Hands on Impressions: The New iPad with Retina Display and A6X Processor & iPad mini

[Connector]

Originally Posted by georaldc

Hmm do you have Wildblood? That one runs and looks really good on the ipad 4. I guess its running at full res too since it looks really sharp. Framerate stays above 30 most of the time and is pretty close to staying at 60 all the time. I haven't played it much yet to get past that first village level but its been running really smooth so far

No, I don't have that but I am definitely going to buy it if it is on sale this xmas. I wish I could give you a comparison on how that and Bastion are, but those two games are games that I want to get, even though Bastion I don't think would have any framerate problems on the new ipad.

And wow, the description on wild blood says there is an ipad 4 update, what that means, I got no idea, but it is promising, that is the 5th game that I have seen that has been updated for the ipad 4, including Asphalt 7, curious to see if it was a bug update or an effect or framerate update.

A lot of 3d games may have a little slower framerates on my new ipad, but I really only care about games that have fast frantic movements. Games like galaxy on fire, arc squadron, the dark knight returns, spiderman, and some others probably have a little better framerates on the ipad 4, but to me, these games kind of have slower gameplay, so I don't really need it. They are pretty sure, but not life changing.

Games like Nova 3 and Virtua tennis are really the only games that I own that yeah, I would like better framerates and more effects. Sounds like from reports, Nova 3 is better on the ipad 4 than new ipad. On the new ipad, it is playeable, but when a lot of stuff is on the screen there is noticeable framerate drops. Not to a point that it is unplayeable, but it can get annoying. But I am not really a FPS fanboy, so due to Nova 3s size, I don't keep it on my new ipad. Only upload it once in a while to play.

Virtua tennis, it got alot better for me after ios 6.0.1, but still, it would be nice if the ball was a little smoother, definately playeable, but it would be nice. But I hear reports that some of the player jerkiness is the same on the ipad 4 and that some of the problems are software based, so while it is probably a little smoother, it is not game changing on the ipad 4.

Yeah, wish I had Wild Blood to compare with you, I have been hearing that it seems to run better on the new ipad, but maybe someone else here with a new ipad with ios 6.0.1 could let us know how it plays. Out of all my games and I pretty much have them all, only Nova 3 and Virtua tennis are games that I would like to run better since Asphalt 7 doesn't seem to be showing much improvement even after an ipad 4 update (who knows it could have been a bug update). But I will be interested to see if Wildblood runs well on my new ipad. I am going to the store to see if there is a lite version.

Let us know what your experience on Nova 3 is. For us new ipaders, we play on the higher graphics mode which I think is retina, framerates vary from good (30 fps) for light action, fair (18 fps) for medium action, poor (12) for very heavy action which is kind of rare. Playeable all the time, but with more effects and a solid framerate over 30 fps, I could call this a console ready game.

On my new ipad, I would say it kind of runs a little like a computer emulator version. Playable, but not as smooth as I would like.

Let us know how Nova 3 looks to you.

[Connector]

Originally Posted by Pman

What people say on how the ipad mini runs heavy games like mc3 and order and chaos, that will be my breaking point for if I buy the ipad mini. I'm scared because of the resolution it won't be a respectable device.

Yeah, I am curious too, haven't seen any ipad mini users that have commented on how the hardcore games are running on the ipad mini. Even though, probably more of the hardcore players are more on the ipad 4 or new ipad side, it would cool to hear how all these games play on the ipad mini?

And ipad mini owner that is a hardcore gamer that could comment? Thanks!

[georaldc]

Originally Posted by Connector

Let us know how Nova 3 looks to you.

I on the other hand do not have an iPad 3 with Nova 3 to try out so comparing the 2 will be hard lol.

Anyway, just got done downloading Nova 3 and had the time to do a quick test on the first level. From the devices I've played Nova 3 on (an s3 and a nexus 7), this intro level seems to be pretty taxing. The Nexus 7 just gets crippled, while my S3 seems to do much better with a bit of stuttering here and there. The iPad 4 on the other hand handles this level with ease. Framerates are definitely above 30 and all the effects are intact as reported. It also looks like its running at native resolution (I guess it already was with the iPad 3). All this without the game being optimized yet for the new iPads

[JBRUU]

18 and 12 fps is not playable, and my iPad 3 never dipped below 25-20 on retina settings. 12 fps is a slideshow and Gameloft has never released a game that plays that poorly on newer devices.

