Raspberry Pi GPU twice as powerful as iPhone 4S, beats Tegra 2 chip - Polidicks

[img]http://www.geek.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/raspberry_pi_beta_001-580x317.jpg[/img] [quote]Anticipation for the launch of the Raspberry Pi $25 PC continues to grow as its launch window gets ever closer. Over the past few months it has been surprising to see what the tiny machine is capable of. Videos of it running Quake III, playing back 1080p video, and handling graphics-intensive particle and sprite demos have all impressed, but until now we haven’t really been able to gauge how the device compares to other gadgets. Eben Upton has an interview going live today with Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry, and it offers up new insight into just how powerful the Raspberry Pi is. You may be surprised to find what it is actually better than in terms of performance. The Raspberry Pi relies on a custom chipset from Broadcom called the BCM2835. Being custom, it has allowed the development team to tweak performance to the point where Eben believes it is the best mobile GPU available. That’s easy to say when you’ve worked on the chip, so he’s given some examples to show how well it performs. The GPU apparently doubles the performance currently found in the iPhone 4S. It is also expected to easily outperform Nvidia’s Tegra 2. If you consider what an iPhone 4S is capable of, and all those devices running graphically intensive apps on the Tegra 2 platform, you can see the potential impact the Raspberry Pi could have. The reason the Raspberry Pi exists is to get cheap computers into the hands of kids and available in every classroom. Get the younger generations programming and experimenting and you have an army of budding software and hardware engineers ready to build the next Google or Apple in years to come. But the computing power on offer in such a cheap package means Raspberry Pi could impact more than just kids and schools. The hardware is more than capable of being a HTPC, it could replace more expensive home PCs, and I’ve already suggested the $100 PC is now viable. To classify the Raspberry Pi as a cheap PC for kids is to sell it very short. Just like Arduino opened up electronics to everyone, the $25 PC could become the heart of many a new product as well as redefining what we class as an affordable home computer.[/quote] [url=http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/raspberry-pi-gpu-beats-tegra-2-doubles-iphone-4s-performance-20120125/]SOURCE[/url]

I thought this was obvious?

[QUOTE=Derp Y. Mail;34399117]I thought this was obvious?[/QUOTE] I'd hardly call it obvious if you compare a $25 dollar computer to a $500 dollar phone.

GPU is better, CPU is worse. Take some, lose some - but for the price you win all around.

Good luck feeding it with cellphone battery (together with monitor and everything else).

[QUOTE=Clavus;34399206]I'd hardly call it obvious if you compare a $25 dollar computer to a $500 dollar phone.[/QUOTE] 500? I payed 180 for my 4S. And you're forgetting this is just a computer, just the components. You're not getting a monitor, not a keyboard, not a mouse, no casing, no camera, no SIM-card ability. In the long run you get what you pay for, but attach all those things and you'll still hit ~200 dollars.

[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;34399289]Good luck feeding it with cellphone battery (together with monitor and everything else).[/QUOTE] Bitch I'm making that pip-boy.

[QUOTE=Clavus;34399206]I'd hardly call it obvious if you compare a $25 dollar computer to a $500 dollar phone.[/QUOTE] Yes but the GPU shown here appears to be bigger than the entire phone

[QUOTE=TheCloak;34400093]Yes but the GPU shown here appears to be bigger than the entire phone[/QUOTE] Uhm, that's not a GPU, that's the whole computer.

Although it'd be kind of cool if the RPi had a "shield" extensibility system like the Arduino

[QUOTE=Derp Y. Mail;34399477]500? I payed 180 for my 4S. And you're forgetting this is just a computer, just the components. You're not getting a monitor, not a keyboard, not a mouse, no casing, no camera, no SIM-card ability. In the long run you get what you pay for, but attach all those things and you'll still hit ~200 dollars.[/QUOTE] $180 on contract most likely. Its still a $500 phone. Still, your point that its just a barebones computer still stands.

[QUOTE=Derp Y. Mail;34399477]500? I payed 180 for my 4S.[/QUOTE] 180 on contract, you fool.

[QUOTE=Derp Y. Mail;34399477]500? I payed 180 for my 4S. And you're forgetting this is just a computer, just the components. You're not getting a monitor, not a keyboard, not a mouse, no casing, no camera, no SIM-card ability. In the long run you get what you pay for, but attach all those things and you'll still hit ~200 dollars.[/QUOTE] IIRC the CPU processor in your average iPhone costs about $16 and is one of the cheapest parts in the machine, in compairison to the screen technology. Granted Raspberry Pi is a little more than "just a processor" (it's basically a mini computer with trace amounts of ram, and a tiny motherboard capable of supporting inputs/outputs like ethernet and HDMI). But still. I wonder how good this is for battery life though. One of Tegra's biggest draws, is that is provides good performance and is extremely efficent, allowing large battery lives. Tegra 3 uses 5 cores, and manages those cores in a way to specifically enhance battery life (letting the Asus Transformer Prime have somewhere around 12-14 hours of battery life when in use, despite it being a full size tablet).

