iOS device tiers for gaming

Discussion in 'General Game Discussion and Questions' started by defred34, Dec 11, 2012.

  1. defred34

    defred34 Well-Known Member

    Aug 27, 2012
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    Hey guys, just wanted a quick opinion on this.

    Am I right to assume that there are three main device classes as below (classed in terms of general gaming performance)?

    Tier 1: iPhone 5, iPad 4
    Tier 2: iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad Mini, iPhone 4S, iPod Touch 5
    Tier 3: iPad 1, iPhone 4, iPod Touch 4

    We can already see that support for Tier 3 devices are dropping.

    Tier 2 devices form the largest group, and two of them are brand new (iPod Touch 5 & iPad Mini).

    I have an iPad 2, and I would like to know from you guys, when do you think support for Tier 2 devices will start dropping? One year from now? Or more?

    Just another extra though: If indeed the Tier 2 device are supported till the end of next year, that would mean the iPad 2 could have been playing the highest end games for 32 months! Which is a really great achievement in the mobile space, considering my Tegra 3 Android tablet has already started ageing despite being just a few months old!
     
  2. squabs

    squabs Well-Known Member

    Nov 3, 2012
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    Well iPad mini is an iPad 2 under the hood, so whether support will remain the same remains to be seen, it will prob replace ipad2 like itouch replaced iPod mini etc
     
  3. defred34

    defred34 Well-Known Member

    Aug 27, 2012
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    That is not what I meant. If anyone else can chime in, I'll be appreciative of it.
     
  4. Primoz

    Primoz Well-Known Member

    Aug 14, 2012
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    I wouldn't write the iPad 2 under the same Tier as the iPad 3, mainly because iPad 2 only has 512 mb ram and the iPad 3 has 1gb (and that is a huge difference). The support for iPad 2 will also drop sooner.

    But of course, the games that will support all of those devices will end for them sooner or later. That's the natural cycle.
     
  5. ip4weather

    ip4weather Well-Known Member

    Nov 13, 2012
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    ipad3 nee to be in tier1:cool:
     
  6. defred34

    defred34 Well-Known Member

    Aug 27, 2012
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    You make a valid point there. But still, in terms of pushing gaming boundaries, ask any dev and they'd tell you the iPad 2 performs better than the iPad 3. So in the end the extra 500MB may count for nothing.
     
  7. defred34

    defred34 Well-Known Member

    Aug 27, 2012
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    See my post above. In pure gaming terms, the iPad 3 is inferior to the iPad 2. Many high-end games give you the option of full effects OR retina display.
     
  8. ip4weather

    ip4weather Well-Known Member

    Nov 13, 2012
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    i think you are wrong,ipad3 have much better hardware than ipad2, 100% sure
     
  9. Primoz

    Primoz Well-Known Member

    Aug 14, 2012
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    Can you post some proof?
     
  10. JBRUU

    JBRUU Well-Known Member

    May 9, 2012
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    But when it's not running retina, it performs significantly better. And retina in, Bastion for example, makes the game just stunning. So it's not all bad. Overall though, I would place it in tier 2.
     
  11. defred34

    defred34 Well-Known Member

    Aug 27, 2012
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    From March on Oz dev:

    The iPad3 should be the worst performance out of any of the iPads. We don't support iPad1, and in relation to the iPad3, the iPad2 has 1/4 the pixels to draw and the iPad4 has 2x the power.
     
  12. JBRUU

    JBRUU Well-Known Member

    May 9, 2012
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    I think you mean iPad 3 ;)
     
  13. ip4weather

    ip4weather Well-Known Member

    Nov 13, 2012
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    lol this is funny,i dont trust them...see Geekbench 2 tests...
     
  14. defred34

    defred34 Well-Known Member

    Aug 27, 2012
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    Dude, fact is this: If a game runs on retina display on the iPad 3, then by all means the same game will run noticeably smoother on the iPad 2 and it will be able to have additional effects. (Even Gameloft will tell you this!).

