ASUS MeMO Pad HD7 Review: $149 Nexus 7.1 Successor & Our First Look at MediaTek's MT8125
by Anand Lal Shimpi on July 29, 2013 3:55 PM EST- Posted in
- Tablets
- Asus
- Mobile
- Android 4.2
- MeMO Pad
The GPU: PowerVR SGX 544MP1
Although the MT8125's quad-core Cortex A7 configuration isn't too unusual, its GPU is. MediaTek integrated a single PowerVR SGX 544MP1 into the MT8125. The MP1 suffix isn't redundant as the MP version of the part includes a last level cache.
The 544MP1 is clocked at 286MHz in the HD7 implementation of the MT8125, yielding peak FP performance of just under 9 GFLOPS. That's nearly 2x the peak FP performance of the Tegra 3 GPU in the Nexus 7, although there's much more to performance than just raw FP throughput.
In practice the MT8125's GPU implementation tends to trail the Tegra 3 based Nexus 7. GFXBench 2.7 shows a 12% reduction in fill rate and less than 1/4 the triangle rate of Tegra 3. The Egypt HD test narrows the gap considerably, but T-Rex HD shows a 32% performance advantage for the Nexus 7 (admittedly at unplayable frame rates from both chips).
3DMark for Android has the Tegra 3 based Nexus 7 ahead by around 12%, while BaseMark X grows that margin to over 40%.
The 3DMark breakdown is quite possibly the most interesting because it actually has the MT8125 pulling ahead in the CPU bound physics test. The GPU-specific test however has the Tegra 3 ahead by 14%.
In terms of real world gaming performance, the MT8125 is honestly fine. I gave Shadowgun and Modern Combat 4 a try, both of which were definitely playable. That's always the big thing to keep in mind with the current crop of game simulation tests under Android: they're mostly designed to stress high end silicon. Game developers on the other hand have to target what the majority of the market has. If we look at stats from Unity around 90% of all platforms are Mali-400, Adreno 2xx, PowerVR SGX 531/540, Tegra 2/3 generation. In other words, at least for the near future the MT8125's GPU performance should be ok.
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rabidpeach - Tuesday, July 30, 2013 - link
considering sdhx is mostly a microsoft invention, it might not be well supported in the android universeMonkeyPaw - Monday, July 29, 2013 - link
The big issue now is that places will be clearing Nexus 7.1 stock out. I already see the 16GB listed for $170 (or less for refurbs). You can get a 32GB N7.1 for $199 at Microcenter.Death666Angel - Monday, July 29, 2013 - link
I guess people who want the Nexus experience will still get a Nexus, people who want mSD support, a rare facing camera and a lighter chassis will get the HD 7. And other markets are different as well, here in Germany, the N7 2012 is still at the normal prices: 199€ for the 16GB one over the Play Stor, 238€ for the 32GB one at a normal store with the Play Store being 249€. That makes the HD 7 a lot cheaper, white being 139€ and the rest being 149€, that's not much absolutely, but relatively quite the pay up to get an N7. :)nafhan - Monday, July 29, 2013 - link
So... unless the MicroSD slot is really important, the best bet for bargain hunters may be to look for a deal on last year's N7. I've seen those hit this price point a few times (new).blanarahul - Monday, July 29, 2013 - link
"Like most other quad-core implementations in Android, I rarely see the fourth core turn on. The first two are frequently active, with clock speeds usually up at 1.2GHz whenever you're doing anything (loading apps, scrolling, etc…). The third core usually plugs in to keep responsiveness up while doing anything more CPU intensive, but that fourth core is almost never plugged."I would like to ask. Under what conditions does the 4th core get plugged? How many cores ate used while playing games like Modern Combat 4?
Anand Lal Shimpi - Monday, July 29, 2013 - link
I updated that paragraph a bit to be more specific to the MT8125/MeMO Pad HD7. MC4 tends to use 2 cores from what I've seen:http://images.anandtech.com/doci/7160/Screenshot_2...
peter23 - Monday, July 29, 2013 - link
Maybe all cores might get used if you're streaming music, downloading a torrent and using the nav all at the same time. All cores could get used if you find a video that can only be decoded in software. I don't use Chrome but maybe each tab also uses a separate process like the desktop one. I sometimes open up multiple tabs right after each other and maybe each core will be used to process each tab. These are all guess because I only have a dual-core phone.agentsmithitaly - Monday, July 29, 2013 - link
I'm very happy to see only metric measures except screen diagonals, you guys really listen to your audience!Now what about an Allwinner soc review? Hard to get excited from a performance point of view, but it's amazing to see working 50 $ tablets
abrowne1993 - Monday, July 29, 2013 - link
I feel like there is so much going on in that title.jjj - Monday, July 29, 2013 - link
You should try to find and test a product with Rockchip RK3188 , quad A9 on 28nm with just 25mm2 die size - very curious how it performs and at that size it got to be way cheap.