Bad OpenGL performance on iPad simulator?

[Johanovski]

Hi there!

I'm porting an iPhone OpenGL app to iPad. However I haven't got an iPad yet (I'm from Spain) so I'm testing the game in the iPad simulator. When I have to print a full-screen 2D image (768 x 1024 px) the app runs really slow, which have no sense for me because it's exactly the same way that I use in the iPhone app, and it runs really well on iPhone. I've found somewhere (and in this forum too) that the iPad runs much better than the iPad simulator. Due to this, should I be worried about those performance problems in the simulator if the iPhone version runs well in the iPhone (and in fact the only changes I've already made to this version is to enlarge game's images)?

Thanks for your time!

[smasher]

When drawing large images I was consistently getting 6FPS in the simulator, 10-15FPS on an iPhone, and over 30FPS on an iPad. Any performance tests and most memory tests for OpenGL on the simulator are meaningless.

[ChrisL]

Yes, I've experienced this too, with Cocos2d. I ran some very simple tests, and they seem to run at most 1/3 the speed of the actual device. I don't think I've ever seen over 20 FPS in the iPad simulator, even when it runs in the 50s on device.

[Johanovski]

Wow, that's a great notice, thanks! ^_^

Well, in fact it's also a bad notice so simulator is in the end less useful than it seems, but it's great to know that's not related with my app (it runs perfectly in the iPhone and when I saw it's velocity in the iPad simulator I've start getting mad thinking what can be happening with the code...)!

Thanks both Smasher and Chris!