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iPad 2 specs discerned, 900MHz dual-core ARM CPU and PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU blow away graphical benchmarks
iFixit may have physically uncovered Apple's latest silicon, but it's the processor gurus that have discovered what's truly inside -- using software benchmarks, they've unearthed the speeds and feeds of the Apple A5. As you'll no doubt be aware having read our headline above, there actually isn't a 1GHz CPU at the helm, as AnandTech and IOSnoops report the dual-core ARM chip is dynamically clocked around 900MHz, likely in search of reduced power consumption. Perhaps more interestingly for all you gamers in the audience, the iPad 2 reports that it has a dual-core PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU on the die as originally foretold -- and, spoiler alert -- it mops the floor with both the original iPad and the Motorola Xoom. Though the new chip didn't quite demonstrate 9X the graphical prowess of its predecessor, it rendered 57.6 frames per second in a GLBenchmark test where the (admittedly higher-res) Tegra 2 tablet managed only 26.7fps, and last year's iPad pulled only 17.6fps. That's some serious Tai Chi. Hit up our source links to see the difference it can make in games like Infinity Blade. Update: Though it sure sounds like there's a dual-core ARM Cortex A9 in there, that's not yet a proven fact -- we only know that it's a dual-core ARM v7 chip which performs relatively similarly in non-graphical tests. [Thanks, Jim] [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
iOS 4.3 gold master benchmarks from WIRED show speedier Safari browsing
In case you're wondering how that iOS 4.3 update is going to work out for you, WIRED has released results of benchmarks they performed using the gold master (release) version of the software. What they found was that the update provides major improvements in Safari's ability to run JavaScript. iOS 4.3 uses the new Nitro JavaScript engine for JavaScript rendering, and WIRED's tests showed that Safari was able to pull a SunSpider time of 4340.1 ms compared to 10626.4 ms for iOS 4.2.1. That's over twice as fast! The iOS 4.3 update is available right now in iTunes, so if you'd like to see sites like Google Voice, Google Docs, and Google Reader running faster on your iPhone or iPad, or browse your Facebook page at light speed, get the update loaded ASAP. The update also adds AirPlay functionality to more apps, including Safari and YouTube.
Motorola Xoom first benchmark: 1823 in Quadrant
We're unabashed spec junkies here at Engadget, and can you blame us? There are mountains of new devices every year, and it helps to have bullet points and numerical differentiators to cut through the fluff. That's why we're happy to say we got the chance to run the Quadrant benchmark on Motorola's Tegra 2-powered Xoom, and have a number with which to compare it against the many competitors sure to breech Android's bow soon. 1823 is the magic number -- which doesn't quite compare to the LG Optimus 2X -- but that's with a non-optimized smartphone version of Quadrant running the app on the tablet's sizable 1280 x 800 display, no less. What's more, Quadrant cleared up some of the codename confusion we've seen out of Moto as of late, as it turns out the Xoom also identifies itself as both Trygon and Stingray. Good to know! %Gallery-115593%
USB 3.0 for Mac benchmarks and review
Don't let Apple's lack of USB 3.0 support get you down. LaCie has you covered with the 2big USB 3.0 RAID drive, and Engadget has run benchmarks on it. The gang used a "relatively new" Mac Pro with the following specs: Apple Mac Pro (2009) 2.66GHz quad-core Intel Xeon 'Nehalem' CPU 6GB (2 x 3GB) DDR3-1066 ECC memory NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 (512MB) GPU 18x SuperDrive Mac OS X 10.6.5 Bluetooth 2.1+EDR LaCie USB 3.0 PCIe expansion card In addition, they used a 2big USB 3.0 drive, a 500GB Iomega Skin (for USB 2.0 work), a 500GB Seagate FreeAgent Go FW (for FireWire 800) and a 160GB G-Technology Combo (for FireWire 400 performance testing). Finally, a series of nested folders and various files, (big, small and plentiful) set the stage. Here's what happened. In the write test, the 2big clearly out performed its peers. It was twice as fast when transferring the smaller files, and 33% faster than its older brother, USB 2.0, when transferring a 9.4 GB file. The story was similar with Engadget's read test. The 2big managed 45MB/sec - 61MB/sec, compared to 29MB/sec -37MB/sec from USB 2.0. There's much more to read, and we suggest checking out Engadget's article in full. The LaCie solution is quite appealing. You listening, Apple?
