Bidybag | # 1 | 2009-11-09, 00:07 | Report

HD2 has 1ghz processor and 448MB ram, why not the n900?

JBax | # 2 | 2009-11-09, 00:09 | Report

Cortez A8 can scale to 1Ghz and the N900 has 1GB of ram including physical and virtual.

Bidybag | # 3 | 2009-11-09, 00:11 | Report

I am talking about ram, the n900 has 256 mb. The HD2 has 448 mb.

Alex Atkin UK | # 4 | 2009-11-09, 00:37 | Report

I have to admit I was a little surprised that the N900 did not have 512MB RAM which is the magic spot for Linux in my experience.

It was a bit of a cheat having 768MB SWAP. As its stealing from the main 32GB its effectively free for Nokia. Adding more REAL RAM however would cost more but negate the need for SWAP at all. It remains to be seen if having SWAP on the N900 will ultimately result in lag and a worn out NAND. Over the expected lifespan of these devices its probably impossible to wear down the NAND, although does eMMC even have wear leveling? I was under the impression eMMC, MMC, SD, etc did not.

As for the HD2, it seems a huge waste. The Xperia X1 had 256MB RAM and I NEVER hit the limit. I never really had problems with my old HTC Wizard with only 64MB RAM either running Windows Mobile 6.1. I never found good enough software to warranty having that much running.

I think a lot of these specs are bragging rights especially when it comes to Windows devices. As on desktop, you can generally do a lot more with less RAM on Linux than Windows.

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Last edited by Alex Atkin UK; 2009-11-09 at 00:40.

Rushmore | # 5 | 2009-11-09, 00:55 | Report

3430 is a better choice than snapdragon. Snap has a weaker DSP and GPU, but makes up for this with more clock cycles from CPU. Same output from snap will likely drain more battery. Power consumption is a concern and why the chipset will be capped at 850mhz as a ceiling and most will cap at 750mhz.

Both chipsets are Arm 8 and 65nm, so do the practical math. Another point of concern is the AMD made GPU in snap is apparently power hungry too.

Another thing to watch out for is some device makers will not use the discrete DSP and GPU in snap and use the integrated features to save cost.

No contest on the ram though, but reports are it is not an issue and I will take the 32 gigs of fast media memory the N900 has and HD2 does not

Also, since WM is a resource and memory hog, HD2 will need the extra memory more than the N900 will.

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Last edited by Rushmore; 2009-11-09 at 01:09.

kamakazikev24 | # 6 | 2009-11-09, 01:15 | Report

But the Snapdragon HD2 is reported to have a good battery life, OK it needs to be charged every night like most smart phones but it will get you through a whole day. I hope the N900 will.

JayBomb999 | # 7 | 2009-11-09, 01:21 | Report

I'm confused as to where this idea of the Snapdragon platform being "weaker" than that of the N900 comes from. Can someone please enlighten me?

N900:

Cortex Arm 8 Omap 3430 CPU at 600 MHz
DSP 400+ MHz
PowerVR SGX 530 GPU (14 MPolys/s)


Snapdragon platform:

Modified Cortex Arm 8 CPU at 1000 MHz
DSP 600 MHz
3D graphics – (22MPolys/s)

What am I missing?

Regarding the HD2, from the previews I've seen this device flies. No lag or stuttering whatsoever. I have yet to see a video where the N900 offers that kind of fluidity.

Personally I would never own a WinMo 6.x device, but the idea that the N900 wouldn't improve with a Snapdragon chipset seems unfounded.

Rushmore | # 8 | 2009-11-09, 01:29 | Report

Hard to argue about being unfounded. We have neither device to compare right now It will be nice to see if HD2 can play Quake 3 as smoothly with sound as N900, but we already know control will be better on N900 due to KB.

As far as polys, it is all theoretical for both and we would need to see the correlating curves of both devices in relation to power output. Which GPU can push the polys efficiently.

Sorry if messed up. Typing on G1.

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Last edited by Rushmore; 2009-11-09 at 01:31.

theflew | # 9 | 2009-11-09, 01:36 | Report

Don't forget these are SoC (System on a Chip). The RAM is not separate, it's stacked on top of the CPU in a single physical chip. Also, I don't know if TI has a 512 MB SoC for the OMAP 3 - 3430.

And as far as 1 Ghz goes this is not your normal Mhz game because in addition to the CPU there is a GPU, and one or more DSP's. (i.e. you could have chip A decoding MP3's on the main CPU and chip B decoding it using the DSP. Chip A could have a faster CPU, but chip B could "appear" faster because the main CPU has more cycles available).

Therefore, anything except for comparing one processor to another processor in the same family with different Mhz, is like comparing apples to oranges. I'm not saying the 1 Ghz Snapdragon isn't "faster" than the 600 Mhz TI OMAP at some things, but hard specs alone don't make it better.

tito_66 | # 10 | 2009-11-09, 01:38 | Report

Originally Posted by

Personally I would never own a WinMo 6.x device

so what is wrong with WinMo and is it true that Maemo 5 with 600 MHz processor can be faster than WinMo 6.5 with 1GHz processor and 448 MB ram ?

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Last edited by tito_66; 2009-11-09 at 01:49.