HTC Diamond & Touch Pro still have graphics performance issues

Last year’s HTC Kaiser driver fiasco is still fresh in the mind of many Windows Mobile users (and also ex-Windows Mobile users). DSF from Mobilewave.ro has been disappointed to find HTC’s latest devices are not free from the self-same issue.

He writes:

Unfortunately the latest HTC devices devices with Qualcomm MSM7201A chipsets suffer from poor graphics performance.
More exactly, game experience and video performance are affected.

Let’s make some comparisons.

Game performance

1) Quake 3 Arena – hardware accelerated game

Nokia N82 – Symbian S60 QVGA
TI OMAP 2420 @ 330 MHz, chipset launched in 2005
Graphic: PowerVR MBX
In action:

Dell Axim x51v – WM VGA
Intel XScale PXA270 @ 624 MHz, chipset launched in 2004
Graphic: Intel 2700G5 Multimedia Accelerator
In action:

Touch Pro/Diamond – WM VGA
Qualcomm MSM7201A @ 528 MHz, chipset launched in 2008
Graphic: embeded ATI Imageon
In action:
(the device in video is a touch pro)

2) Picodrive emulator – emulating Sonic 3.

HTC Tornado (SPV C600)
TI OMAP 850 @ 200 MHz, overclocked at 252Mhz, chipset launched in 2005
In action:

HTC Touch Pro/Diamond
Qualcomm MSM7201A @ 528 MHz, chipset launched in 2008
In action:

Video playback performance

branko.savic from xda-developers tested a video on multiple devices using CorePlayer 1.2.5. He used the optimal settings for each device. Here are the results:

• Samsung Omnia (Raw framebuffer): 442.74%
• HTC Universal (Direct Draw) 165.28%
• HTC Touch Pro: QTv display: 152.44%

Personally I’ve tested another video and got the following results:

• HTC Tornado overclocked (262Mhz) max performance: 174.22%
• Touch Pro max performance (528Mhz): 172,67%

3) Other games

Other games that you can test by yourself:
– Rats!!
– Ubulis TSE
– Spore
– DragonBall
– Prince of Persia HD
– Assasin Creed HD
– etc.

Those games should run smoothly on TouchPro/Diamond, but unfortunately they don’t.

As you can see in the videos, HTC Touch Pro/Diamond is below in all tests, it is bypassed even by a OMAP 850 chipset produced in 2005.

Also, in landscape mode you may notice an annoying redraw issue (Sync to VBlank), it’s noticeable on the left corner while dragging or when showing menus, for example.

Here’s some youtube video to see it exactly:

HTC Tornado (180Mhz) vs HTC Touch Pro (528Mhz)

Please note that the Samsung Omnia does not have this issue.

It seems that HTC didn’t work too much on the video drivers after all.. or is Qualcomm hardware poor on graphics tasks? When a decent driver/solution will come?

For more information please check the thread over at xda-developers.

Written by DSF  from Mobilewave.ro.