iPad has performance issues

Complex geometry, shaders and transparency are not for the third iPad, some developers claim. In their opinion, the most technologically advanced games are slowing down on the new Apple device. 

While Apple claims that the start of sales of the new iPad is the most powerful in the company’s history (3 million devices in less than a week of sales), scandalous headlines a la “you can fry bacon on the new iPad” and “it does not catch Wi-Fi” do not go away from the editorials of online publications. It is quite possible that very soon we will see another, no less sensational one: “the new iPad is slowing down.” At least, some developers in an unofficial interview with the PocketGamer portal stated that “the chip in the new iPad cannot cope with powerful graphics.”

Memory problems

“The Retina screen is amazing – no other tablet or console can compare with the new iPad in terms of picture clarity, it’s just a pity that it is not equipped with a more powerful chipset – PowerVR 6,” complains a mysterious developer, whom the journalists of the English portal called developer “A” for simplicity.

“With the current GPU, the tablet has the strongest frame rate drops in places where there is a lot of geometry and complex shaders are used,” explains the developer. 

“And this is true for any high-end three-dimensional game currently available in the App Store in the version for the new iPad,” he adds. – “And users give these applications one or two stars because of the brakes.”

“So developers now have a dilemma: either they make applications for standard resolution, or they support Retina, receive features from Apple and low reviews from users,” concludes developer A.

We at App2Top, in turn, decided to check the validity of these accusations and carefully read the user reviews in the American version of the App Store. Mainly, we were looking for reviews in which players complained about the slow speed of applications optimized for the new iPad.

Real Racing 2 HD – turned out to be a game that was massively complained about due to “brakes”. There were also those who noted slight slowdowns when playing Asphalt 6: Adrenaline. As for other applications (there are still relatively few of them in the App Store), they seem to be beyond suspicion. 

The new iPad is far from a console

Another developer, “B“, who also wished not to disclose his name to PocketGamer, said that the new iPad has no problems with geometry, but there are problems with the speed of filling scenes (fill rate) and shaders responsible for mixing (blended shaders). However, he noted that it is not worth focusing on this: “when switching from 3GS to iPhone 4, an absolutely identical situation was observed.”

“It’s just that developing a game for the new iPad requires a little more attention – a little more testing. However, if your game does not use a lot of transparency, it should go fine,” concludes “B“.

Developer “C” agreed with him, noting that it’s all about optimization: “don’t expect much from the new iPad: the tablet is not a console, it can’t use complex geometry and shaders the way the Xbox 360 and PS3 do.”

Developer “D” generally stated that this is not a problem of the iPad, but of the engines that developers use to create games: “Neither Unity nor Unreal have yet released normal updates to optimize applications for the third iPad. So we ourselves have to go to various tricks to make the game on the new tablet play well and look great.”

By the way, the game developer “A” was developed on the original engine. 

P.S. If any of the readers have experience with the new iPad, as well as with optimization for it, and you want to share this experience – let us know: write to welcome@app2top.ru