Games that didn't perform so well on Lumia 830

[Luciano_WP8]

First of all, I'd like to say that I'm really happy with the device. I'm comming from a Lumia 820 and been using the 830 for about a week, without any complains.

But, I've been testing some games I used to play on my 820 and it seems some of it are not yet optmize for Snapdragon 400 + Adreno 305 combo.

So far, this is my list:

*Angry Birds Go!: Altough the lack of music, this game used to run pretty well on my L820, but on L830 is just unplayable. The frame rate is ridiculous and there's graphic glitches.

*Banana Island: Not a high demanding graphic game in terms of graphics, still, frame rate on L830 is pretty lower than L820.

*Asphalt Overdrive: Since the last update, they add some "lens flare" effect, reflecting the sunlight on the screen. Well, at least on Adreno 225 devices I could see this effect but not on my L830.

*Nova 3: I noticed a slightly lower frame rate compared to L820, but nothing too serious.

For now, that's it. The other games I've tested delivered the same or a little better performance than Adreno 225 + Snapdragon S4 devices.

I'm curious about the performance of these games on L1320, since it uses Adreno 305 as well. If anyone has tested more games on these devices, comparing to Adreno 225 devices, please share. ; )

 

[Chris_Germany]

Get a game boy

 

[realwarder]

All I can say is wow, I'm truly impressed you notice minor detail like lens flare in the games.

Benchmarks put the S4 Pro GPU ahead of the SD400 so it's not surprising that frame rates would be lower, but graphics glitches in a game indicate an immature GPU driver, which might give some hope if they are still working on it that further optimizations might exist.

 

[Luciano_WP8]

All I can say is wow, I'm truly impressed you notice minor detail like lens flare in the games.

Benchmarks put the S4 Pro GPU ahead of the SD400 so it's not surprising that frame rates would be lower, but graphics glitches in a game indicate an immature GPU driver, which might give some hope if they are still working on it that further optimizations might exist.

Usually I don't notice such a small details in mobile games... It's just I really like Asphalt Overdrive so I can't help notice those minor details in graphics. I even compared it to Android's version running on a Moto G Second Generation (wich has almost the same internals as Lumia 830) and there I could see those ligt effects, just like on Lumias with Adreno 225 / SD S4. It's not a complaining though... More like an observation. ; )

About Angry Birds Go!, I do think is just a matter of update... Let's wait. ; )

 

[Luciano_WP8]

Get a game boy

I've been there and I don't wanna go back. Those little cartridges was soooo expensive. : )

 

[prasath1234]

If you want to play all games in wp get a lumia 1520 it is a monster in terms of game performance.

 

[Luciano_WP8]

If you want to play all games in wp get a lumia 1520 it is a monster in terms of game performance.

That was the plan, but unfortunelly 1520 is too expensive here in Brazil... But I'm happy with the L830... Coudn't afford more than that anyway. ; )

 

[hEt lEyd1]

u know, i asked the same thing at Lumia 730 section (730vs1320). they were said that s400 will be better for future, but one guy that had both of them said 1320 is faster than 730.

 

[psoham777]

First of all, I'd like to say that I'm really happy with the device. I'm comming from a Lumia 820 and been using the 830 for about a week, without any complains.

But, I've been testing some games I used to play on my 820 and it seems some of it are not yet optmize for Snapdragon 400 + Adreno 305 combo.

So far, this is my list:

*Angry Birds Go!: Altough the lack of music, this game used to run pretty well on my L820, but on L830 is just unplayable. The frame rate is ridiculous and there's graphic glitches.

*Banana Island: Not a high demanding graphic game in terms of graphics, still, frame rate on L830 is pretty lower than L820.

*Asphalt Overdrive: Since the last update, they add some "lens flare" effect, reflecting the sunlight on the screen. Well, at least on Adreno 225 devices I could see this effect but not on my L830.

*Nova 3: I noticed a slightly lower frame rate compared to L820, but nothing too serious.

For now, that's it. The other games I've tested delivered the same or a little better performance than Adreno 225 + Snapdragon S4 devices.

I'm curious about the performance of these games on L1320, since it uses Adreno 305 as well. If anyone has tested more games on these devices, comparing to Adreno 225 devices, please share. ; )

Don't trust gameloft games, different devices have different issues. I can't comment on other games though.

 

[Tellus82]

If a game show's big differences in fps it means they aren't yet optimized for sd400, at worst the fps difference should be no greater then +-10% to the s4. And if they show graphical glitches it is very very likely to be bugged.

