Pandora Not Powerful Enough?


SONY said:
shunun said:
As time drags out, the pandora seems less amazing. It's kind of depressing. I hope it can emulate gba fullspeed, that'd make my day.

Amazing compared to what???

time does that I used to think the teenage mutant ninja turtles were amazing
 
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SONY said:
Amazing compared to what???
Two years ago OMAP3 was very powerful, it isn't anymore. It's good, but not amazing.

But Pandora still has its unique form factor and controllers, and that makes it rather unique. I still think it's a very good machine.
 
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Laurent said:
SONY said:
Amazing compared to what???
Two years ago OMAP3 was very powerful, it isn't anymore. It's good, but not amazing.

But Pandora still has its unique form factor and controllers, and that makes it rather unique. I still think it's a very good machine.


Its hard to imagine how a compagny has to go about making something the fastes around then the chip would have to be last thing to be added to the equation but then you couldnt design the boards, software, etc.

If the pandora2 will have more or less the same case as craig once indicated then they probably could make a more current version. However it will never be long before it's not the fasted anymore.
 
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Laurent said:
Two years ago OMAP3 was very powerful, it isn't anymore. It's good, but not amazing.
Two years ago it wasn't available to consumers. There is no point arguing over performance on paper. Cortex A8 SoCs up to 1GHz is what is mainstream in 2010, so Pandora will still be up to par(if it comes out soon).
 
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Interesting to note is that the GPU of the Pandora have no problem with N64 emulation, even though it renders to a much higher resolution. When it comes to emulation the CPU is where it's at, like people have already pointed out. Now, emulating something modern like a PSP is not going to happen on a Pandora because emulation is slow and you need something much much more powerful then what you are emulating.

Interestingly enough the PSP2 will use chips from the same manufacturers as the Pandora, only newer models. However, a few years later the Pandora 2 will have even more powerful hardware then the PSP2 :)
 
As time drags out, the pandora seems less amazing. It's kind of depressing. I hope it can emulate gba fullspeed, that'd make my day.
Sorry to quote this, but I hope this is seriously underestimating and underusing the whole point of the Pandora. Surely if all you want the Pandora for is a GBA emulator, then why don't you just get a real GBA???

I really hope it does SOOOO much more than this, and by the looks of everything we've seen so far, it will and does. Wanting it just for fullspeed GBA just seems such a waste.

The most worrying aspect here for me is that most users seem to want the Pandora for emulation as its primary purpose. That also seems such a waste and a shame for me. Emulation should be an added bonus. I really hope we get some decent homebrew and commercial apps too. Don't get me wrong, I also want to play emulated games, however I want so much more than the ability to play old games on a new machine, when I can play the old games on the old, original machines already and at full speed.

Everyone needs to raise their expectations, methinks :p
 
I should have added that the Pandora have no direct competition. It offers a large touchscreen, a large keyboard and gamecontrols way beyond any other handheld. It is also open source from the box and anyone can develop for it. It is useful not only for gaming but for running applications on as well.

Like iprice I'm really looking forward to new games being released on Pandora. There are a lot of indie games released today that are free or costs less then $5. My hope is that these developers will start to consider the Pandora a good indie platform.

Edit:
Forgot to mention the big replaceable battery, I ordered a spare so I really can use my Pandora where ever and when ever I want :)
 
The Pandora was designed by us, the people of this board because we were frustrated by what was on the market. The gp32, gp2x were capable devices but not perfect. That was why the pandora came into play. Smooth out the design flaws of the past and adding all the needed extras to emulate the older machines. We could all argue about this and the pandora crew listened THAT is what makes this device so powerfull, finally we built an emulation wonder that has everything to make the retro experience happen...

Most of us don´t care about the PSP-emulation (buy one !)The psp has (emulation wise) the same problems as the gp32 and gp2x : it is not perfect for emulation. (No keyboard, strange controls etc ) but shines in is own games !

So for the purpose it is designed the pandora will shine !
 
mali said:
Laurent said:
Two years ago OMAP3 was very powerful, it isn't anymore. It's good, but not amazing.
Two years ago it wasn't available to consumers. There is no point arguing over performance on paper. Cortex A8 SoCs up to 1GHz is what is mainstream in 2010, so Pandora will still be up to par(if it comes out soon).


I think that's actually part of the problem - two years ago the Pandora CPU was "futuristic" - there wasn't anything around which had that kind of performance, so it seemed advanced. Now there are items of that GENERAL ilk (the iPhone, despite lack of controls, has a similar CPU) that one aspect of the Pandora is no longer "futuristic" or "amazing" but more "similar to this product and that product and...".

That's not the whole Pandora package - afaics the Pandora spec still meets my needs better than anything that's available - but I really can see how, two years later it looks two years less impressive.
 
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I agree, that Pandora doesn't fly so high in clouds any more. I'm a big ARM fan and I'm fairly informed what's out there or going to be released, soon. There is no real handheld out there that could compete. My guess is that even when Pandora 2 comes out it will have exactly what we need, without competition. Other manufacturers sacrifice too much capability for price. There are interesting 7" tablets coming out soon, but with batteries below 2000mAh, and that's idiotic, if you ask me.
 
shunun said:
As time drags out, the pandora seems less amazing. It's kind of depressing. I hope it can emulate gba fullspeed, that'd make my day.

Errm, the WIZ and Dingoo can do this, and the Pandora is about 10x faster...