    If it doesn't run a game in Retina (which will be dumb anyway), the iPad 3 is slightly better off than the iPad 2. But not enough to get it into Tier 1.
     
  15. defred34

    defred34 Well-Known Member

    Aug 27, 2012
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    No, the dev meant iPad 4. He was talking about the performance of the iPad 3 with respect to 2 and 4, and he was explaining why it runs worst on the iPad 3.

    PS: And mind you, March on Oz is not entirely what you call a game featuring "console-quality" graphics!
     
  16. Frand

    Frand Well-Known Member

    There are no clear-cut tiers to dump the devices into, as performance of each device depends largely on what the game is about.

    That being said, iPod touch 5G, iPhone 4S, iPad 2 and iPad mini now define the majority of the hardware base while at the same time offering a very good balance of performance vs. pixel resolution. This is a lovely thing from a developer point of view.

    As for the rest of the discussion regarding the performance of the retina-screen iPads, here's an interesting article on Anandtech.

    One of the most important elements that defines the performance of a device is fill-rate in relation to screen resolution, and in that respect the iPhone5 is on the top, followed by iPad 2, iPad mini, iPod touch 5G and iPhone 4S (which are all identical or very, very similar). With the retina iPads, fill-rate is limited, and the linked article is a good read about that. When you're looking at the different benchmark graphs, take note of which ones were run in native resolution, and which ones are off-screen.
     
  17. JBRUU

    JBRUU Well-Known Member

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    #17 JBRUU, Dec 11, 2012
    Last edited: Dec 11, 2012
    And yet the iPhone 5 and iPad 4 are the only devices that run MC4 at a rock-solid framerate. Real world performance is what matters to me. Just look at how terribly iPod 5 runs NOVA 3; it's nearly unplayable.
     
  18. Greyskull

    Greyskull Well-Known Member

    Dec 13, 2009
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    Photographer/Social Sciences adjunct/sweet sweet l
    Fort Lauderdale
    ...and you would be correct. However, that hardware doesn't quite compensate for the demands of the (much) higher resolution display.

    Here's a PC conparison: you upgrade you'r video card from, say (yes, I know these aren't new but I haven't been keeping track of PC tech much anymore), an nVidia 9200 GT to an overclocked 9800 GT, but also switch monitors from a 14" 1290x768 res model to a 22" 1900x1600. The modest increase in GPU performance doesn't make up for much larger numbers of pixels it has to push.

    Speaking of which, I really need a smaller monitor until I get a better GPU/mobo and video card...
     
  19. Frand

    Frand Well-Known Member

    Real-world performance is not indication of hardware capability - it is indication of developer effort. And this thread is about hardware tiers, not game benchmarks :)

    Retina iPads have limitations that were explained above, but this will usually not become the end-users' problem because developers are generally aware of the performance characteristics and work with them.

    A single game having problems on a specific device may just be because of an error in the logic used for hardware detection - for example, if they are using only the screen resolution to determine quality settings, they may be mistaking the iPod5 for iPhone5, and therefore rendering things differently.

    Also, some retina iPad games render different screen elements or effects at lower resolutions, so comparing the same title across devices isn't a 1:1 comparison of hardware capability.
     
  20. Defred, did you create your tiers based on just processor class? If so, iphone 5 and ipad 4 are in the top with the a6 processessor.

    But I see things a little differently, ipad retina is the most important thing for me, and size of screen. If you use this criteria, things are totally different.

    Tier 1
    Ipad 4
    New ipad

    Tier 2
    Ipad mini
    Ipad 2

    Tier 3
    Iphone 5

    Tier 4
    Iphone 4s
    Iphone 4
    Itouch

    Tier 5
    Really old stuff

    So assuming you are just talking about games and if you did not have any previous hardware, I would buy things in this order. Assuming you had a cheap android phone or iphone 4 which is free for your phone use. So in this way of thinking, ip4weather is correct. Ipad retina is king, not processor speed.
     

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