Futuremark has released the 3DMark results of an early version of OUYA, the upcoming Android-based gaming console slated for a June release. The benchmark stems from James Coote, the developer behind the upcoming OUYA game Executive Star, who tested the developer kit version of the console.
According to Futuremark, the device ranks as #73 on Futuremark's Best Mobile Devices of April 2013, falling behind the Samsung Galaxy S IV, the HTC One, the Nexus 10, the Samsung Galaxy Express and loads more tablets and smartphones. However, given that the benchmark wasn't performed on the final retail release, these numbers will likely improve when the device hits store shelves in two months.
"Ice Storm is an OpenGL ES 2.0 benchmark that uses a fixed off-screen rendering resolution of 720p before scaling the output to fit the native display resolution of the device," Futuremark said on Monday. "Ice Storm includes two graphics tests designed to stress the GPU performance of the device and a physics test to stress its CPU performance."
According to the current dev kit benchmark stats, the Android console has an average score of 4084. Other default scores include 3612 for graphics, 7538 for physics, 14 FPS in the first graphics test, 17.9 FPS in the second test, and 23.9 FPS in the physics test.
On the Extreme end, the OUYA has an average score of 2332. This is broken down to a 1944 for graphics, 7731 for physics, 9.2 FPS for the first graphics test, 7.8 FPS for the second test, and 24.5 FPS for the physics test. Remember, these numbers are based on a quad-core Tegra 3 SoC clocked at 1.6 GHz, 1 GB of RAM, and Google's Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean" operating system.
Compared to the Tegra 3-powered Nexus 7 (#120), the OUYA dev kit provides better performance. The Nexus 7, manufactured by Asus, has a Tegra 3 clocked at only 1.3 GHz and 1 GB of RAM. But its average score is only 3551, consisting of a 3156 for graphics, a 6422 for physics, 12.6 FPS in graphics test 1, 15.6 FPS in graphics test 2, and 20.4 FPS in the physics test.
Other devices the OUYA console outperforms include Sony's PlayStation-certified Xperia Tablet S, the Asus Transformer Prime TF201, the LG Optimus LTE Tag, the Acer Iconia Tab A700, the Samsung Galaxy S II, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1 LTE, and numerous others. The entire list consists of 258 devices spanning smartphones and tablets.
"I want to make sure you know what we are building, when, and to keep you updated on how we are constantly evolving and incorporating both your feedback and our learnings," said OUYA CEO Julie Uhrman earlier this month. "We will continue to obsess over quality and performance."
It will be interesting to see how OUYA scores in June when the final version is released. In the video below, Coote notes that the benchmark was performed at 1080p Full HD – the console scored a higher 4355 running at 640 x 480. Also, the results stem from a dev kit that does not include hardware changes made since January.