USB 3.0 for Mac review and benchmarks (with a LaCie 2big USB 3.0)
It took LaCie nearly a full year to ship the 2big USB 3.0 RAID drive -- a device that was announced in the fall of 2009 -- but now that it's here, it's being accompanied by a concept that actually far outshines the unit itself: USB 3.0 on a Mac. For whatever reason, Apple has refused to offer SuperSpeed USB on any of its machines, even a fully specced-out Mac Pro costing well north of $10,000. We've seen purported emails from Steve Jobs noting that USB 3.0 just isn't mainstream enough to sweat just yet, but coming from the guy who's still bearish on Blu-ray, we get the feeling that it'll be quite some time far too long before Apple finally caves and upgrades from USB 2.0. We're obviously no fans of the holdout -- after all, even a few sub-$500 netbooks are enjoying the SuperSpeed spoils already -- so we couldn't have possibly been more excited to hear that a longstanding storage vendor was about to fill the void that Cupertino continues to ignore. We were able to pick up a LaCie USB 3.0 PCIe expansion card as well as a 4TB (2 x 2TB) 2big USB 3.0 drive and put the whole setup through its paces on our in-house Mac Pro. Care to see how it stacked up against USB 2.0, FireWire 400 and FireWire 800? Head on past the break for the grisly details. %Gallery-111542%
LG Star preview
<div style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.engadget.com/lg-star/preview/"><img border="1" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/12/10x1210fbfu5xbd.jpg"/></a></div> The LG Star. The dual-core beast from the east that was once a mere <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/16/exclusive-lgs-4-inch-android-phone-with-dual-core-tegra-2-and/">twinkle in our eye</a> has managed to find its way to the Engadget mansions, having been lent to us by a very generous (and very anonymous) tipster. It's clearly a test device, as evidenced by its diagnostics menus and lack of a lockscreen, but there's no disguising the power that lies within it. We put the Star through a battery of common Android benchmarks and the results were, in a word, outstanding. Basically, <a href="http://www.engadget.com/all/tegra2">Tegra 2</a> will give anything your <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/10/smartphone-buyers-guide-the-best-phones-for-atandt-verizon-spr/">current phone</a>'s running an inferiority complex. Join us after the break as we delve deeper into this upcoming powerhouse of a handset from LG. One thing's for sure: CES 2011 can't come soon enough.<br /> %Gallery-110305%
Exclusive: PlayStation Phone 'Zeus Z1' prototype benchmarked on video
We can't get enough of Sony Ericsson's PlayStation Phone (also known as Zeus Z1), and we're guessing neither can you. We were just sent a new video of the device in action, only now it's running Qualcomm's Neocore benchmark app. As you can see, the device managed 24.4 frames per second on average. That doesn't seem like much -- our Nexus S, for example, just pulled off 55.6fps -- but bear in mind, this isn't the final software (or hardware probably), so there's no conclusions at all to draw from this benchmark right now. Just think of it as another nice view of the phone as we inch closer to a finish line we still can't make out over the horizon. Sorry, no slide-out gamepad, but you saw that last week -- don't be greedy. Video after the break.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 and AMD Radeon HD 6870 square off in dual-card showdown
Whether you're an NVIDIAn calling it SLI or a Radeonite referring to it as CrossFireX, a multi-card graphics setup is nowadays almost a prerequisite for experiencing the best that PC gaming has to offer. It'd be negligent of us, therefore, not to point you in the direction of the Tech Report crew's latest breakdown, which takes an investigative peek at dual-card performance on NVIDIA's latest and greatest GeForce GTX 580 and naturally compares it to a wide range of other alternatives on the market. AMD's latest refresh, the Radeon HD 6870, is among those options, though it's worth remembering that the company's real high-end gear isn't due for another couple of weeks. All the same, most people will be buying their holiday rigs right around now, and if you want an exhaustive guide as to what's what on the graphics front, the source link is your best, um... source.
