Nvidia's Tegra 3 Optimizations: THD Android Games, Tested

[Guest]

Nvidia continues to encourage game developers to add Tegra-only details to their Android titles. Is Tegra 3 the killer SoC for Android gaming? How do Tegra-optimized games look compared to the same titles on iOS? Is it all just a bunch of marketing hype?

Nvidia's Tegra 3 Optimizations: THD Android Games, Tested : Read more

 

[aicom]

Interesting comparison. Maybe you could test if there are any differences in effects between models of the Tegra 3?

 

[darkavenger123]

Err...why bother compare with iOS?? No big deal. They should start comparing with PS VITA for some real games....hardware is useless without software....so sick of casual gaming...Angry birds runs just fine with Androids 2 years ago, doesn't need a hardware upgrade. They need to get developers to makes some real games for it or it's just pointless expensive sillicone.

 

[Guest]

I own both the Nexus 4 and a Tegra 3 equiped Asus Transformer Prime. The Nexus 4 is quite a bit faster in a lot of games, especially GTA3 and Vice City. But also Dead Trigger which is supposedly optimized for Tegra runs quite badly on the Transformer Prime, the framerate is much better on the Nexus 4.

 

[gomerpile]

WTF is going on, jeez if it keep it up with the rat race of title games that have no graphics, pc gamers are all doomed. Why waste time and money on the next version of Battlefield 4 when we can develop monkey ball andriod shooters.

 

[abbadon_34]

Nvidia continues to encourage game developers to add Tegra-only details to their Android titles.

Exactly what is wrong with tech today, for 30 years companies learned to embrace compatibility after the Sony Betamax failure (technically better, but priced beyond comsumer appreciation). Now everyone wants to follow Apple forgetting they too suffered from a "closed shop" for 20 years.

 

[blubbey]

Are these phones now more powerful than gen 6 consoles? Dreamcast/PS2/Gamecube/Xbox. I would assume so.

 

[darkchazz]

I've got a Nexus 7 OCed (1.5ghz CPU, 520mhz GPU) and a stock Galaxy Note II, and I have to say that every single game you can think of in the play store runs miles better on the Note II, even the so called optimized-for-tegra titles.

What's bothersome for me though is that some tegra optimized titles actually run on a low resolution by default on the N7 (to compensate for low memory bandwidth???) yet still play on a 30-40ish frame rate, luckily the devs have put resolution option in the setting (see Riptide, beach buggy blitz), but you'll be playing at 20-30fps if you bump it up to the max/native res.

Another title, Horn, which is actually a Tegra exclusive using UE3, actually runs on a low res but does not provide any option to change that, and even with the low resolution, it is extremely choppy at times I can easily notice 15-20fps.

One dev that I like is MADFINGER Games (dead trigger, shadowgun), their titles are so heavily optimized that they run at a consistent 35-45fps on my N7 and I do not notice lag nor inconsistent frame rate. still runs at constant 60fps on my Note II though...

Meanwhile I can't think of anything that doesn't run at 60fps on my Note II, So much that wonder how much better the gpu performance is on Snapdragon S4 pro and apple A6 devices.

 

[natoco]

[citation][nom]blubbey[/nom]Are these phones now more powerful than gen 6 consoles? Dreamcast/PS2/Gamecube/Xbox. I would assume so.[/citation]
Yes, but tiny screens u put u fingers on ruin the experience of gaming, i get my old megadrive out and play or niintendo 64 for some funny simple old school games. Phones look the 'tiny' part like it but its just not the same. I bought a whole heap of games on my iphone only to put them down and never play again since the format in which u play is just not 'fun' and thats the whole point of games is it not. Oh well, consoles or pc's FTW

 

[gilgamex101]

Did anyone else notice that the Heroes Call screen shots are the EXACT same as the Soulcraft screenshots??

 

[Guest]

[citation][nom]blubbey[/nom]Are these phones now more powerful than gen 6 consoles? Dreamcast/PS2/Gamecube/Xbox. I would assume so.[/citation]

definitely, GTAIII and Vice City were both PS2 games and the new mobile versions have upgraded textures

 

[jaquith]

Similar 'Effects' issues on the PC's AMD vs nVidia (PhysX).

Q - Why no benchmarks?

