What is mali tegra adreno? Video accelerators in phones: what you need to know about mobile graphics
Many of you downloaded cache for games, or looked at the characteristics of a device. Everyone saw that there were some strange words like Tegra, Adreno, Mali, PowerVR. Let's find out what it is.
All of the above are video accelerators. The video accelerator is one of the main parts of the SoC (System on the Chip), or GPU for short. The GPU, or Graphic Processing Unit, is a chip integrated into the CPU, and it is responsible for 2D and 3D graphics. And their performance is measured in Flops. CPU, or Central Processing Unit, in a word, processor.
Let's look at the types of the most popular GPUs. There are 4 types:
- Tegra (GeForce ULP) from NVIDIA
- Adreno from Qualcomm
- Mali from ARM
- PowerVR from Imagination Technologies
Tegra (GeForce ULP)
In general, the emergence of such a SoC as Tegra began in 2007, due to the acquisition of PortalPlayer by NVIDIA. At that time, the processor was not popular, since the power was not competitive, and Tegra itself was used in players, smartphones running Windows Mobile and Windows CE.
Evolution of the SoC Tegra line
Everything changed after NVIDIA bet on Google's new operating system - Android. So in 2010 the dual-core Tegra 2 appeared for tablets, and in 2011 for smartphones. Then Tegra 3 appeared and then Tegra 4, 4i, K1 and X1.
The evolution itself in terms of graphics capabilities began with Tegra 2. The NVIDIA processor GPU had 8 graphics cores, full support for Direct3D Mobile and OpenGL ES 2.0, and a performance of 6.7 GFLOPS at 400 MHz.
And the Tegra 3 GPU already has 12 graphics cores, 12.4 GFLOPS at a frequency of 520 MHz.
Already in 2012, there were exclusives for Tegra in games, for example, improved graphics, special effects and rendering, as well as optimization. Quite a few people complained about the lack of performance.
I'm already silent about Tegra 4 and 4i with 72/60 graphics cores with support for OpenGL ES 3.0 and 96.8 GFLOPS with 72 cores at 672 MHz, and 74.8 GFLOPS with 60 cores at 660 MHz.
We are not talking about the K1 with 192 graphics cores, support for Direct X 12, OpenGL ES 3.1 and a performance of 360 GFLOPS at 850 MHz.
Let's not talk about the X1 with a performance of 1 TFLOPS, with 256 graphics cores at a frequency of 1 GHz. We can immediately say that the mobile market is developing.
But where is such power without proper optimization? NVIDIA is doing just that right now.
Portal for Tegra 4/K1
Half-Life 2 for Tegra 4/K1
It launches various exclusives, such as Portal and Half-Life 2 and so on. All these applications are located in a special market for Tegra - Tegrazone.
In general, if you like to game, then take Tegra.
Adreno from Qualcomm (Snapdragon SoC)
Adreno came into its own after the launch of the Snapdragon SoC line by Qualcomm in 2009.
The first mobile device on Snapdragon was Toshiba TG01 with Adreno 130, and then HTC HD2.
P.S The power of chipsets can be compared to game consoles.
After the development of Android and Windows Phone, the development of Snapdragon itself went up sharply. In 6 years, 5 generations of Snapdragon SoC have already been produced. S1, S2, S3, S4 and 200/400/600/800.
Over these five generations, there have been so many types of processors launched that it can be confusing. To do this, you can look at the table below, where I have collected the currently popular types of GPUs and their processors.
GPU → Processor
And here is a list of Adreno performance in GFLOPS (The more, the better):
- Adreno 130 - 133 MHz - 1.2 GFLOPS
- Adreno 200 - 245 MHz - 4 GFLOPS
- Adreno 203 - 294 MHz - 9.4 GFLOPS
- Adreno 205 - 266 MHz - 8.5 GFLOPS
- Adreno 220 - 320 MHz - 19 GFLOPS
- Adreno 225 - 400 MHz - 26 GFLOPS
- Adreno 305 - 450 MHz - 24 GFLOPS
- Adreno 320 - 450 MHz - 86 GFLOPS
- Adreno 330 - 450-578 MHz - 130-167 GFLOPS
- Adreno 420 - 600 MHz - 172 GFLOPS
- Adreno 430 - 700 MHz - 454 GFLOPS
Mali from ARM
Mali is a GPU from ARM. Divided into 4 generations: Utgard, Midgard 1/2/3.