[georaldc]

Originally Posted by JBRUU

18 and 12 fps is not playable, and my iPad 3 never dipped below 25-20 on retina settings. 12 fps is a slideshow and Gameloft has never released a game that plays that poorly on newer devices.

Then I guess you've never seen nova 3 on a nexus 7. Last time I tried it on my brother's nexus, it was a frickin slowdown stutterfest. They would have been better off adding in motion blur and calling it a cinematic experience with a cinematic framerate lol

[JBRUU]

Originally Posted by georaldc

Then I guess you've never seen nova 3 on a nexus 7. Last time I tried it on my brother's nexus, it was a frickin slowdown stutterfest. They would have been better off adding in motion blur and calling it a cinematic experience with a cinematic framerate lol

All I have to say is...android.

*prepares for death threats*

[JBRUU]

Originally Posted by Connector

Yeah, I am curious too, haven't seen any ipad mini users that have commented on how the hardcore games are running on the ipad mini. Even though, probably more of the hardcore players are more on the ipad 4 or new ipad side, it would cool to hear how all these games play on the ipad mini?

And ipad mini owner that is a hardcore gamer that could comment? Thanks!

iPad mini will perfor just as well as an iPhone 4s or iPad 2.

[Connector]

Originally Posted by JBRUU

18 and 12 fps is not playable, and my iPad 3 never dipped below 25-20 on retina settings. 12 fps is a slideshow and Gameloft has never released a game that plays that poorly on newer devices.

Well, those numbers are on the extreme worst case scenarios, what I mean for normal conditions is the framerates go from about 18-30 for normal play which pretty much go along with your numbers and experience. So average fps would be 24 fps very close to what you say 25 fps in your other post.

There are rare times with nova 3, don't know if it is related to downloading other games, or my new ipad memory issues with over 700 games, but there are rare times when it does seem to run slow close to 12 fps, but for only a couple of seconds, and it may well be due to other reasons that have nothingto do with the gameor new ipad.

But on a whole, I would say the game is playeable onthe new ipad with framerates from about 18-30, which is only a difference of 2 fps from your observations. So I think our perspectives are about the same, I was just talking about worst case scenarios and you are talking more about average fps.

[Connector]

Originally Posted by JBRUU

iPad mini will perfor just as well as an iPhone 4s or iPad 2.

Hehe, yeah, that I realized, and for the most part, the ipad 2 runs about the same as a new ipad minus the retina screen and all, but there must be a whole different experience with it and the smaller screen. My experience with the mini has been the graphics look better than the ipad 2 due to the smaller size, especially for games. But text wise, much prefer the ipad 2 for viewing web pages than the mini.

So curious to hear how ipad mini users like games like Nova 3, Asphalt 7, Wild Blood, NFS, and other games on it.

I played Tiny Wings hd and Angry birds hd, and I was surprised how good the ipad mini looked. It looked great, while not quite retina ipad level, the graphics looked sharp and the games were fun. Just wish the apple store had some games like Asphalt 7 on there, would be curious to see how it looks on a mini. Also wonder if the controls would be compromised a little cause there doesn't seem to be many updates for ipad mini controls, so they probably would be optimized more for the larger ipads.

And you are pretty brave with your console and android comments, but heck the more interesting conversations we have here the better.

[Prhaber]

Originally Posted by Connector

And ipad mini owner that is a hardcore gamer that could comment? Thanks!

I got my ipad mini last week and I've been very pleasantly surprised by the games. GTA 3, nova 3, modern warfare, lilli and Bastion - all run really smoothly, fast and look great. So far everyone I've shown the ipad mini to, even the 'it's not retina' sceptics, have also been surprised at how good it looks. It may be only 1074x768 but on the smaller 7.9" screen things looks great. And I think that it's a far more comfortable size for gaming than the full size ipad.