 

[adamovera]

[citation][nom]gilgamex101[/nom]Did anyone else notice that the Heroes Call screen shots are the EXACT same as the Soulcraft screenshots??[/citation]
Sorry about that, my bad - it's fixed now.

 

[prince_david]

[citation][nom]darkavenger123[/nom]Err...why bother compare with iOS?? No big deal. They should start comparing with PS VITA for some real games....hardware is useless without software....so sick of casual gaming...Angry birds runs just fine with Androids 2 years ago, doesn't need a hardware upgrade. They need to get developers to makes some real games for it or it's just pointless expensive sillicone.[/citation]
There's plenty of hardcore games for mobile devices. Play any Shm'up, especially those from Cave co. like Bug Princess. Although that's probably more processing power rather than graphics power.

 

[weaselman]

I remember buying my first power VR graphics card when they made them for desktop Pc`s I was very impressed with the tile rendering system,It was a good card at the time, I remember i was going to buy an Voodo fx 2 card at the time.
Were talking about 15 or 16 years ago here. Ohh look how small it is now with more power.

 

[jonjonjon]

We could take a cheap shot and say that the best smartphone for Tegra 3-optimized games is an iPhone 5

you just did!

 

[rdc85]

[citation][nom]jaquith[/nom]Similar 'Effects' issues on the PC's AMD vs nVidia (PhysX).......[/citation]

Agreed, PhysX is the word I think of, after read couple of lines...

 

[Guest]

Sorry to say it, but this is not a good article.
Comparing Tegra 3 with the other SoC on the Tegra 3 optimized titles was interesting, but it comes to the wrong conclusion and recommendation.
The vast majority of the games available on the Google Play store are NOT Tegra optimized, and the Tegra 3 GPU is the slowest of the bunch.
Why not testing the most graphically intensive games, such as Asphalt 7, ME Infiltrator, Wild Blood?

Also you could have been researching a bit better, Shadowgun for example is also available on the Samsung store with SGS III optimizations.

 

[Guest]

nVIDIA - the smartass who always fool the consumer in thinking that they run better in games that optimized for nvidia.

 

[nitrium]

Last page:

In a majority of cases, the Tegra-oriented game optimizations are largely marking on Nvidia's part.

marketing.

 

[kyuuketsuki]

Yeah, the fact that Nvidia is essentially bribing developers into making Tegra-only optimizations -- despite the fact that there are far superior SoCs on the market that are more than capable of handling the additional effects and the like -- is a good reason for me to *not* get a Tegra device. I have no desire to support that kind of bulls*** business model.

 

[zzz777]

Honestly, I don't fault Nvidia for paying people to code specifically for their hardware, none of the programers would take advantage of the more subtle advantages of the hardware otherwise. I don't like Tegra, but it's unquestionably got better support than Qualcomm randomly gifting certain phones of the same generation with better hardware and nothing but generic support is the difference between being able to run it or not. I don't like Tegra and I love Qualcomm, but this is something Qualcomm is legitimately failing at whereas Nvidia is leveraging a non-fragmented platform with specific technologies. You can't fault them for paying dev's up-front for better code on platforms that sell in larger quantities. Complain when the other companies are less fragmented and decide to work with devs rather than change shit dramatically within the same generation. If I were a dev that worked with OSX and you paid me more to work to make whatever app I made work with Win 8, I sure as hell would take the help and wouldn't think of myself as a sell-out, I'd think of myself as 'dude that has an app on the win 8 market'. Just to hammer it in: getting paid to be able to sell a product makes you smart, not a sell-out.

 

[willyroc]

Eh, there's no major difference between such small devices IMO.

 

[vidfreek]

I just got a Galaxy S3 and for one the specs are all wrong, if you are in the US, the Galaxy S3s provided by Verizon, Sprint and AT&T are not Quad Core processors and have 2 gigs of memory instead of 1. The Quad Core S3s are only over seas in Europe I believe.

As far as performance goes, Zen Pinball THD runs fantastic on my Galaxy S3, just as good if not better than on my TF300 tablet with Tegra 3. So not sure what all this Tegra stuff is about if most of those games run better on other processors/gpus

 

[Maxx_Power]

At the end of the day, is it the optimizations via extra NV money or faster hardware that is responsible for faster gaming ?