The first GPU was Mali-55 with support for OpenGL ES 1.1 and with a single graphics core, which is recognized as the smallest graphics chip, first appeared in LG Renoir, where Mali-55 is used only to optimize the interface.
The second experience in creating a GPU was Mali-200. Then it already supported OpenGL ES 2.0 with 1 graphics core at 275 MHz.
The third experiment was on Mali-300. It could reproduce PlayStation Portable level graphics, the GPU frequency was 395 MHz.
The fourth experience in creating a GPU was revolutionary - Mali-400 - a continuation of Mali-300, but with multi-core support for up to 4 graphics cores, as a result of which performance increases up to 4 times. Frequency 395-533 MHz, performance 2.5 to 19 GFLOPS. Popular among smartphones and tablets 2013.
years.
There is also Mali-450. This is the same 400, but the performance is doubled. It can have up to 8 graphics cores, a frequency from 375 to 700 MHz and a performance of 30-60 GFLOPS.
Mali-T760 is the most powerful GPU among Mali, with support for up to 16 graphics cores, a frequency of 685 MHz and 376 GFLOPS! Supports OpenGL ES 3.1, OpenCL1.2, OpenVG 1.1 and Direct X 11.1.
You can see the most popular Mali GPUs in this table:
Series → GPU
Popular PowerVR GPUs
There are so many types of GPUs that I will just show you a list by GFLOPS performance (The more, the more powerful):
- SGX530 - 200-300 MHz - 1.6-2.4 GFLOPS
- SGX531 - 200 MHz - 1.6-2.4 GFLOPS
- SGX531 Ultra - (MT6577, MT6575) - 522 MHz - 4.2 GFLOPS
- SGX535 - 300 MHz - 2.4 GFLOPS
- SGX540 - 153 - 512 MHz - 3.2-6.1 GFLOPS
- SGX543 - 200-300 MHz - 6.4-9.6 GFLOPS
- SGX543 MP2 - 250 MHz (Apple A5) - 16 GFLOPS
- SGX543 MP3 - 300 MHz (Apple A6) - 29 GFLOPS
- SGX543 MP4 - 250 MHz (Apple A5X) - 32 GFLOPS
- SGX544 - 286-357 MHz - 9.2-11.4 GFLOPS
- SGX544 - 600 MHz - 19 GFLOPS
- SGX544 - 300-533 MHz - 19-51 GFLOPS
- SGX545 - 533 MHz - 8.5 GFLOPS
- SGX554 - 300 MHz - 19 GFLOPS
- SGX554 MP4 - 300 MHz (Apple A6X) - 77 GFLOPS
- G6100 - 300 MHz - 19.2 GFLOPS
- G6200 MP2 - 300-500 MHz - 38.4-64 GFLOPS
- G6400 MP4 - 300 MHz - 77 GFLOPS
- G6430 MP4 - 450 MHz (Apple A7) - 115.2 GFLOPS
- GX6450 MP4 - 450 MHz (Apple A8) - 115 GFLOPS
We looked at 4 types of popular graphics video accelerators from 4 different manufacturers. Each has its own disadvantages, each has its own advantages. You also learned what a GPU, CPU is, and a little history of each video accelerator.
I hope this article helps you in some way, and good luck in your adventures!
Modern smartphones and tablet PCs simply cannot be imagined without a graphics accelerator, which is part of a single-chip system (system-on-a-chip). Nowadays, a graphics core is required not only to run 3D games, but also to draw the operating system interface and play ultra-high-resolution (4K) video.
Intel Pioneer
In the early 2000s, mobile phones and PDAs handled game graphics exclusively using the CPU. At the same time, the pictures in the games were extremely primitive. The ice broke in 2006, when Intel introduced the 2700G mobile graphics core with performance at the level of the Sony PlayStation One game console. True, the Windows Mobile and Symbian operating systems were unable to fully realize its potential.