Office 2011 puts pedal to the metal with demonstrable speed bumps
As we've been diving into the Microsoft Office 2011 application suite, we've been focusing on the new features going from 2008 to 2011, and the relative value versus alternative tools like Apple's iWork suite. One thing we haven't really nailed down, though, is speed. Although it's easy to see in the first few moments of using it that Office 2011 is bringing a lot of performance optimizations to the table, exactly how much faster is it? Enter our friends over at MacTech magazine, who have polished their stopwatches and lined up a slew of test machines to get at the raw numbers and compare Office 2011 to both Office 2008 and 2004 across the entire suite. The whole article is worth a read, but the gist is that Office 2011 is quite a lot faster everywhere you care about speed: application launches, file open/save (noted as faster with the XML formats than with the legacy .doc, .xls etc. files), key operations, and more. In particular, Excel has gotten a serious turbo injection, with operations like fill range and charting timing out as "orders of magnitude" faster than in the previous version. MacTech suggests that Excel users who lean heavily on the charting capabilities "run, don't walk, to get the upgrade." On the Mac Mojo blog, Microsoft's own Erik Schwiebert posted an interesting look inside the development process and philosophy that drives the speed optimizations seen in Office 2011. From the user perspective, you might not think that squeezing a few milliseconds out of a particular function would lead to worthwhile improvements, but Schwiebert lays it out well and explains the cognitive science behind perceived application performance -- worth a read. His video demo of Excel's launch speed improvements is in the 2nd half of this post.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 reviewed: 'what the GTX 480 should have been'
You saw the key specs slip out a little ahead of time, now it's the moment we've all been waiting for: the GeForce GTX 580 has been thoroughly benchmarked to see if its claim to being "the world's fastest DirectX 11 GPU" stands up to scrutiny. In short, yes it does. The unanimous conclusion reached among the reviewers was that the 580 cranks up the performance markedly relative to the GTX 480 -- with some citing gains between 10 and 20 percent and others finding up to 30 percent improvements -- while power draw, heat emissions, and noise were lowered across the board. ATI's AMD's Radeon HD 5870 wasn't completely crushed by the newcomer, but it was consistently behind NVIDIA's latest pixel pusher. Priced at $499, the GTX 580 is actually praised for offering good value, though its TDP of 244W might still require you to upgrade a few parts inside your rig to accommodate it, while current online prices are closer to $550. Anyhow, the pretty comparative bar charts await at the links below. Read - HardOCP Read - Tech Report Read - Legit Reviews Read - Bit-tech Read - PC Perspective Read - Hot Hardware
MacBook Air benchmarks for maxed-out 11-inch model
Those sweet, thin little MacBook Airs are sure making a lot of Mac-heads drool, even though they are not the speediest Macs in the world by a long shot. While the diminutive 11.6-inch model isn't really designed to be used with Pro apps or CPU/RAM hogs like Adobe Photoshop, that didn't keep the folks at AnandTech from running a suite of tough benchmarks on that tiny Air. Their results weren't exactly surprising. If you get the slightly faster 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo CPU and double the standard RAM to 4GB, you'll get about 16 percent better performance over the base 1.4GHz / 2GB model. Most of that improvement is probably due to the extra RAM; the benchmarks didn't show the performance of the slower CPU model with 4GB of RAM. Anandtech also ran Aperture 2 RAW import, battery life, video encoding and 3D rendering tests, all of which demonstrate (duh!) that the MacBook Pro is really the laptop to use for these types of applications. As many Mac pundits have pointed out, the MacBook Air is great for web surfing, writing, iLife and iWork. If you're going to be running graphics or CPU-intensive applications, though, you're going to be disappointed with a MacBook Air. [via Engadget]
W3C tests HTML5 browser compatibility, crowns IE9 the champ
The World Wide Web Consortium -- you know, the team responsible for certifying and standardizing HTML5 -- has put together its first table of official conformance test results, giving us an idea of how well prepared each of the most popular browsers is for the oncoming web standards revolution. The data show Internet Explorer 9 as the most adroit performer (again), though Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Safari don't seem to be too far behind in their HTML5 compliance, either. Of course, these checks don't cover the entire spec, which in itself isn't even finalized yet, but they provide us with a glimpse into a brave new world where Microsoft actually cares about coders keen on maximizing interoperability by adhering to web-wide standards. Good stuff. Check out the full results at the source link below. [Thanks, Mehran]
Macworld posts MacBook Air benchmark results
When the new MacBook Airs were introduced, many were shocked to see a 1.4GHz Core 2 Duo processor in the standard 11-inch model and a 1.86GHz Core 2 Duo processor in the standard 13-inch model. Isn't that a step backward? The previous generation had either a 1.83GHz or a 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo processor standard. The folks at Macworld ran some formal benchmark tests on both the 11.6-inch and the 13-inch Airs, comparing them to their predecessors and even a 13-inch MacBook Pro. The results may surprise you. To begin, the Speedmark 6.5 score doubled when comparing the 13-inch 1.86GHz MacBook Air and the 2009 13-inch 1.86GHz MacBook Air (Speedmark is Macworld's benchmark test suite). Most of the gains were made over drive-based tests, as the new Air's flash storage was able to show off a bit. Duplicating a 1GB file on the new Air took 13 seconds; compare that to 69 seconds on the model from 2009. Likewise, compressing a 2GB folder was 21% faster on the new Air. Other benefits include graphics improvements, despite the new Air's integrated subsystem. The nVidia GeForce 320M in the current Air produced over 3 times as many frames per second while running Call of Duty 4 when compared to the nVidia GeForce 9400M that's in the 2009 MacBook Air. Processor-intensive tasks were also better on the current Air and the 13-inch model even out performed a 13-inch MacBook Pro when it came to drive-related tasks. Specifically, both models of the Air were faster in the file-duplication tests and compression tests. There's much more of course, and we recommend you read the full report. In short, flash storage is a huge benefit, the battery life is improved and the current line of processors needn't make us cringe so severely.
