Beach Buggy Blitz
First up is Beach Buggy Blitz, a fairly standard Mario Kart-style racing game. Beach Buggy Blitz offers a single Android version with Tegra 3 optimizations for Nvidia-powered devices. The game ran on all four of our test devices without issue.
We noticed several graphical embellishments on the Tegra 3-packing HTC One X+. One example is the more realistic headlight effects in darker areas of certain tracks, such as caves. Another example is the droplets that appear on the screen when driving through water. The screen shots don’t do these effects any justice, but the features did improve our overall sense of immersion in the game. Beach Buggy Blitz is visually identical on the iPhone 5, Nexus 4, and Samsung Galaxy S III.
Dead Trigger
Dead Trigger may very well be the best example of a Tegra 3-optimized game. This zombie-infested first-person shooter‘s lone Android package adapts to the GPU. We had no problems running Dead Trigger on any of our four test devices.
From the second Dead Trigger starts, the visual differences are glaring. Particle effects, water effects, lighting, smoke, and additional details are all visible on the HTC One X+. But while Nvidia has the exclusive on those effects under Android, Apple's hardware is also fast enough to display them all too. So, we end up with the most graphically-detailed version on the HTC One X+ and the iPhone 5. This game on the Galaxy S III and Nexus 4 is empty in comparison.
For those inclined, the additional effects can be enabled on a rooted Android smartphone, though we cannot attest to the stability or performance of the game should you do so.
- Nvidia's Tegra 3: King Of Android Gaming?
- Test Setup And Benchmark Suite
- Beach Buggy Blitz And Dead Trigger
- Fruit Ninja And Galaxy On Fire 2
- Grand Theft Auto III And Heroes Call
- Princess Punt And Shadowgun: DeadZone
- Sprinkle And SoulCraft
- The Dark Meadow: The Pact And Zen Pinball
- Tegra HD: Must-Have Or Marketing Gimmick?




Exactly what is wrong with tech today, for 30 years companies learned to embrace compatibility after the Sony Betamax failure (technically better, but priced beyond comsumer appreciation). Now everyone wants to follow Apple forgetting they too suffered from a "closed shop" for 20 years.
Exactly what is wrong with tech today, for 30 years companies learned to embrace compatibility after the Sony Betamax failure (technically better, but priced beyond comsumer appreciation). Now everyone wants to follow Apple forgetting they too suffered from a "closed shop" for 20 years.
What's bothersome for me though is that some tegra optimized titles actually run on a low resolution by default on the N7 (to compensate for low memory bandwidth???) yet still play on a 30-40ish frame rate, luckily the devs have put resolution option in the setting (see Riptide, beach buggy blitz), but you'll be playing at 20-30fps if you bump it up to the max/native res.
Another title, Horn, which is actually a Tegra exclusive using UE3, actually runs on a low res but does not provide any option to change that, and even with the low resolution, it is extremely choppy at times I can easily notice 15-20fps.
One dev that I like is MADFINGER Games (dead trigger, shadowgun), their titles are so heavily optimized that they run at a consistent 35-45fps on my N7 and I do not notice lag nor inconsistent frame rate. still runs at constant 60fps on my Note II though...
Meanwhile I can't think of anything that doesn't run at 60fps on my Note II, So much that wonder how much better the gpu performance is on Snapdragon S4 pro and apple A6 devices.
Yes, but tiny screens u put u fingers on ruin the experience of gaming, i get my old megadrive out and play or niintendo 64 for some funny simple old school games. Phones look the 'tiny' part like it but its just not the same. I bought a whole heap of games on my iphone only to put them down and never play again since the format in which u play is just not 'fun' and thats the whole point of games is it not. Oh well, consoles or pc's FTW
definitely, GTAIII and Vice City were both PS2 games and the new mobile versions have upgraded textures
Q - Why no benchmarks?
Sorry about that, my bad - it's fixed now.
There's plenty of hardcore games for mobile devices. Play any Shm'up, especially those from Cave co. like Bug Princess. Although that's probably more processing power rather than graphics power.
Were talking about 15 or 16 years ago here. Ohh look how small it is now with more power.
you just did!
Agreed, PhysX is the word I think of, after read couple of lines...
Comparing Tegra 3 with the other SoC on the Tegra 3 optimized titles was interesting, but it comes to the wrong conclusion and recommendation.
The vast majority of the games available on the Google Play store are NOT Tegra optimized, and the Tegra 3 GPU is the slowest of the bunch.
Why not testing the most graphically intensive games, such as Asphalt 7, ME Infiltrator, Wild Blood?
Also you could have been researching a bit better, Shadowgun for example is also available on the Samsung store with SGS III optimizations.
marketing.