Dell X50v – PDA with Intel 2700G graphics accelerator
Mobile graphics accelerators began to be used effectively only with the release of the Apple iPhone and Android smartphones. Thus, the first generation of iPhone was built on the Samsung ARM 1176JZ(F)-S processor with Mbx lite graphics (from Imagination Technologies). The first graphics core for Android was Adreno 130, which will be discussed below.
Qualcomm Adreno
In 2005, Qualcomm, which had previously been exclusively engaged in equipment for cellular networks, received a license from ARM Limited to manufacture and, most importantly, modify ARM architecture processors. It took her several years to develop her own architecture called Scorpion (ARMv7 instruction set) and implement the energy-efficient ATI Imageon graphics accelerator.
In 2008, the HTC Touch Diamond Windows Mobile communicator with a Qualcomm MSM7201A processor and Adreno 130 graphics (renamed ATI Imageon) went on sale. And soon the world saw the first Android smartphone - HTC Dream (operator name T-Mobile G1) with exactly the same single-chip system. Inspired by the success in the Android market, Qualcomm bought AMD's mobile graphics division.
Modern Qualcomm graphics are represented by both budget models (Adreno 203, 205 and 305) and real 3D monsters (Adreno 320, 330 and 420). Unlike its predecessor, the Adreno 130, which used an outdated pipeline architecture with fixed block functions, modern Qualcomm graphics are built on a unified shader architecture. The only exception was Adreno 205 with VLIW architecture.
NVIDIA GeForce ULP
NVIDIA, a long-time leader in the computer graphics industry, could not remain on the sidelines of the fast-growing mobile gadget market for long. And if the first generation of NVIDIA Tegra chips was not used anywhere except for the Microsoft Zune HD media player, then the second generation created a real sensation. Thus, LG Optimus 2X based on Tegra 2 became the world's first dual-core Android smartphone. And the lion's share of the 2011 Android tablet lineup was built on the second generation Tegra. The Tegra 2 mobile graphics core received 8 cores and the loud name GeForce ULP.
In the third generation of NVIDIA single-chip systems, the number of graphics cores increased to 12, and in the fourth - to 72. The real revelation was the announcement of the Tegra K1 chip with graphics for as many as 192 cores and, most importantly, the mature Kepler architecture. Finally, it is possible to compare NVIDIA smartphone and tablet graphics with its PC video cards. If you do not make allowances for the low frequency of the graphics core and video memory of the Tegra K1, then we can assume that it is only half as slow as the laptop NVIDIA GeForce 740M (384 Kepler cores).
Imagination PowerVR
Despite the strong market position of Qualcomm and the authority of NVIDIA, it is PowerVR mobile graphics from Imagination Technologies that are the most widespread in the world. According to some reports, its share reaches 50 percent of the market. However, it is not strange, because PowerVR graphics are used in their single-chip systems by several large manufacturers.
Thus, MediaTek uses PowerVR SGX 531 and SGX 544MP graphics accelerators in its ARM processors. The PowerVR SGX 545 model makes quite good friends with x86 processor cores in Intel Atom chips. We must not forget about the Sony PlayStation Vita portable gaming console with PowerVR SGX 543MP4+ graphics.
Apple remains Imagination's priority customer. It is to her that Imagination gives the right to be the first to use its latest developments. This happened in 2011 with the PowerVR SGX 543MP2 with two core clusters (for iPad 2 and iPhone 4S), and the same thing happened last year with the PowerVR G6430 with four clusters (for iPad Air, iPad mini 2gen and iPhone 5S).
But Imagination has even more powerful graphics in its arsenal - PowerVR GX6650 with 192 cores, like the NVIDIA Tegra K1. So why is image quality in mobile games so slow to improve? We will also talk about this below.
ARM Mali
The British company ARM Limited, which invented the processor architecture of the same name in the 1980s, designs not only processor cores, but also graphics cores. And its partners decide for themselves whether to license only the first, or also the second. The breakthrough for ARM Limited was the Mali 55 graphics, which was used in the LG Renoir mobile phone not so much for games, but for smooth menu animation.