[QUOTE=TheCloak;34400093]Yes but the GPU shown here appears to be bigger than the entire phone[/QUOTE] That is the whole computer, not just the GPU. The dimensions are 85.60 × 53.98 mm, iPhone 4S dimensions are 115.2 mm x 58.6 mm

[QUOTE=Protocol7;34400185]Although it'd be kind of cool if the RPi had a "shield" extensibility system like the Arduino[/QUOTE] See those headers in the top left on the board? Even though they're not there on the model being sold to the public, there's still soldering spots so you can solder in a header yourself. And there's already a board for controlling servo's and electric motors (called [URL="http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/raspberry-pis-gertboard-expansion-board-already-works-video-2012019/"]gertboard[/URL]). While there's some people in the community that's already working on a board that adds a battery backed-up [I]Real Time Clock[/I] or a RS323 port + breadboard space.

[QUOTE=Protocol7;34400185]Although it'd be kind of cool if the RPi had a "shield" extensibility system like the Arduino[/QUOTE] it kind of does with the GPIO pins on it [editline]26th January 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=Van-man;34401773]See those headers in the top left on the board? Even though they're not there on the model being sold to the public, there's still soldering spots so you can solder in a header yourself. And there's already a board for controlling servo's and electric motors (called [URL="http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/raspberry-pis-gertboard-expansion-board-already-works-video-2012019/"]gertboard[/URL]). While there's some people in the community that's already working on a board that adds a battery backed-up [I]Real Time Clock[/I] or a RS323 port + breadboard space.[/QUOTE] the ones you can buy will have those, just without the pins, you'd have to solder the pins on yourself

[QUOTE=viperfan7;34401890]the ones you can buy will have those, just without the pins, you'd have to solder the pins on yourself[/QUOTE] That's what I said, just worded it different [editline]26th January 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=Awesomecaek;34399289]Good luck feeding it with cellphone battery (together with monitor and everything else).[/QUOTE] [URL="http://www.sandberg.it/product/PowerBank-8000"]Bitch please[/URL]

[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;34400148]Uhm, that's not a GPU, that's the whole computer.[/QUOTE] what is this witchcraft

[QUOTE=TheCloak;34402585]what is this witchcraft[/QUOTE] Engineering :eng101:

The idea of a cheap computer for educational purposes, and for inspiration for software engineering and general tinkering is great It's the same idea as the sinclair ZX80, which in turn influenced a heck of a lot of research and one-upmanship. If this project turns out anything like that, I'm personally really looking forward to the future. Who knows what people will do with something like this, especially with the fact that IDEs are a thing that exist these days.

A microscale uniform PC gaming environment? Let's get homebrewin'.

Gpu doesn't mean everything quite a few apps rely on cpu more than gpu

oh also, theres 2 versions of this, a 25$ one and a 35$ one, the 25$ one only has 256MB of RAM and no ethernet, and only one USB port, the 35$ one has 2 USB ports, an ethernet port, and 512 MB of RAM, but I could be wrong about the ethernet port

I wonder if this can handle a minecraft server with about 6 players. Might get one and run a linux minecraft server for me and my brother to use. He's overseas.

For a computer that small we can just slap in a touch screen, custom smartphone casing, and a battery. With a lot of tweaking there's your Android that's barely close to the $500 mark.

[QUOTE=zombini;34405067]I wonder if this can handle a minecraft server with about 6 players. Might get one and run a linux minecraft server for me and my brother to use. He's overseas.[/QUOTE] Most likely not. The CPU probably won't be up to the task. Its running a fairly old ARM CPU, which could be outperformed by a desktop CPU from 10 years ago. Its designed for research and projects and being sold at a small cost. Any applications that require significant CPU power (like Minecraft server), are not going to realistically run on this.

[QUOTE=NeoAznMan;34405070]For a computer that small we can just slap in a touch screen, custom smartphone casing, and a battery. With a lot of tweaking there's your Android that's barely close to the $500 mark.[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16875176284[/url] Though you were probably joking in the first place. [B]EDIT:[/B] Cheaper and probably also shittier: [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16875606004[/url]

Why on earth have such a powerful GPU and then shit on it with that armv6 peice of crap CPU. Why not have the aforementioned Tegra 2?

If this thing accepts touch screens, so help me God. Ninja'd so hard my anus hurts..

[QUOTE=BrainDeath;34406116]Why on earth have such a powerful GPU and then shit on it with that armv6 peice of crap CPU. Why not have the aforementioned Tegra 2?[/QUOTE] Maybe because they got a great bargain deal on said chips? And because maybe they wanted to keep the pricetag low so you wont cry snot if you ruin it? Ever though of that??