TI Shows off OMAP5430 GPU Performance before Computex
by Brian Klug on June 3, 2012 11:55 PM ESTBefore MWC 2012, TI showed off OMAP5 performance in a video which compared CPU performance to Nvidia's Tegra 3 SoC. The occasion this time around is Computex, and TI has delivered once more with a video comparing GPU performance on the OMAP5430 to the iPad 3's A5X. As a reminder, OMAP 5430 is designed for a 28nm process and consists of two ARM Cortex A15s and two Cortex M4s alongside SGX544 MP2 graphics, whereas Apple's A5X is two Cortex A9s alongside SGX543MP4 graphics.
The video shows the OMAP5430 tablet running GLBenchmark 2.5 at 1080p (the newest upcoming version we're eager to get our hands on) alongside what is basically without doubt an iPad 3.
Update: I asked TI for the specific GLBenchmark 2.5 beta version, and was told that the GLBenchmark 2.5 version is C24Z16 and the resolution is 1080p in all tests (on and off screen).
Performance on the OMAP5430 tablet is shown to be 38 FPS on screen (1080p) and 45 FPS offscreen without vsync, compared to 34 FPS and 43 FPS respectively for the "market-leading tablet." There's another slide showing comparisons to OMAP4470 which consists of two Cortex A9s alongside SGX544MP1 graphics.
You might be wondering how an SGX544MP2 can match an SGX543MP4 - the answer is most likely just higher clocks on OMAP5430's 544s compared to A5X's 543s (Update: As reader Jeff points out, TI has already disclosed OMAP5430's SGX544MP2 clocks as up to 532 MHz). It's hard to know for certain, but this is the most logical answer - you can ultimately either increase ALUs or increase clocks to get to a given performance target. Either way, TI's OMAP5430 is shaping up to be quite a performant SoC both in CPU and GPU at this point, and we look forward to seeing and benchmarking a lot more of it before summer is over.
Source: Texas Instruments
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duffman55 - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
It's good to see so many competitors pushing the performance and efficiency envelope for mobile SoCs. I'm curious to see what the power consumption on the OMAP5430 is since it packs so much power, but is fabricated on a 28 nm process.Could you tell us about the Cortex M4s?
dagamer34 - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
Good to see everyone bringing their A game finally to the mobile space. Since Intel has no real competition in AMD anymore, it seems Intel ha been resting on its laurels since the Core 2 Duo came out nearly 6 years ago. But when Microsoft announces that Windows 8 will support ARM, Intel kicks it into high gear with better GPUs and a huge focus on low power chips.I love competition!
kyuu - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
What are you talking about? Resting on their laurels since C2D? In what universe? Sandy Bridge was a huge step forward from C2D. Ivy Bridge is a lot less impressive, but it was just a die shrink for the most part.And anyway, I don't think ARM is putting any pressure on Intel's high-end x86 CPU market share.
VoraciousGorak - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
Competition is good, but this article is about TI chips. Not sure where Intel is coming from.mavere - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
Maybe Apple will use a 544MP4 in next year's iPad. Otherwise, I'd be disappointed with only a 5% speed increase (as seen in the off-screen results).Ryan Smith - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
The 544 is just a Direct3D compliant variation of the 543. There are not (to the best of my knowledge) any hardware changes that give it a higher performance per clock or increase the clockspeeds that it can reach. Whatever higher clocks TI gets would be as a result of the 28nm process.iwod - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
Basically a 28nm, Next Gen CPU Architecture Cortex A15, Plus Faster GPU per Core is slightly faster then the current 40nm Design with Older CPU A9?Honestly i dont see much point in that. Unless the power usage is much lower.
tuxRoller - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
First, this was running gl benchmarks so we can assume the cpu shouldn't be th bottleneck, hence, the newer cores might not help much. Second, the ipad has 4 gpu cores to the Omap5's 2 gpu cores (albeit of a slightly more recent generation of gpu, though not necessarily much more powerful...I think those come when imagination releases their 600 series).ssj4Gogeta - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
The CPU should be significantly faster.Mike1111 - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
I don't know, that's all nice but where are the (retail) tablets with OMAP5430? Nothing's even announced yet, so it's probably at least another three months. Beating an at least 6 month old GPU by 5%-10% is not exactly awe inspiring, especially when using 28nm compared to 45nm.