The first full-fledged 3D graphics accelerator from ARM Limited was the Mali-200, which was eventually replaced by the multi-cluster Mali-400MP. A new round of evolution was the Mali-T604 graphics (almost twice as fast as the Mali-400MP), the first device based on which was the Google Nexus 10 tablet.
The ARM Mali-T760, capable of constructing up to 1.4 billion triangles per second, will compete with the graphics flagships of 2014 - Adreno 420, Tegra K1 and PowerVR G6650. In addition, the Mali-T760 supports the latest OpenGL ES 3.0 and DirectX 11 graphics technologies, as well as OpenCL parallel computing.
Compare the incomparable
Comparing two mobile graphics accelerators to each other is a thankless task. You should least trust benchmark indicators, since they give a total assessment of the processor and integrated graphics. Some single-chip systems contain powerful processor cores and at the same time a weak graphics accelerator, while in others, on the contrary, the graphics outweigh.
The best way to compare two mobile graphics cores is to take a closer look at their architecture. As an example, let's take three well-known models: Qualcomm Adreno 220 (from the Snapdragon S3 chip), NVIDIA GeForce ULP (from Tegra 2) and Imagination PowerVR SGX 543MP2 (from Apple A5). Thus, the Adreno 220 graphics contains 8 unified shaders operating at a default frequency of 266 MHz, and its performance is estimated at 17 GLOPS.
The competing NVIDIA GeForce ULP version of Tegra 2 also has 8 shaders, but unlike Adreno they are not unified. Four shaders are pixel and four more are vertex. The standard GeForce ULP core frequency is 300 MHz. Peak performance of Tegra 2 is 5.6 GLOPS. A significant lag in performance compared to Adreno 220 with a generally similar number of shaders is caused by a smaller number of instructions processed per clock cycle.
|
Model name |
Qualcomm Adreno 220 |
NVIDIA GeForce ULP (Tegra 2 version) |
Imagination PowerVR SGX 543MP2 |
|
Architecture |
Unified shader |
With fixed block functions |
|
|
Number of clusters |
|||
|
Number of shaders |
|||
|
Core frequency |
266 MHz |
300 MHz |
200 MHz |
|
Performance |
17 GLOPS |
5.6 GLOPS |
14.4 GFLOPS |
We should also talk about the Imagination PowerVR SGX 543MP2 graphics, which is often mistakenly called “dual-core”. In fact, the prefix MP2 in the name implies the presence of two clusters of cores. Each cluster of the SGX 543MP2 contains 4 pixel shaders and 2 vertex shaders. That is, the total number of shaders on the SGX 543MP2 is 12 (8+4), the initial operating frequency is 200 MHz, and the performance is 14.4 GFLOPS.
The unified shader architecture is much more modern than the fixed one. For example, modern PC video cards contain a large number of unified shaders (more than a thousand) and significantly fewer fixed ones (less than a hundred). Performance in games depends primarily on what architecture the developer was focusing on, that is, on optimization.
And the frequency of RAM may differ from smartphone to smartphone, part of which, as you know, is borrowed by integrated graphics. It is RAM with low bandwidth that can become the bottleneck of the graphics subsystem, which will result in low benchmark scores.
Have the graphics in the games improved?
If you compare mobile games from five years ago and modern ones, the difference in picture quality will, as they say, be obvious. But if we take into account the multiple increase in performance of ARM processors and graphics accelerators integrated into them, the picture clearly has not improved enough.
Several years ago, NVIDIA allegedly tried to give impetus to the development of graphics in mobile games. Thus, the zombie shooter Dead Trigger on smartphones and tablets with the Tegra 3 chip worked with advanced graphics options: rays of light, shadows, metallic shine and haze. However, it soon became clear that for all this powerful GeForce ULP graphics are not required at all, it is enough to edit the game configuration file using root rights.
Unity development environment
However, ARM chip manufacturers and, especially, Google and Apple should not be blamed for all the troubles. Progress in picture quality is primarily hampered by game developers. Selling their creations for a dollar or two, they are not ready to invest hundreds of thousands in developing their own graphics engine. A ray of hope appeared only with the advent of the cross-platform Unity engine. I would like to believe that this year there will be games with truly beautiful and realistic pictures.
