Droid vs. iPhone- internal (processors, etc.)

[byrds10]

I've read that iphone has a 600mhz chip and droid has a 550. Does that mean the iphone has a better one? I don't understand all this internal stuff, so I'm just trying to understand.

 

[blhoover84]

the processor is pretty much like a engine in a car, so if u race a stock 350 small block against a stock 454 big block the 454 as the advantage now where things get tricky are the add ons such as a better intake better carbs that 350 could eventually compete with the 454 hope this will help you understand more i dont know alot about the processors between the 2 phones. so it all depends on what motorola has put on the circuit boards to boost its power

 

[cpjr]

Yes the iphone 3g has a 600mhz processor, so does the droid its just underclocked to 550mhz.

However....

Aside from memory specs, the OS makes a huge difference on these devices and 50mhz isnt enough to really make a substantial "bang".

 

[CorvetteAustin24]

Processor speed alone doesn't mean much when comparing different environments, like android vs iphone os.

RAM, GPU, and optimization of the operating system are all major aspects that relate directly to performance. the iphone could have a processor 5x as fast as the droid, but if nothing was optimized, it wouldn't make it faster.

I don't know the exact reason why motorola underclocked it, but I would guess that most apps will perform equal enough at 550 as they would at 600. I would also guess that it saves battery life a fair amount, as once you get towards the higher end of a processor's limits, it requires much more power. The power curve of CPUs is closer to exponential than linear.

 

[dtboos]

The biggest difference is the OS and resolution of the screens. The iPhone has much less to process as its resolution is quite low, and therefore the CPU need only render a fraction of what it takes to render the OS actions on the Droid / N1. Thats also why the iPhone is so smooth. Bare bones OS with low resolution with decent hardware.

 

[Leonard Wong]

It's not an apples to apples comparison.

 

[928Droid]

The biggest difference is the OS and resolution of the screens. The iPhone has much less to process as its resolution is quite low, and therefore the CPU need only render a fraction of what it takes to render the OS actions on the Droid / N1. Thats also why the iPhone is so smooth. Bare bones OS with low resolution with decent hardware.

As usual this statement is not so black and white due to the Droids seperate GPU (does the iPhone have this also??)

I haven't seen this test comparing the processor of the 3Gs, but this comparison vs the SnapDragon shows a little about the power of the seperate GPU concerning graphics...impressive considering the Droid's CPU is half the speed

"
As for the performance benefit of the dedicated GPU in the OMAP3430 – The GPU in the OMAP3430(Droid) can perform roughly 18.5 Million Triangles and 662M pixels per second while Snapdragon has been benched (by Qualcomm, so take it as you will) at 22 Million Triangles although at a rather lowly fill rate of 133M pixels per second."

 

[M1dnite]

It's not an apples to apples comparison.

Nice. (10 chars)

 

[JhankG]

My Droid's processor runs at 600 mhz. :icon_ devil:

 

[928Droid]

My Droid's processor runs at 600 mhz. :icon_ devil:

...and half the normal battery life :icon_ devil:


Just messing with ya, but according to info I have seen that last 50mhz of CPU speed does indeed have a dramatic result on battery life which is why it was underclocked to start with.

Here is an example of clockspeed vs battery life and it shows the more important spec is instructions per clock.

"The Droid uses an ARM Cortex A8 based processor which is roughly 1.5-2x as fast as the ARM11 cores of previous Android handsets. So a 550MHz OMAP3430 is roughly equivalent to a G1 running @ 775MHz+, only with the lower power draw of the lower clock speed. You can't directly compare the clockspeeds of the two processors without considering their IPC (instructions per clock) performance. In short, the Droid should be plenty fast."

 

[MrCapcom]

Yes the iphone 3g has a 600mhz processor, so does the droid its just underclocked to 550mhz.

However....

Aside from memory specs, the OS makes a huge difference on these devices and 50mhz isnt enough to really make a substantial "bang".

Yup take a look at a pc running linux vs windows linux is designed differently and 9 times outta 10 will run better than windows

 

[Elysian]

iPhone's processor is faster of course. If the Droid has the same video processor as the Pre(I'm assuming it does, I believe thats part of the OMAP 3430 processor), then it's got only half the throughput of the iPhone video processor, so another way the iPhone is technically faster. Also, the iPhone is running at nearly half the resolution as the Droid, pushing a LOT less pixels, so it's naturally going to be faster from that regard as well

 

[JhankG]

iPhone's processor is faster of course. If the Droid has the same video processor as the Pre(I'm assuming it does, I believe thats part of the OMAP 3430 processor), then it's got only half the throughput of the iPhone video processor, so another way the iPhone is technically faster. Also, the iPhone is running at nearly half the resolution as the Droid, pushing a LOT less pixels, so it's naturally going to be faster from that regard as well

Aren't the iPhone, Droid, and Pre all running on the same processor?

 

[jimnutt]

The iPhone's screen resolution is 320x480. The Droid is 480x854, so approximately 2.67 times the pixels to draw on the screen. That's one reason the iPhone (and the Eris, for that matter) seem to scroll so smoothly, fewer pixels to push.

 

[928Droid]

Aren't the iPhone, Droid, and Pre all running on the same processor?

Further research I did does show the iPhone and the Droid indeed have the same processor(and therefore GPU), but the iPhone CPU is clocked at the full 600mhz, so with that fact and a much lower rez screen, the iPhone should be faster (given identical OS/APP loading).