Pandora How Much Performance Can Give The Pandora Gpu

[gaterooze]

Descent ran brilliantly on GP2X. With Pandora's dual analogue controls, it should be a dream.

 

[icurafu]

I remember KingPin was a very attractive game for the hardware requirements at the time.

It was however a boring fusterating game for the time. (imo)

 

[gruso]

Descent on GP2X rocks. It runs as well as it did on the old PC I originally played it on (maybe better).

 

[Sphinxter]

Looks over at a boxed descent 3 with mercenary pack never opened, chugs.

 

[cools]

I remember KingPin was a very attractive game for the hardware requirements at the time.

It was however a boring fusterating game for the time. (imo)

I loved KingPin, extremely atmospheric. KingPin on the Pandora would be marvellous!

 

[.Gogeta§§J4BR.]

the pandora has a very nice gpu and a kickass cpu, so why only 128mb of ram? sorry for my offtopic, but I feel everyone would benefit from it (after all, we will like to multitask while internet surfing, load some 4 pages at once and have a music player at the back)

 

[sindbad]

(after all, we will like to multitask while internet surfing, load some 4 pages at once and have a music player at the back)
That is perfectly possible within 128mb.

 

[.Gogeta§§J4BR.]

my main concern is that when I load lots of pages (or some pages with flash, or pdf, or big pages), 128mb gets consumed pretty quick within firefox... wouldn't that be a problem for the pandora too?

 

[sindbad]

I don't know, I don't use firefox. Try firefox3 with that you usually browse. And resize the window to the pandora's screen size.

 

[Firefox]

the pandora has a very nice gpu and a kickass cpu, so why only 128mb of ram? sorry for my offtopic, but I feel everyone would benefit from it (after all, we will like to multitask while internet surfing, load some 4 pages at once and have a music player at the back)

The RAM comes in a special Package-On-Package, erm, package that fits underneath the OMAP (I'm pretty sure the flash is in there too?). If you wanted more you've have to use up a load of board space to put more SDRAM chips off to one side of the OMAP, and the board's pretty rammed as it is from what MWeston's been saying.

128 meg's plenty; the Nokia N800 has that and you can open loads of browser windows and other applications at the same time.

 

[gaterooze]

Remember, you can't compare 128mb on a Pandora with 128mb on a Desktop. The OS overhead and other factors make a huge difference.

MWeston has already said Firefox runs on Pandora with many tabs open and not a hint of sluggishness.

 

[CyruzDraxs]

I think they should at least leave space for an upgrade at a later point to get 256mb--it'd certainly help for things like emulators.

 

[Tinnus]

I think they should at least leave space for an upgrade at a later point to get 256mb--it'd certainly help for things like emulators.

For example?

 

[Chip]

This topic has been discussed to death. Every single actual developer who has weighed in on the matter agrees that 128MB of RAM is more than enough.

 

[Tobriand]

I think they should at least leave space for an upgrade at a later point to get 256mb--it'd certainly help for things like emulators.

Surely the only two things it'd help with are larger textures (not relevant for emulators, but possibly for some potential ports), and having lots and lots of apps running at once.

Given that we've got the ram-heavy systems running on the GP2x with half as much memory, I can't see that they'll be any additional problem on Pandora...

 

[Patrick R Ludvigsen]

Yah, I was able to run Windows XP with 128mb quite comfortably until the rot kicked in. Since Linux doesn't have those sorts of problems as far as I've seen, 128mb should be MORE than enough.

 

[icurafu]

Unless there is something new, let's not discuss this again. There are a heap of apps that will need it. Just check out happypenguin. Hopefully we'll see a 256 verion in the future. All this was discussed so many times over.

I don't think it would help for emulators. I don't think it's as clear cut as chip makes it sound. 128MB is a technology limitation that was explained by mwesten so we'll liv with it. It's certainly easier to swallow than the limitations of the gp2x.

 

[Svartalf]

Yah, I was able to run Windows XP with 128mb quite comfortably until the rot kicked in. Since Linux doesn't have those sorts of problems as far as I've seen, 128mb should be MORE than enough.

It has less to do with "rot" and more to do with sharing the RAM with the GPU which is going to eat some for textures, VBOs, and whatnot. What you use in GPU, you steal from the CPU. If the GPU had dedicated RAM, I'd agree with you on the 128Mb being more than enough. Should still be, but it may present some limitations on what we can/can't do on the titles because we have to concern ourselves with that aspect of things.

 

[Tobriand]

It's certainly easier to swallow than the limitations of the gp2x.

Or those of the 8mb GP32...

 

[Patrick R Ludvigsen]

Yah, I was able to run Windows XP with 128mb quite comfortably until the rot kicked in. Since Linux doesn't have those sorts of problems as far as I've seen, 128mb should be MORE than enough.

It has less to do with "rot" and more to do with sharing the RAM with the GPU which is going to eat some for textures, VBOs, and whatnot. What you use in GPU, you steal from the CPU. If the GPU had dedicated RAM, I'd agree with you on the 128Mb being more than enough. Should still be, but it may present some limitations on what we can/can't do on the titles because we have to concern ourselves with that aspect of things.


I mean, once the system worked fine, and a few months later the rightclick menu took about 10 seconds to show up...