Snapdragon processors: advantages and disadvantages of chipsets from S430 to S821. Comparison of the performance of smartphones on Snapdragon processors in benchmarks.
Which Snapdragon processor is better? To answer the question, we will compare current models of Qualcomm chipsets, which can be found not only in old smartphones, but also in phones produced in 2017. First, we will compare the characteristics of Snapdragon processors and talk about the key features of each model, after which we will confirm our predictions regarding operating speed with the results of testing smartphones in popular benchmarks.
Characteristics of Snapdragon processors
The key characteristics of any processor are the manufacturing process, the architecture of the central processor cores, the number of cores and their clock speed, as well as the graphics accelerator of the chipset. These specifications should be given the closest attention.
The heating of the smartphone, the degree of its susceptibility to throttling (a drop in clock frequency under load) and the operating time of the smartphone on a single charge depend on the technical process. The “smaller” the technological process, the more economically the chipset uses the battery.
The architecture of the cores, their number and clock frequency affect the speed of operation. Powerful cores, particularly Cortex A72 or Kryo, consume more power but perform many more operations per clock. Simply put, they are faster. Economical cores, which include cores based on the Cortex A53 architecture, are designed to solve simple tasks. They do not consume the battery as aggressively, but they also work slower with processes.
| 430 | 625 | 650 | 820 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Technical process | 28 nm | 14 nm | 28 nm | 14 nm |
| Number of Cores | 8 | 8 | 6 | 4 |
| Processor architecture | 8x ARM Cortex A53 | 8x ARM Cortex A53 | 2x ARM Cortex A72+ 4x ARM Cortex A53 | 4x Kryo CPU |
| Clock frequency | up to 1.4 GHz | up to 2.0 GHz | up to 1.8 GHz | up to 2.15 GHz |
| Graphics accelerator | Adreno 505 GPU | Adreno 506 GPU | Adreno 510 GPU | Adreno 530 GPU |
| LTE modem | LTE Cat.4 download 150 Mbps transmission up to 50 Mbit/s | LTE Cat.13/7 download 300 Mbps transmission up to 150 Mbit/s | LTE Cat.7 download 300 Mbps transmission up to 100 Mbit/s | LTE Cat.13/12 download 600 Mbps transmission up to 150 Mbit/s |
The number of processor cores affects the speed of the phone in multitasking mode. If the cores are built on the same architecture, then the more there are, the better. But when switching to a new architecture, the rule no longer works.
Smartphones with a quad-core Snapdragon 820 processor are faster than 8-core phones built on previous generations of chipsets. The difference in speed is explained by the fact that the improved cores perform more operations per unit of time, due to which they confidently outperform their “slow” predecessors.
The graphics adapter determines the speed of the smartphone in games and when working with 3D graphics. Qualcomm Snapdragon processors use different generations of Adreno graphics, which are a priori characterized by high performance. Updated versions of the adapter with a larger index are faster than their predecessors, which affects the framerate. This will be clearly visible from the benchmark results.
Key features of Qualcomm Snapdragon processors
In this part of the article we talk about the key features of various models of Qualcomm Snapdragon processors, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses in terms of efficiency, operating speed and degree of heating when solving complex (and not so complex) problems.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 430
Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 is the weakest chipset on our list. Its only advantage is its low cost. Manufacturers who want to offer the buyer an inexpensive smartphone choose this chipset as a compromise solution.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor is built on 8 reference Cortex A53 cores, which operate at a very low frequency by modern standards 1.4 GHz. Accordingly, you can forget about the high speed of the smartphone even before purchasing it. Graphics accelerator Adreno 505 also grazes the rear ones. It will still allow you to play at minimum settings, but the framerate will be low.
Since the Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 is manufactured using a 28 nm process, it drains the battery relatively quickly for such a slow processor. Compare battery life ratings and . Due to the same technical process, heating in games and when working with heavy applications will be noticeable.
Snapdragon 625 processor
Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 is a very interesting chipset, in a sense, even cool. Of course, we are not talking about cosmic speeds here; the main advantage of the model is extremely low energy consumption with an almost complete absence of heating and throttling.
