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Mon, 24 Nov 2008 iPod touch 2.2 has faster CPU. Better for gaming than iPhone 3G

According to online reports, the new iPod touch runs games better, faster than iPhone

Macworld staff

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Gamers have discovered that the 2nd generation iPod touch runs Apple App store games significantly faster than the iPhone 3G due to a possible CPU boost.

TouchArcade, which covers the latest games and apps for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch found the iPod Touch’s processor was quietly boosted to 532MHz (up from 412MHz) with the 2nd generation model introduced in September. Meanwhile, the iPhone 3G, original iPhone and 1st Generation iPod Touch continue to run at the original 412MHz.

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Handheld Games CEO Thomas Fessler told the Web site that their 3D TouchSports Tennis game is noticeably different across iPods and iPhones.

“Our first step to increase fps (frames per second) performance was to introduce hardware dependent levels of detail. Where we can easily display two 1,500 polygon tennis players with 32 bones each on the iPod touch 2G and maintain fast and fluid game play, the original iPod touch just chokes, and in some instances so do the iPhones,” explained Fessler.

“To speed up the touch, we reduced the players to 800 polygons in farther away moments of gameplay, and are now using 1,000 polygon models for close ups, bringing the original iPod touch game play performance level close to that of the iPhone 3G. We’ve taken this approach across the board with great results,” Fessler added.

For 3D rendering Fessler ranked the iPod touch 2nd Generation the fastest “by far”, followed by the iPhone 3G, the original iPhone and fourth the 1st generation iPod touch. A YouTube video shows TouchSports Tennis running on all four devices.

Due to the heavy 3D nature of TouchSports Tennis game, Fessler speculates the GPU speeds could have been tweaked as well, but there is no hard evidence of this at this time.

Due to these findings, Fessler even says he would not recommend anyone interested in gaming to buy a used 1st generation iPod touch.

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Comments received


Tog said on Mon, 24 Nov 2008

Fantastic but the new firmware has broken Ipod Touch access to Iplayer.

Macworld Staff said on Mon, 24 Nov 2008

@Tog - we've tested iPlayer Web site out on both iPod touch and iPhone running 2.2, both work fine. It may be a problem with your phone - try a "clear cache" and "clear cookies" or reset your iPhone.

Michael said on Mon, 24 Nov 2008

Actually the CPU in both the iPod touch and iPhone are 600MHz throttled down to 412MHz. And the originals were set at 400MHz, then later bumped up to 412MHz after the 1.1 update.

Confused said on Mon, 24 Nov 2008

Has anyone actually seen the benefit of the 2.2 upgrade in relation to 'Maps'?? I can't find a street view anyway in the UK or in New York or San Franciso (just 2 US cities I tried)?

Vinnie said on Mon, 24 Nov 2008

Apple never tell you what they are really doing with updates.

Chris M said on Wed, 26 Nov 2008

I tried this out, i have a 16gb 1st Gen touch and 32gb 2nd gen touch. The difference is noticeable the 2nd gen touch is faster at loading games and apps. When playing the games the 2nd gen touch also seems to respond to input commands that much better than the older model.

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