With more local processing resources, developers can start to build more comprehensive applications which can make use of data more readily in simultaneous and/or asynchronous activities. The applications that we have seen on the tablet space have been – lets admit it – fairly light weight and often implementing a significantly reduced experience from thier more established “laptop” or “desktop” cousins. On the more general computing question, I think the advances have a great deal of bearing on the tablet market as a general segment. This would also explain the crashes in the “high” settings tests as the product is unable to fully make use of the graphics/compute model. What we may be observing is the results of a fraction of that computing power being brought to bear. I think that it bears remembering that the benchmark product is NOT optimized (and in fact may even be incapable at present) of actually making use of the new GPU integrated in the updated Kal-El design.Īnd/or the hardware “driver” integration may not be completely ready to go yet.
The Apple iPad 2 knocks all other devices out of the water - but it doesn’t actually have a 720p display. The Acer Iconia Tab A500, by the way, with a current generation NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual core processor scored just 21 frame per second in the Offscreen 720p test and 17 frames per second in the Egypt Standard test. But they do give us a bit of a basis for comparing devices. It’s worth taking these results with a grain of salt, since they don’t necessarily measure overall performance, power consumption, or even real-world performance. The Transformer 2 also wasn’t able to complete some of the tests. While the Transformer 2 notched 53 frames per second int he Egypt Offscreen 720p test compared with the Galaxy S II’s score of 42 frames per second, the S II got close to 59 frames per second in the Egypt Standard test, compared with the Transformer’s 41 frames per second. The scores look at the new chip’s graphics performance, and while the Kal-El chip definitely holds its own, the results are comparable to what you’d see from a high-end smartphone such as the Samsung Galaxy S II. The scores have since been erased, but they’re still hanging out in the Google cached copy of the website for now.
Someone’s been using a device called the Asus Transformer TF201 to run some benchmarks recently, because a series of test scores showed up at the GLBenchmark website. Now it looks like we may have confirmation that one of the first devices to use the upcoming Kal-El processor may be the second-generation Asus Eee Pad Transformer tablet. The new chips could launch by the end of the year and show up in actual products soon after.
NVIDIA is starting to reveal some new details about the Kal-El multi-core processor that will power next-generation phones and tablets.