Also @Kangal, who did tell you that Polygons per Second are the most important thing when measuring the power (or the graphical power) of a gaming console?

Polygons per Second is only used for 3D graphics, it doesn't say anything about the CPU or 2D graphics power.

I know a lot of people do say "The more realistic games are, the better they are" - which is something I completely disagree.
I still haven't found a single game on the PS3 I could really dive into. I prefer New Super Mario Bros Wii or Super Mario Galaxy or even a new 2D Zelda over all uber-realistic 3D XBox360- or PS3-Games.

Yes, the Pandora will not be powerful enough to EMULATE PS2 or XBox Games - but such a CPU doesn't exist yet.

While the current OMAP is no technical wonder, the only major devices I know that use the same one is the N900 (which is out since two months) and the new iPhone (which is out since three months).
To out-of-date or not powerful?

Try to find a more powerful gaming handheld at the moment...
 
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EvilDragon said:
shunun said:
As time drags out, the pandora seems less amazing. It's kind of depressing. I hope it can emulate gba fullspeed, that'd make my day.

Errm, the WIZ and Dingoo can do this, and the Pandora is about 10x faster...

Also @Kangal, who did tell you that Polygons per Second are the most important thing when measuring the power (or the graphical power) of a gaming console?

Polygons per Second is only used for 3D graphics, it doesn't say anything about the CPU or 2D graphics power.

I know a lot of people do say "The more realistic games are, the better they are" - which is something I completely disagree.
I still haven't found a single game on the PS3 I could really dive into. I prefer New Super Mario Bros Wii or Super Mario Galaxy or even a new 2D Zelda over all uber-realistic 3D XBox360- or PS3-Games.

Yes, the Pandora will not be powerful enough to EMULATE PS2 or XBox Games - but such a CPU doesn't exist yet.

While the current OMAP is no technical wonder, the only major devices I know that use the same one is the N900 (which is out since two months) and the new iPhone (which is out since three months).
To out-of-date or not powerful?

Try to find a more powerful gaming handheld at the moment...

I didn't realise my comment would generate such debate. I still think the pandora is great, just nowhere near as amazing as it first was when I read about it 2 years ago. This is given that there are newer technologies now available, and yes, hopefully they will be in the 'pandora 2' if there is one, fingers crossed hey?

I'm sure it will emulate GBA fullspeed, but that was kind of sarcasm. I dont wan't a pandora JUST to emulate GBA! And to the people saying that emulation is "just a bonus" of the pandora, I'm not sure I agree.. Afterall, why would most of the talk be about emulation? Let's just be on neutral terms here, but I think the pandoras best asset is it's emulation/open source gaming capability. It's clearly designed for it afterall.

And personally I agree with evildragon. The more realistic games are, does not always make them better, some classic examples are pokemon games, or as ED mentioned 2D zelda games, like link's awakening. Anyone buying a pandora because they think it will emulate ps2 or xbox games is fooling themselves! It's not even what the pandora is about. To be honest, I don't even care about psp emulation. The games aren't great, and as someone already said, psp games are just like psx games, only psx has far better titles anyway.

Pandora = Duke nukem forever :D
 
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There is actually only one game for psp I want. 'Course, one game isn't enough to justify buying a psp. The thought occured to me that if it ever emulated one, that would be pretty neat.
But that's a minor point. I can do so much more than just play games or watch videos.

By the way, does anyone know any games similar to Patapon? :p
 
CPU not powerful enough? What if it was 1ghz, what more could you emulate? Nintendo DS, maybe Dreamcast, ps2? Do those consoles really matter that much to you guys?
 
SONY said:
shunun said:
Pandora = Duke nukem forever :D

WTF does that mean?

Im too lazy to explain, why don't you just google duke nukem forever, or why not make it easier for yourself -because you're obviously lazier than me- and just type DNF, it's even shorter :lol:
 
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EvilDragon said:
Errm, the WIZ and Dingoo can do this, and the Pandora is about 10x faster...
You should be more careful with such claims, it depends on the task. Picodrive, for example, runs ~3x faster than good old GP2X with some overclock (Pandora is on stock speed). Currently 32x emulation doesn't even reach 3x, probably because of lots of cache misses it causes.
 
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notaz said:
EvilDragon said:
Errm, the WIZ and Dingoo can do this, and the Pandora is about 10x faster...
You should be more careful with such claims, it depends on the task. Picodrive, for example, runs ~3x faster than good old GP2X with some overclock (Pandora is on stock speed). Currently 32x emulation doesn't even reach 3x, probably because of lots of cache misses it causes.

Well, yes, I meant with using all available extras (NEON, etc.).
I remember some early devboard benchmark tests which did lead to such results.

Of course, emulators are not really good to compare such things, as they can use optimizations on one system which are more complicated or slower on another one and vice versa.
 
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To me, emulation is... not really a bonus per se, but something else it does pretty well.

I mean, I'm nineteen years old. I've never owned any console. I got an atari 2600 at a fair for a euro (it had Pole Position and Asteroids). I've got two handhelds, though. A GBA SP and a DS Phat/original.
My computer had 128 MB RAM and windows ME 'till not too long ago.

Emulation won't take me down a trip along memory lane (Well, maybe. There was an N64 running Mario 64 in the library. I've had a go with that once or twice. I never got mirrors or paintings).

I ordered it for everything else it's able to do, but the prospect of being able to play SO MANY other games is very nice.
Also, a laptop in my pocket.
 
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