Hardware Acceleration: Part of ICS or just part of the Nexus hardware?

[bigdad63]

I'm struggling between the Nexus and the Rezound (I'm actually thinking about taking some time off of romming). It looks like both will check the box for all of my major wants (big hd screen, nice dual core processor, seriously upgraded cam/vid, 4G). The one thing that I would like to have eventually that the Rezound apparently won't have out of the box is hardware acceleration, which apparently allows the gpu to take some of the workload from the cpu for more smooth performance. I can wait on ICS but if I buy the Rezound, I want to know that I'm going to get HA eventually when the phone gets its update. My understanding is that HA is part of ICS and therefore all phones that get it will get HA. Can anyone verify if this is true or untrue

[tno]

So, the answer is yes to both possibilities. Android as an operating system is designed to use as many resources as it knows it has available to it. So, the GPU will be leveraged in a lot of places where it's appropriate. The app drawer is a good example, they use the GPU to render the icons as textures on a cube so you can swipe through from page to page smoothly. The Photobooth like video effects they showed off at Google I/O will use the GPU to render those effects live. And as more and more phones use modern GPUs, they will no doubt add more of these optimizations.

The GPU, however, can be used for even more and a lot of that is up to the device manufacturer. The best example of this comes from Samsung who leverages the GPU in their Galaxy S II and Galaxy Tab lines to create a smooth UI experience and even use it in their browser to smooth the scrolling experience. HTC has a tendency to utilize the GPU to add dazzle effects, window dressing on the Android tableau. Motorola does the same thing though not to the same degree. The result is that HTC's GPU use isn't as effective at creating a smoother UI, nor browsing experience, but shows off more animations and effects.

So, basically, you might never get an absolutely smooth browsing or UI experience because they'll generally add as many bells and whistles as they can, regardless of the performance. If you absolutely have to have the smoothest experience, get the Google Nexus. Samsung is their build partner and they are experts at eking out the most out of their devices. Either way, let us know what you get.

Jason

[bigdad63]

So, the answer is yes to both possibilities. Android as an operating system is designed to use as many resources as it knows it has available to it. So, the GPU will be leveraged in a lot of places where it's appropriate. The app drawer is a good example, they use the GPU to render the icons as textures on a cube so you can swipe through from page to page smoothly. The Photobooth like video effects they showed off at Google I/O will use the GPU to render those effects live. And as more and more phones use modern GPUs, they will no doubt add more of these optimizations.

The GPU, however, can be used for even more and a lot of that is up to the device manufacturer. The best example of this comes from Samsung who leverages the GPU in their Galaxy S II and Galaxy Tab lines to create a smooth UI experience and even use it in their browser to smooth the scrolling experience. HTC has a tendency to utilize the GPU to add dazzle effects, window dressing on the Android tableau. Motorola does the same thing though not to the same degree. The result is that HTC's GPU use isn't as effective at creating a smoother UI, nor browsing experience, but shows off more animations and effects.

So, basically, you might never get an absolutely smooth browsing or UI experience because they'll generally add as many bells and whistles as they can, regardless of the performance. If you absolutely have to have the smoothest experience, get the Google Nexus. Samsung is their build partner and they are experts at eking out the most out of their devices. Either way, let us know what you get.

Jason

Nice, thanks for the info. It seemed like the company was saying that, for the GN, there was some sort of new (or new level of) HA for the GNex. But maybe since I can't seem to find anything additional on the web expanding upon that short statement, it was just touting the same type of HA that is already being used. If I'm really impressed on Monday, I'll probably pull the trigger. If not, the waiting game will commence. I just hope I'm not sitting up on the forum in 6 months with a duct taped D1 talking about waiting for the great new quad core phones that are coming out soon.

[sxm]

Hi

Here you go: Why the Galaxy Nexus uses OMAP instead of Exynos | ExtremeTech

Future ICS phones may have or not have the HA. Maybe they will have better GPU's that have HA in them already or are powerful enough to work w/o HA.

