ASUS MeMO Pad HD7 Review: $149 Nexus 7.1 Successor & Our First Look at MediaTek's MT8125
by Anand Lal Shimpi on July 29, 2013 3:55 PM EST- Posted in
- Tablets
- Asus
- Mobile
- Android 4.2
- MeMO Pad
The GPU: PowerVR SGX 544MP1
Although the MT8125's quad-core Cortex A7 configuration isn't too unusual, its GPU is. MediaTek integrated a single PowerVR SGX 544MP1 into the MT8125. The MP1 suffix isn't redundant as the MP version of the part includes a last level cache.
The 544MP1 is clocked at 286MHz in the HD7 implementation of the MT8125, yielding peak FP performance of just under 9 GFLOPS. That's nearly 2x the peak FP performance of the Tegra 3 GPU in the Nexus 7, although there's much more to performance than just raw FP throughput.
In practice the MT8125's GPU implementation tends to trail the Tegra 3 based Nexus 7. GFXBench 2.7 shows a 12% reduction in fill rate and less than 1/4 the triangle rate of Tegra 3. The Egypt HD test narrows the gap considerably, but T-Rex HD shows a 32% performance advantage for the Nexus 7 (admittedly at unplayable frame rates from both chips).
3DMark for Android has the Tegra 3 based Nexus 7 ahead by around 12%, while BaseMark X grows that margin to over 40%.
The 3DMark breakdown is quite possibly the most interesting because it actually has the MT8125 pulling ahead in the CPU bound physics test. The GPU-specific test however has the Tegra 3 ahead by 14%.
In terms of real world gaming performance, the MT8125 is honestly fine. I gave Shadowgun and Modern Combat 4 a try, both of which were definitely playable. That's always the big thing to keep in mind with the current crop of game simulation tests under Android: they're mostly designed to stress high end silicon. Game developers on the other hand have to target what the majority of the market has. If we look at stats from Unity around 90% of all platforms are Mali-400, Adreno 2xx, PowerVR SGX 531/540, Tegra 2/3 generation. In other words, at least for the near future the MT8125's GPU performance should be ok.
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skeighter - Tuesday, August 20, 2013 - link
these are great little tablets. bought one for my wife. she was constantly playing with her phone to access facebook, twitter, instagram, etc. All on a tiny screen. Bought her a nice Lenovo 10" tablet, but she never used it. This is just the right size. Very fast, runs circles around both of my two year old dual core tablets. Liked it so much I bought another for myself.MarkWebb - Tuesday, September 17, 2013 - link
Just got one, very zippy (surprised), 3 issues: it downloaded, installed and rebooted with 4.2.2 but About still shows 4.2.1 and I tried checking for updates but it now says I am up to date even though About is not reporting it; it seems to occasionally register a single tap as a double; and Kindle dims the brightness! By about 20%. Got this for the micro SD slot.Asus Memo Pad HD7 - Monday, October 7, 2013 - link
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mfox - Thursday, November 14, 2013 - link
I have only had it for a few days, and have not had much time to really run it through its paces yet, but I am most likely going to return it. The display, especially. in regard to video, does seem really good. I have not found the device to be generally laggy so far, although I haven't really used it with many apps, under significant "load." My real complaint is with what I saw in some other reviews and was concerned about, the build, fit and finish and overall quality. it does seem creaky, the screen does seem like it is made from plastic, and the one I got had a little glue in the seam between the screen and the rest of the body. That seem seems to be of uneven width around the device and most likely will get other gunk caught in it. I really haven't had a chance to see if it has problems or works well with various apps, but will probably return it. I have ordered, believe it or not, a Dell venue 7, which has 1gb more internal memory, a decent (from what I have read) processor, and an equivalent screen. It runs stock android and is right now at 4.2 (like the asus), rather than 4.3, I think. And it is at a similar price point.danbc - Saturday, February 1, 2014 - link
Indeed, the presence of SDHC slot is a good option.Even on Nexus 7, you can use a stick over otg cable, it's not the same thing, because, on his Asus tablet, and all devices with sd slot, with proper software, like directory bind, you can efectively extend your sotrage space on the SD card .
I have a question for the writter: what is the name of the cpu usage monitor you used?