Excellent energy efficiency is explained by the fact that the Snapdragon 625 processor is manufactured using a modern 14 nm process technology. For the same reason, he always remains cold, even in games. Graphics accelerator power Adreno 506 Enough for playing at minimum and medium settings.
The speed of the central processor is not prohibitive, but higher than that of the S430. The performance of the smartphone is also higher - Android will run smoothly, and there should be no problems with applications, at least if the Snapdragon 625 is paired with at least 3 GB of RAM. ( .)
Snapdragon 650 processor
Compared to the Qualcomm Snapdragon processors that we reviewed earlier, the 650 Dragon is almost a champion in terms of speed. This is explained by the fact that the processor architecture uses improved Cortex A72 cores. Yes, the total number of cores is smaller, but by performing more operations per clock cycle, the processor runs much faster, as do the phones built on it.
A graphics accelerator gives a performance boost in games Adreno 510. When compared to the Snapdragon 625 and 430 processors, the difference is obvious. You will find the comparison results at the end of the publication in GFX benchmarks. The frame rate in games will be higher, and you can play not only at medium, but also at maximum settings.
The disadvantage of the Snapdragon 650 processor is that it is produced according to the 28 nm process technology. Because of this, the chipset gets very hot and drops frequencies under heavy load, including in 3D toys. This feature should be taken into account by those who like to play for a long time and do not want to experience a drop in fps. Battery consumption is also higher, and the battery life of the smartphone is shorter.
A few words about Snapdragon 652. It differs from the 650 model in the increased number of cores to eight, with additional cores built on the Cortex A72 architecture (powerful). Thanks to this, it is even faster, although it does not reach the S820. The disadvantages due to the 28 nm process technology are the same - throttling and high battery consumption.
Snapdragon 820/821 processors
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820/821 - top chipsets of 2016. Their strengths are high operating speed and relatively low battery consumption, as for fast processors. The chipsets are equipped with the Adreno 530 graphics accelerator, which last year broke records and outperformed almost all competitors.
If you need a very fast smartphone, or if you want to play heavy games at maximum framerates, smartphones with a quad-core Snapdragon 820 processor are an excellent choice. Excellent, but not without its shortcomings. The problem is that smartphones based on the Snapdragon 820, despite the 14 nm manufacturing process, are susceptible to overheating, and they sometimes heat up to uncomfortable temperatures.
Qualcomm engineers tried to solve the problem in one of the versions of the Snapdragon 821. The “cold” version of the S821 received the AB index, and it operates at the same reference frequencies as the S820. Smartphones with a quad-core Snapdragon 821 processor are not always faster than 820 Dragon phones, but they can be cooler. In a sense, this is even better, because the 820 is already fast enough.
The Snapdragon 821 version with the non-AB index is a processor overclocked to 2.3 GHz on the same architecture and with the same number of cores (4 Kryo CPU cores). An example of a smartphone with a 4-core Snapdragon 821 non-AB processor. For comparison, or are built on the Snapdragon 821, which operates at reference frequencies without increasing processing power.
Snapdragon 835 processors
The latest Snapdragon 835 chipset is a blast in terms of performance. In this publication we will not talk about it in detail, because a special material is devoted to comparing the S835 and S821 processors.
Snapdragon processors: comparison in benchmarks
Let's move on to comparing Snapdragon processors in popular benchmarks. There will be a lot of charts below that may not display correctly in older browsers and some built-in browsers on mobile platforms. If you encounter this problem, open the publication in the current build of Mozilla, Opera or Chrome.
A few explanations about the benchmarks. GeekBench evaluates the power of the central processor, which affects the smooth operation of the operating system.
Snapdragon processors in GeekBench 4 (multi-core)
Snapdragon processors in GeekBench 4 (single-core)
In Antutu and BaseMark OS 2.0 we compare the overall speed of the smartphone.
Snapdragon processors in AnTuTu 6
Snapdragon processors in BaseMark OS 2.0
GFX tests evaluate the power of the graphics accelerator, which correlates with the speed of working with 3D graphics and frame rates in games.
GFX 3.1 Manhattan
GFX 3.1 Car Scene
Snapdragon processor comparison: summary
Any conclusions or comments on the test results are unnecessary; all that remains is to summarize the above and highlight the key features of Snapdragon processors:
- Snapdragon 430: a budget option, a compromise between the comfort of using the phone and its cost.
