Processing power comparison: iPhone 3G vs 3GS

30 June 2009 17 comments

Since the release of the iPhone 3GS, Real Racing has repeatedly been named as the “must have” game to show off its insane power. IGN called Real Racing a “game you wag in front of others to prove that the iPhone is indeed a real-deal gaming platform” and “one of the best portable racing games across all three viable handheld gaming rigs: iPhone, DS, and PlayStation Portable”. Pocket Gamer said “If you want something to show to your doubting-Thomas hardcore gaming friends in order to prove the iPhone’s gaming viability, this is the game to show them. It’s a technically peerless racing game that really pushes into the realms of the PSP racer.” Touch Arcade called Real Racing “widely considered the most technically impressive iPhone racing game”.

We’re thrilled to be showered with such praise, and it got us wondering what we can do on the new hardware. Real Racing has up to six cars on the track at any one time. Since the game uses a high fidelity physics engine, adding cars is a good test for pushing the hardware. We started our tech demo with 8 cars on the track, then 10, 12, 16 and 20, and the 3GS still didn’t break a sweat. We finally stopped when we got to 40 cars on the track at the same time, still with no perceptible drop in frame rate. We think the results are mind blowing.

Note – this video shows a TECH DEMO. We have no plans to release it as an app.

vicente.ramirezch

Oh my god, that's so cool! Seriously, you've made the best racing game ever! Great job guys.
SonomaEats

Actually the tech demo as a free app might be a good promotional tool.
ToddFSU

Release an update to select the number of cars… allow 3GS players to race against 40 cars… that looked like a blast.
BenM

jesus
slackstar

Please give us mooooooooooooore caaaaaaaaarrrrrrssssssssss!!!! 16 would be fine!
vikas

Ahem why is there an iPpd touch here in place of the iPhone??? Anyone care to explain??
strangera

WOW this really looks impressive… I just have one small question. According to my iPhone 3G knowledge :) the headphones jack is on the upper side of the phone. On this video the jack is plugged below, so this is a iPod Touch not a iPhone? Correct?
elvin

it`s an iPhone!!! not an iPod T. woot!!
davaomacuser

Cool soundtrack.

Nice game.
strangera

@elvin – and why the headphones jack on the iPhone 3G is at the bottom not on the upper side then? http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3172/2661739196_2443c07615.jpg
Niels K.

Please give us more cars – it looks so impressive
Ben

I dont understand why you guys have no pleans to release this version as a app. I have a iPhone 3GS and having the ability to have up to 40 cars on WILL make me buy it.

Pleaseeeeeeee release a iPhone 3GS version
Dorko

The sad part is that the old iPod Touches (2.0) ran at 533mhz. The new 3GS runs at 600 mhz. What they really did is get rid of terrible bottle necks in the Open GL drive (specifially CopyIndexData). So the truth is that the older devices could have come close to 40 cars if their driver implmentation hadn't been so crappy.
http://www.facebook.com/gregory.meach Gregory Meach

Very impressive. It's not all about cpu speed, don't forget the double (256MB) the new 3G[s] and 3rd gen Touch have, which allow for a lot more textures to be loaded… and of course openGL 2.0
:-)
alex

omfg. :o
alex

omfg. :o
97calum

You should release this as a free app, u get no choiceof car, theres only one track but with all 40 cars on it just to see how ure device handles it. I wanna test this on m ipod 2g :)