During the launching event of the new iPad, Apple was quick to claim that the A5X processor that is being tooled by its new tablet, is 4X faster than Nvidia’s Tegra 3. In fact, Apple didn’t stop at that and also claimed that the processor of iPad 2 was 2X faster than Tegra 3 chip. Naturally, the folks at Nvidia have now challenged Apple to reveal what benchmark tests it used to compare the graphics performance of the two chips.
The trick thing about benchmark tests is that some of them may suit one piece of hardware, and yet others may suit another piece of hardware. So what the tech companies do is that they handpick benchmark tests that suit them most, detail out their results and declared that their piece of hardware is better than the rest.
I am not saying that’s what Apple did. But this has been happening quite frequently between Nvidia and AMD, and we can certainly expect a similar scenario in this case too. According to a Nvidia spokesperson Ken Brown, it was ‘certainly flattering to be called out by Apple, but the performance claims are sketchy without more data.’
And this statement is pretty valid because Apple didn’t offer any footnotes, or details about the benchmark tests, that it used to gauge and compare the performance of A5X chip and Tegra 3. Ken further said that,nvidia ‘We don’t have the benchmark information. 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.’
These are very concerns and especially for Nvidia, who has been touting Tegra 3 as a really superior processor, the claims made by Apple may have been a downer. However, it remains unclear whether or not Apple will reveal these tests as there has been no word from Apple over this issue.
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