- S625: the best choice for those who need a cool smartphone with high battery life.
- S650/652: a good option for gamers and those looking for a fast and inexpensive smartphone.
- S820: a very fast chipset that will last for a couple of years. Smartphones with a quad-core S820/S821 processor are not cheap, although there are affordable options.
- S835: the best processor at the time of publication.
New publications
In my opinion
Adreno, Mali, tegra and power vr are all GPUs (Graphics Processing Unit). So, first you should know something about GPUs...
GPU (Graphics Processing Unit)
You might have heard about processors and then you might also be knowing that everything you do on your smartphone or tablet (or any computing device) is done by the processor.
When your phone boots, the apps you start, the text you write, the app animations you see, the action done when you press or long press the screen, the screen you see is all done by the processor.
But the processor has certain limits - the games you play require very high level processing, hd video playing, video editing are some of the many things which require heavy processing and cannot be done by the processor and hence most present time smartphones abs tablets use custom cores dedicated for graphics intensive uses but don't think that the processor cannot do these things but GPUs are simply best in their field. The processor can do everything but are not best at anything.
Long story short - no graphic intensive work can be done at speed without a GPU.
Now coming to your question...
(note that this question is written keeping in mind that you are asking a about smartphones or tablets)
Here are the descriptions of all the GPUs you asked -
Adreno series of GPUs are developed by Qualcomm (a leading company in the field of making System on Chip - SoC for android; the snapdragon series of processors belong to this company) and are used in variety of their SoCs.
Adreno GPUs are more battery friendly and do not heat up much. More custom ROMs are available for adreno GPUs and less frame drops are observed in this series of GPUs.
Mali series of GPUs are developed by ARM (company that designed ARM CPU and platform) and are used iby many SOC manufacturers.
Mali GPUs are much infamous for their heating problems and frame drops. More compatibility issues are related to Mali GPUs. For graphics intensive works they should not be your choice but if they are paired up with helio x processor series of mediatek then you can observe some good performance. Mali and mediatek are more inexpensive than other processors and GPUs and so are the phones that exhibit them.
Tegra series are developed by Nvidia (the best company in the field of making graphics cards for desktops and laptops) for smartphones and tablets.
But they are not GPUs they are in fact SoCs (CPUs) they integrate an ARM architecture central processing unit (CPU), graphics processing unit (GPU), northbridge, southbridge, and memory controller in one place.
Tegra chips are very powerful for playing high end games. They are also battery friendly as well as expensive and so are the devices that contain them.
Power vr series of GPUs are developed by imagination technologies for desktops but rapidly changing market forced them to develop GPUs for smartphones and tablets.
Power vr chips might not be the best battery savers but give excellent results.
About your Samsung galaxy tab 2, it contains the power vr sgx540.
Comparison
The comparison might not be asked directly in this question but some people may have come this way finding a comparison among these.
Note - the comparison here is made by considering the models of these GPUs Which are in the same price range.
So by my experience and knowledge so far I can say that -
Adreno GPUs are good at overall performance which means a bit gaming, a bit hd videos but are not made for handling anything in excess but they are better than mali.
Mali are good for low budget graphics performance but don"t compare to any of these provided they are bundled with helio or other high performance SOCs.
Tegra SoCs and GPUs are best for gaming as they are made by graphics beast Nvidia but are equally expensive.
Power vr GPUs are better than adreno and Mali but if you are going for excess gaming then nothing can beat tegra GPUs.
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Most smartphones use ARM processor architecture. It was created by the company of the same name, and it also supports it. In the process of creating the bulk of chipsets that are used in mobile devices, its developments are used.
However, the approach may vary. Some companies license ready-made solutions, while others create their own, using the company's developments as a basis. For this reason, there is a confrontation in the market between basic and custom graphics and central processor architectures.
Which is better Qualcomm or ARM?
To the basic solutions that have been created ARM, include processor cores and Mali graphics. They are used, for example, by chipmakers such as: Spreadtrum, Nvidia, Samsung, MediaTek.
