Some new benchmarks released recently are showing that, though the new Tegra 4 chip is fast, it is not faster than the Apple A6X SoC (System on Chip). The GLBenchmark is showing that the device was running at a clock speed of 1.8 GHz, with resolution of 1920 x 1128 pixels and running Android 4.2.1. This was achieved using Dalmore, which is 1 of 2 Tegra 4 evaluation boards that some select developers get to use.
The Tegra 4 scored well but wasn’t able to keep up with the iPad 4 A6X chipset. While the Tegra 4 scored a 32.6 FPS rating running at 1080p, which is quite good the iPad 4 was able to score a rather impressive 49.6 FPS on the same test.
Remember though that the Tegra 4 SoC was not tested on a smartphone or tablet that is necessarily bound to hit the market so there may be some anomalies of other glitches that can affect the speed of the testing chip. When a chipset is used in a product that goes into the hands of consumers that product is usually thoroughly tested to ensure tip top performance. So where the iPad has been used over and over and has been vetted by the consumer market the device used to test the Tegra 4 may be something that is either in the early development phase or is not planned for any kind of release.
The main thing to remember here is that benchmarks are a very finite way at looking at the use of a chipset. There is so much more going on that these tests don’t account for which means, in many cases, these tests don’t apply to real world use. The blend between software and hardware make a huge difference and also the way that these phones run on different operating systems and variants of internals. Also, things like manufacturer skins such as Samsung’s Touchwiz or HTC’s Sense UI can have a negative or positive impact and because they are both running Android 4.1 that is all that would show up on an early testing like this. In many cases, once a chip, like the Tegra 4, is extensively tested in real world and artificial use it will have a much stronger score on these benchmarks because all the small software and hardware function bugs will be worked out. Plus, I would love to see the Tegra 4 destroy all it’s competition and show it’s true power. That said I am sure we will be hearing a lot more about the benchmarks of the Tegra 4 in the future when more people get there hands on it.
Also, these tests have been removed from the GLBenchmark site, for obvious reasons.