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Raspberry Pi's GPU double the performance of iPhone 4S

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Re: Raspberry Pi's GPU double the performance of iPhone 4S

#31

Post by gravitronic »

bockris wrote: post #27
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"The 256 MB of RAM will be very constraining for any app trying to use all that power, though." My Archos 101 has 256MB RAM and runs Android suprisingly well. It only does 720p video playback though; full specs http://www.archos.com/products/ta/archos_101it/specs.html?co... . I'm not going to lie, it does tend to lag a bit; wonder how easy upgrading the RAM will be on the RPi.

The RasberryPi is using a BCM2835 SoC that has the RAM on the die. Basically not upgradeable without swapping out the whole chip. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi

And as a consumer (or a company that is not a "Broadcom partner") you can't buy the BCM2835 in any model so even if you could desolder the BGA you couldn't buy any replacement (or build your own boards).

Re: Raspberry Pi's GPU double the performance of iPhone 4S

#32

Post by wr1472 »

OhArgh wrote: post #26
st3fan wrote: post #24

But does the Raspberry Pi run on a battery? The iPhone is highly optimized for mobile use. Both in hardware and software. Can the same be said about this chipset that the Raspberry Pi uses? If not then the comparison is not very fair.

yea according to their site you can run it on 4 AA cells. Can you buy an IPhone for $25? http://www.raspberrypi.org/faqs

I think it requires about 5w of power so yes. In fact I'm planning on getting a micro usb solar opwer pack to use with it if I can get my hands on a board.

Re: Raspberry Pi's GPU double the performance of iPhone 4S

#33

Post by talmand »

unwind wrote: post #9
muyuu wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would a phone need a GPU comparable to that of a device that's supposed to work connected to a desktop monitor?

The iPhone 4S' display runs at 960x640, which is about 67% of a "typical" TV:s 1280*720. The Pi is intended for connection mainly to TV:s as far as I've understood it, and clearly the iPhone's display is not very far from such "desktop monitors" in terms of number of pixels. If you compare to an HDTV:s 1920x1080 though, the iPhone lands at around 30% so then it becomes less of a problem for it to have a less capable…

True about the power, but I keep hearing the Pi can be run from AA batteries because it has such low power requirements. If this is the case I'd like to see some benchmarks involving that type of power source.

Re: Raspberry Pi's GPU double the performance of iPhone 4S

#34

Post by NickPollard »

modeless wrote: post #8

Wow, that makes this thing a lot more interesting to me, if true. So many designs these days pair monster CPUs with underpowered GPUs it's almost embarrassing (especially as Apple continues to show that powerful GPUs are important for a good user experience). The 256 MB of RAM will be very constraining for any app trying to use all that power, though.

The PlayStation 3 has 256 MB of RAM and seems to do ok, as games like Uncharted and God of War show.

It does mean you'll need to be more careful and considerate of how you use that memory though (and admittedly, on a console like a PS3 the OS takes up much, much less space).

Re: Raspberry Pi's GPU double the performance of iPhone 4S

#35

Post by st3fan »

OhArgh wrote: post #26
st3fan wrote: post #24

But does the Raspberry Pi run on a battery? The iPhone is highly optimized for mobile use. Both in hardware and software. Can the same be said about this chipset that the Raspberry Pi uses? If not then the comparison is not very fair.

yea according to their site you can run it on 4 AA cells. Can you buy an IPhone for $25? http://www.raspberrypi.org/faqs

That is pretty cool. You can't buy an iPhone for $25 but you also cannot buy a Raspberry Pi for $25 that has WiFi, 3G, BlueTooth a display, 64GB of flash and 512MB of memory :-)

Anyway, I look really forward getting my hands on an RP.

Re: Raspberry Pi's GPU double the performance of iPhone 4S

#36

Post by pavlov »

jules wrote: post #28
andyzaharia wrote: post #4

Not really embarrassing, no one is comparing the power consumption. Apple could easily go to a more powerful GPU if their battery power allowed them. But I think the current 4S GPU is the one that fits for the current battery technology.

I wonder when mobile devices are going to contain FPGAs. They are often a factor of 100x power/performance better than CPUs/GPUs.

Can you provide some examples where an FPGA provides such performance gains over a modern CPU and GPU combo?

Re: Raspberry Pi's GPU double the performance of iPhone 4S

#37

Post by jmaygarden »

jules wrote: post #28
andyzaharia wrote: post #4

Not really embarrassing, no one is comparing the power consumption. Apple could easily go to a more powerful GPU if their battery power allowed them. But I think the current 4S GPU is the one that fits for the current battery technology.

I wonder when mobile devices are going to contain FPGAs. They are often a factor of 100x power/performance better than CPUs/GPUs.

Where are you getting those numbers? My experience is quite the opposite. FPGA devices are usually physically large as well.

Re: Raspberry Pi's GPU double the performance of iPhone 4S

#39

Post by jmaygarden »

OhArgh wrote: post #26
st3fan wrote: post #24

But does the Raspberry Pi run on a battery? The iPhone is highly optimized for mobile use. Both in hardware and software. Can the same be said about this chipset that the Raspberry Pi uses? If not then the comparison is not very fair.

yea according to their site you can run it on 4 AA cells. Can you buy an IPhone for $25? http://www.raspberrypi.org/faqs

I can go out and buy an iPhone 4S today. Can you buy a Raspberry Pi at any price right now?
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