NVIDIA launches sub-$80 GeForce GT 430 for single-slot cooler enthusiasts
The graphics card that doesn't require a fridge-sized cooler is turning into something of a rarity nowadays, but we doubt the market for quiet, efficient, and halfway-decent GPUs is ever going to disappear completely. NVIDIA is fleshing out its Fermi family today with a creature that aspires to such epithets, the 96 CUDA core-equipped GT 430. It's a patently humble GPU, as indicated by its $79.99 typical price, 49W TDP, 5.7-inch board length, and single-slot cooler design. Mind you, while those are typically considered positives, they do limit gaming performance quite significantly, with the GT 430 getting roundly beaten by ATI's (sob!) AMD's similarly priced Radeon HD 5670. So what niche is left for this card? Well, it's an upgrade over integrated graphics and it gets you on the 3D bandwagon, but on the whole we're left scratching our voluminous craniums as to why anyone would dodge AMD's more accomplished hardware for NVIDIA's latest. Hit up the reviews below and form your own opinion, if our one doesn't suit your outfit today. Read - HardOCP Read - AnandTech Read - PC Perspective Read - Hot Hardware Read - Legit Reviews Read - Hexus%Gallery-104721%
OCZ Ibis touts 2GBps High Speed Data Link, vanquishes SSD competition
What's after ludicrous speed? If you ask OCZ, the answer is HSDL speed, which is the company's new interface idea for bypassing the bandwidth limitations of standard SATA/SAS interconnects. Using a high-quality SAS cable to hook up its new Ibis drive to a PCI Express host card, OCZ has managed to deliver a cool 2GBps of total bandwidth -- that's one gigabyte up and one gigabyte down... every second. In order to feed this massive data pipe, the company's gone and stacked four SandForce SF-1200 controllers inside the Ibis and RAIDed them together for good measure too. The upshot isn't too dramatic for desktop applications, where'll you'll see performance that's merely world-beating -- reading at 373MBps and writing at 323MBps -- but if you throw in some deeper queues and enterprise-level workloads you'll be able to squeeze out 804MBps reads and 675MBps writes. Needless to say, the Ibis scooped up many a plaudit in early reviews, and though it may be expensive at $529 for 100GB, it still seems to represent good value for those who have the workloads to saturate its High Speed Data Link.
