2011 - link
Great point. Thanks for the clarification.Really impressive SoCs coming out. I just wish battery tech evolved instep with SoCs.
metafor - Thursday, March 31, 2011 - link
8960 will bring a new CPU design; Krait will replace Scorpion.Lucian Armasu - Thursday, March 31, 2011 - link
Tegra 2? The 1.5 Ghz quad core Tegra 3 will be long out before the 1.5 Ghz dual core Snapdragon chip is out. I think they said it will ship around late Q4 this yearWizardofAwesomeness - Friday, April 1, 2011 - link
Lucian,You have many postings all over the web where you're singing the praises of Tegra's graphics performance even when faced with irrefutable benchmark data, such as that from Anandtech, proving that Tegra 2 often has inferior graphics to SGX based devices like iPad2, and now ,it is clear that Tegra 2 has inferior performance to Qualcomm's 8660. Is Tegra 3 really better than future products/chipsets from Apple, TI, Samsung and Qualcomm, and do you think that these other companies are just going to stand still while NVIDIA alone produces new chipsets? Hmmm...think it through man, everybody has a killer next chip.
Also, you've posted above a strong statement about the availability of future Tegra 3 quad core based OEM products vs. the commerical availability of those based on dual core products Qualcomm, TI and others. - again, how do you know? Just because NVIDIA says something in the press doesn't exactly make it so. Please stop being such an obvious NVIDIA fanboy, and do a little more research before you post such drivel.
scofflaw - Wednesday, March 30, 2011 - link
On the 8655MDP VEE is available in the Trepn Profiler app under the Current option.Thanks.
cabbeer - Wednesday, March 30, 2011 - link
Considering the A5 is a good gauge for whats going to be in the next iphone, I think it would be interesting to see the ipad2 benchmarks in the comparison.