The Rezound is a Gingerbread phone and not a true ICS phone, so.. The Nexus was built for ICS.

[SSHGuru]

The Rezound is also made by HTC and has a very small battery for what it's running.

[bigdad63]

Hi

Here you go: Why the Galaxy Nexus uses OMAP instead of Exynos | ExtremeTech

Future ICS phones may have or not have the HA. Maybe they will have better GPU's that have HA in them already or are powerful enough to work w/o HA.

The Rezound is a Gingerbread phone and not a true ICS phone, so.. The Nexus was built for ICS.

Thanks for the info and here is is another article from that website that just makes me say "Ouch!"

Samsung Galaxy Nexus (Prime) revealed: Slower than iPhone 4S, Galaxy S II | ExtremeTech
I guess I'm either going to have to get used to the fact that verizon just won't put out a top of the line super speced phone or go to another carrier (Sigh).

[bigdad63]

The Rezound is also made by HTC and has a very small battery for what it's running.

Can't lie, I'm a little concerned about that as well. S-LCDs are supposed to be more energy efficient, so I guess I'll find out to what extent that is true (inductive charging might give the rezound a pass though). If not, it'll be the nexus (or wait to see what vzw gets after it turns down the GSIII)

[Liderc]

Thanks for the info and here is is another article from that website that just makes me say "Ouch!"

Samsung Galaxy Nexus (Prime) revealed: Slower than iPhone 4S, Galaxy S II | ExtremeTech
I guess I'm either going to have to get used to the fact that verizon just won't put out a top of the line super speced phone or go to another carrier (Sigh).

The difference is, the Iphone's screen resolution is so much smaller, which results in better benchmark performance, along with the GSII which isn't using ICS. ICS is still being tested essentially, so performance improvements will be seen as they always are within the first 30-60 days.

[bigdad63]

The difference is, the Iphone's screen resolution is so much smaller, which results in better benchmark performance, along with the GSII which isn't using ICS. ICS is still being tested essentially, so performance improvements will be seen as they always are within the first 30-60 days.

Interesting points, but I think I'm still sticking somewhat with that we are getting shortchanged in some area. The Galaxy note with its massive screen pretty much blew out these benchmarks at gsmarena.com: The Samsung Galaxy Note phoneblet takes on our benchmark course . The G Note also quadrants regularly around 3700, so it's hard to believe that ICS could account for that big of a difference. It makes me wonder about the processor and/or gpu. That said, I fully realize that bechmarks aren't the end all and be all of performance in the phone world. It's also painfully obvious that any of these new phones will be a vast improvement over my life support D1 and I should probably just pick the one that makes me feel the most warm and fuzzy.

[Liderc]

Interesting points, but I think I'm still sticking somewhat with that we are getting shortchanged in some area. The Galaxy note with its massive screen pretty much blew out these benchmarks at gsmarena.com: The Samsung Galaxy Note phoneblet takes on our benchmark course . The G Note also quadrants regularly around 3700, so it's hard to believe that ICS could account for that big of a difference. It makes me wonder about the processor and/or gpu. That said, I fully realize that bechmarks aren't the end all and be all of performance in the phone world. It's also painfully obvious that any of these new phones will be a vast improvement over my life support D1 and I should probably just pick the one that makes me feel the most warm and fuzzy.

I believe you're still having trouble understanding how resolution dramatically affects benchmark scores.

The Galaxy note has a big screen yes, but it's pixel density is only 285 vs the Nexus' 316, more pixels = harder on the GPU = lower score.

It's also running gingerbread, which has been fully tested for months.

Benchmarks simply do not work yet for comparing phones because there isn't a set resolution that everyone runs for the benchmarks.

In the computer world, we can use benchmarks as a guide because there is a standard resolution that is set when you run benchmarks, so that the hardware is tested equally.

If I benchmark my PC at 1920x1080 using 3DMark Vantage, my score will be horrendous in comparison to if I do it at the industry standard that everyone uses which is 1024x768.

Until mobile benchmarks use the same resolution for each device, they will remain unhelpful.