Whereas Qualcomm has a different approach. For top-end chipsets, it practices the use of custom cores Kryo, and Snapdragon chips are equipped with Adreno graphics. It was developed by company specialists. The presence of different architectures provokes the question of whether Who should be preferred - Qualcomm or ARM?
It is very difficult to give a definite answer to this question. As well as deciding whose graphics chips should be given the palm. It must be said that not only the situation matters here, but also the specific tasks assigned. And depending on this, the scales may tip in one direction or the other. This article is intended to help those who want to fully understand this issue.
Pros and cons of Adreno
Let's start with the pros:
High performance rate. Theoretical calculations indicate higher maximum graphics performance Adreno relatively Mali. They are valid if they are used in chipsets of the same class. So, for the Snapdragon 625, the computing power of Adreno 506 is about 130 GFLOPS (we are talking about billions of calculations in one second with floating point). Its competitor MTK Helio P10, which has a Mali T860 Mp2 GPU, has an indicator of 47 GFLOPS.
More advanced APIs supported. The latest generation of Adreno chips have a larger set of APIs (software development tools), and their versions are newer. For example, a year has passed since Adreno released its 500th version. And it supports Open GL ES 3.2, DirectX12, OpenCL 2.0 and Vulkan. While Mali is not supported by DirectX12, and OpenCL is only available for the G 2016 series, which appeared relatively recently.
They overheat less. Adreno GPUs are not as prone to overheating as Mali. It must be said that Qualcomm had some processors that were prone to throttling. But these were processors that were distinguished by increased power, and accordingly, the central processor cores had a hot temper. They worked almost at the same level as their competitors when the reduced productivity regime was observed.
Now about the cons:
Quite a high cost. Qualcomm has to spend more money developing its graphics compared to what it costs competitors to license ARM Mali. For this reason, the cost of chipsets from an American manufacturer is higher than, say, MTK.
Software is less optimized. It's okay, but they use Mali graphics. Huawei also uses stock GPUs from ARM in Kirin models. And MediaTek prefer to use ARM graphics without using any other. The result of this is Mali's large share of the global market. That’s why game developers give preference to Mali when optimizing their products. We can say that having fewer GFLOPS, Mali in chips belonging to the mid-range and budget level is slightly worse in games than Adreno.
Fillrate is lower in rendering. Adreno chips have a relatively weak texturing domain, which is responsible for the process of forming the final image. Adreno 530 can render about six hundred million triangles that form a 3D picture in one second. And Mali G71 - 850,000,000.
Positive and negative sides of Mali
And in this case, let's start with the positive:
High prevalence rate. Due to the standard of Mali graphics for smartphone chipsets, games are optimized for it better than for Adreno.
Low price threshold. The cost of a license to produce chipsets with Mali is quite cheap. This allows even small companies that do not have the ability to make millions of investments to produce chips from Mali. And this provokes competition and helps stimulate the ARM company, pushing it to develop new solutions. In addition, Mali graphics users end up spending less money.
High clock speeds. The frequencies used in Mali GPUs are 1 GHz. And among competitors this figure does not exceed 650 MHz. The higher frequency on Mali chips allows for better performance of games that do not support multi-threaded 3D processing well.
Rendering Domain Power. The top-end Mali G71 GPU is capable of rendering about eight hundred and fifty triangles in one second, which is identical to twenty-seven billion pixels. And this despite the fact that Adreno 530 is only able to process 8 billion. This means that it is better to use it when working with graphics of HD textures with high resolution.
Fewer shader cores. Mali GPUs have fewer shader cores than competing products. Mali is also worse in terms of maximum performance in GFLOPS. In addition, they are less adaptable to games that are capable of efficiently parallelizing GPU workloads.
Configurations are limited. Actually, the lag between Mali GPUs and Adreno is insignificant. However, in real life, manufacturers prefer to use ready-made solutions that are not very complex and have a not very large number of computing clusters. Thus, the Mali T720 contains about eight blocks, but the most widely used is the Mali T720 MP2, which has only two clusters.
Susceptibility to overheating. Mali's high clock speed solutions are more versatile, however, as a side effect, they have the ability to overheat. It is for this reason that it is not possible to integrate a significant number of graphics clusters into the chipset.