 

[psoham777]

u know, i asked the same thing at Lumia 730 section (730vs1320). they were said that s400 will be better for future, but one guy that had both of them said 1320 is faster than 730.

Well actually I didn't find out much speed difference between 730, 1320. People should also remember that 1320 has a higher clock speed than 730

 

[psoham777]

u know, i asked the same thing at Lumia 730 section (730vs1320). they were said that s400 will be better for future, but one guy that had both of them said 1320 is faster than 730.

Still I would prefer 730, as its more future proof & updates do matter on processor

 

[psoham777]

If a game show's big differences in fps it means they aren't yet optimized for sd400, at worst the fps difference should be no greater then +-10% to the s4. And if they show graphical glitches it is very very likely to be bugged.

Well my 1320 runs all the games perfectly, most of the times its the bugs in the game that affect your gameplay

 

[Nithin Vs]

My Lumia 525 plays angry birds go, asphalt overdrive perfectly.... Even it can play asphalt 8 perfectly with minor lags......

 

[a5cent]

If a game show's big differences in fps it means they aren't yet optimized for sd400, at worst the fps difference should be no greater then +-10% to the s4.

I quoted your post because I find them well written, but I'm actually replying to most posts in this thread, not just yours specifically.

The problem here is actually not one of optimization. For app/game developers, this type of SoC specific optimization (sd400) doesn't even actually exist in practice, for various reasons I won't get into here.

The main issue is simply the fact that both L820 and L830 both have a similarly powerful GPU, while the L830 must do far more work per rendered frame, due to its higher display resolution. This won't be apparent in all games, for reasons I also won't get into, but it will be very noticeable in some.
For those who find car-analogies useful:

If you had two cars with very similar motors, but one weighed four times as much as the other, you wouldn't expect both to perform equally well? Of course not. Same thing here.

The L820 had one of the best resolution to GPU performance ratios of all Lumias. The L830 has one of the worst.

 

[Tellus82]

I quoted your post because I find them well written, but I'm actually replying to most posts in this thread, not just yours specifically. The L820 had one of the best resolution to GPU performance ratios of all Lumias. The L830 has one of the worst.

No worries and yes this is also a big factor but perhaps not as huge as one would think, main reason is that alot of games out there don't really push the envelope and that's because they want it to work on as many a device as possible (more sales), this makes alot of games run into v-sync at 60fps and with a powerful SoC and small resolution you are very likely to always play at max v-sync.

With the opposite, ie the 830, you will most likely start to run into situations where you will dip below max v-sync. In the case of the 820 you are extremly likely to spend most of the time at max v-sync, because of the rediculous 384000 pixels compared to 921600 on the 830 (or 2073600 of a 1080p), as you say this will make performance suffer more on the 830 due to higher resolution, if you look at it this way, the 830 has a whopping 140% more pixels to push around. Now this does make things sound fairly bad. But and there is always a but in there, an increase in pixels by 140% does not mean a ~58% decrease in frames per second, this is because GPU's do not scale that way.

If you look at PC benchmark gaming testing you will see more often then not that running games at 2560x1440 compared to 1920x1080 you do not get an 44% drop in fps (which it should be if it was a linear drop), despite the pixel count being 80% higher on 1440p, in reality it tends to be around 25% drop in fps on modern gpu's. But this is all down to the design of the gpu and the API's being used and the rest of the software and hardware. My point is you can't point at a lower resolution and say that will run so and so faster then a higher resolution equivalent because there is so much more impacting the performance then just pixelcount. How much the pixelcount difference affects the VLIW gpu of adrenos is anyones guess.

Keep in mind though, pixelcount does still matter as your rightly say but not as much as one could think. And yes the 820 will run onscreen 3d content faster then the 830, due to V-Sync though you might not always see a difference at all.

 

[a5cent]

^ I'd say whether it matters as much as one might think (or not), depends on what one thinks. Many aren't aware of this factor at all, so at least for them, it is something that isn't considered enough. I realize that you understand all this. I just doubt that the majority does (I could be wrong).



I also agree that for most games, this point isn't a huge factor, simply because it's the casual games that are the most popular. But the games mentioned by the OP are of the sort where the 830's poor resolution to GPU performance ratio will be very noticeable, particularly because the OP is comparing to the L820 which had one of the best ratios of all WP devices. Also note that pixel fill rate is one of mobile GPUs weak spots, but that is precisely what higher resolutions require, so increasing resolution without increasing GPU performance tends to make an already existing bottle neck even more problematic.



At least in this specific scenario, I think the resolution to GPU performance ratio is the main issue, or at least it's far more important than any potential lack of platform specific hardware optimizations.