Macworld speed test: new iPod touch. Spoiler: twice as fast

Seth Weintraub
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September 15, 2009
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Dan Frakes at Macworld ran some basic tests on the new (but cameraless) iPod touch and got some interesting results.  Most tests had the new iPod touch coming in around twice as fast as the previous model with browser tests going over 2X speed.  Apple only claims a 50% improvement in speed on its website.  Does the speed make up for the lack of a camera?

Note: the current 8GB version has the same processor as the previous model.

 

 

Comments (6)

Dave Park | September 15, 2009 - 1:01pm

Twice as fast, and Amazon's already dropped the price by $20. Mine's arriving on Friday.

Urkel (not verified) | September 15, 2009 - 1:33pm

Jan 2010 Touch: Twice as Fast + Camera

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 22, 2009 - 5:53am

one can only hope

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 15, 2009 - 2:04pm

I built a benchmark app called Gauge Mathematical tool, and while the version in the App Store now doesn't currently accurately reflect the performance of the new iPod touches, I have a newer version on my iPod touch, which I've submitted as an update for Apple to approve.

Graphics, especially, are much improved, and in every CPU-bound test, the results are at least twice as high on the new touch, even though the clock speed is only 70 MHz faster (ARM cortex a8 architectural improvements are what really drive the speed increase). The larger amount of much faster RAM also helps, as does the new PowerVR graphics core, of course.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 15, 2009 - 4:57pm

This shouldn't be all that surprising; newer CPU and GPU. What I would really like to see is a performance comparison between the 3rd Gen Touch and the iPhone 3GS. As some of you may know, the 3rd Gen Touch has been "broken down" and what was found was a higher (model; numerically) ARM chip than the 3GS. Who's got the equipment to test this?

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 15, 2009 - 4:59pm

This shouldn't be all that surprising; newer CPU and GPU. What I would really like to see is a performance comparison between the 3rd Gen Touch and the iPhone 3GS. As some of you may know, the 3rd Gen Touch has been "broken down" and what was found was a higher (model; numerically) ARM chip than the 3GS. Who's got the equipment to test this?