Nvidia challenges Apple to prove iPad A5X chip graphics claims

Yesterday at the Apple iPad event the gang from Cupertino was making bold claims about the performance of the new iPad A5X chip and talking a bit of trash about the Nvidia Tegra 3 processor. Apple tossed a slide on the big screen during the presentation claiming that its A5X has four times the graphics performance of the Tegra 3. Nvidia has had time to look at the charts and think a bit and now wants Apple to back up its claims with benchmarks.

This is interesting considering the benchmark wars that raged between Nvidia and AMD for so many years in the graphics card business. Both sides of that war have a history of handpicking benchmarks to make their video cards look better than the competition. I suspect some of that is going on here with Apple as well.

Nvidia's Ken Brown is calling for Apple to offer up data to back up their claims of four times the performance. I seriously doubt Apple ever offer that kind of detail. However, with the hornet's nest kicked, we will certainly be running some comparative benchmarks when we post our own review of the new iPad.

Ken Brown, a spokesman for Nvidia, said that it was "certainly flattering" to be called out by Apple, but the performance claims are sketchy without more data. "We don't have the benchmark information," said Brown. "We have to understand what the application was that was used. Was it one or a variety of applications? What drivers were used? There are so many issues to get into with benchmark."

[via ZDNet]