HTC Desire HD ROM gets dumped, ported, chopped, and screwed... oh, and benchmarked
Lots of activity involving the just-announced HTC Desire HD in the past couple days, despite the fact that it's yet to be released anywhere -- and frankly, that's just the kind of can-do attitude from the dev community that we like to see. First off, the HD2 -- which, considering the screen size and general spec sheet similarity, makes an obvious candidate for a ROM transplant -- has indeed gotten an early port, and something tells us this hack is going to get a lot of spit and polish over the next few weeks and will end up breathing fresh life into a phone that had been crippled by its dead-man-walking operating system. There'd been a video of the port in action, but sadly, it's been pulled off YouTube for some mysterious reason, so hopefully it'll reemerge (along with instructions for HD2 owners) soon. Meanwhile, the Desire HD is apparently putting up some hardcore benchmark scores on the strength of its updated Snapdragon MSM8255 processor, posting a Quadrant score of nearly 2,000 -- about two-thirds better than a Froyo-equipped Nexus One. The dumped ROM is already online, so feel free to start digging through it... and if you somehow have a prototype Desire HD lying around, all the better. [Thanks, garsim]
Exclusive: Motorola MB520 'Kobe' boasts a Droid X-esque UI, AT&T affinity
What is Motorola Kobe? The device, also known by its model number MB520, seems to be popping up on a couple of certification websites. UPnP Forum certified it on June 16, 2010 (listed as "Kobe ATT"), and additionally on July 8th the smartphone quietly got a thumbs up from the WiFi Alliance for single band (2.4GHz) 802.11b/g/n. Of course, an IEEE standard does not a phone make, and so we've been in touch with a trusted source who's provided us with specifications of the device, as well as screencaps of some benchmarks results and the all-important About Phone page. The Kobe is a slate-style smartphone currently featuring Android 2.1 with a Motoblur skin reminiscent of Droid 2 / Droid X's UI. We're told it has a 3.5-inch LCD with 480 x 854 resolution, a 800MHz TI OMAP processor (either 3440 or an underclocked 3630), PowerVR SGX 530 GPU, 512MB RAM, 2GB internal storage and a bundled 2GB microSD card, and a 3 megapixel camera (without flash). It currently comes loaded with Swype, Vlingo, and DNLA support. We gotta say, camera notwithstanding, this sounds like a pretty appealing addition to AT&T's growing Android lineup. Hit up the gallery below for benchmark scores. %Gallery-100051%
Intel's Core i7-970 gets reviewed: great for overclocking, still expensive
It may be a cheaper way to join the high-end Core i7 family, but that doesn't mean it's "cheap." Intel's Core i7-970 ($899), which just started shipping to consumers around a month ago, has just undergone a thorough looking-over at Hot Hardware, where the six-core chip was tested alongside its more potent (and in turn, more costly) siblings. If you've no interest in dropping over a grand for a Core i7-980X, and you aren't about to lower yourself by purchasing a quad-core Core i7-975, this here chip might just do you proud. In testing, critics found the 970 to be quick, but hardly mind-blowing, when handling more mundane tasks; stir in a few heavily threaded applications, though, and it managed to "sail past" the quad-core contemporaries and "keep pace" with the aforementioned 980X. All told, the silicon managed to perform around 5 percent worse than the 980X, yet it rings up for around 12 percent less. If you've got the workflow to truly take advantage of all six cores, and you can stomach not having the absolute best, it seems as if the 970 strikes a fine balance -- and hey, if you're down with overclocking, you can probably get that 5 percent back with just a mild uptick in your energy bill.
ATI CrossFireX versus NVIDIA SLI: performance scaling showdown
We know who the daddy is when it comes to single-card graphics performance, and we've even witnessed NVIDIA and ATI duking it out with multiple cards before, but this here roundup is what you might call comprehensive. Comparing a mind-boggling 23 different configurations, the Tech Report guys set out to determine the best bang for your DirectX 11 buck. Their conclusion won't shock those of you who've been following the recent love affair between reviewers and NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 460: a pair of these eminently affordable cards regularly outpaced the best single-GPU solutions out there. Slightly more intriguing, however, was the discovery that its elder siblings, the GTX 470 and 480, have improved in performance to the point of being markedly ahead of ATI's Radeon HD 5870, with the blame for this shift being put squarely on the shoulders of NVIDIA's driver update team. Hurry up and give the source a read while it's still fresh, we can't imagine ATI letting this be the status quo for too much longer.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 becomes everyone's favorite midrange graphics card
It's rare to come across a universally lauded product nowadays, but NVIDIA's fresh new GTX 460 is just that sort of exceptional creation. Contrary to its GTX 465 elder brother, the 460 isn't a chopped-down top-tier part and is instead built on the new GF104 core. This smaller core, designed from the start to perform humbler functions, has ameliorated the famed power inefficiency that has been a Fermi signature so far, and has resulted in AnandTech describing the new card as "the $200 king." You'll get 768MB of onboard RAM at that point, but we'd splurge an extra $30 to make that a round gigabyte and enjoy some extra L2 cache and ROPs on the card. Either way, the GTX 460 seems to have completely killed off the market for the 465 and is stepping all over ATI's toes with its competitive pricing and, for once, decent heat and power metrics. Oh, and apparently it "overclocks like a monster" too -- hit the links below for the full reviews. Read - AnandTech Read - HardOCP Read - Hot Hardware Read - Tom's Hardware Read - PC Perspective Read - Bit-tech Read - Guru 3D Read - Legit Reviews
