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    • iPad vs iPad 2 Graphics Battle!

    Written By: Matt Dunn
    March 13, 2011

    The winner is clear… and better anti-aliased!

    The iPad 2 is out, and many people are wondering if it’s worth the upgrade or not. Apple has claimed that it’s twice as fast with 9 times the graphical power, but is that the case? A few developers decided to upgrade their current iPad titles to take advantage of the iPad 2 hardware at launch, and I’m glad they did. The iPad 2-optimized games look simply gorgeous. I know the iPad 2 doesn’t have a retina display, but it almost seems like it does, as the higher res textures and extra anti-aliasing make the visuals look crisp and clear. We’ll have more details in our official gamer-slanted review tomorrow, but until then, how about some good old-fashioned screenshot comparisons between the old and new iPads?

    Mouse-over images to see the iPad 2 version.  Check out the full-size screen shots at the bottom of this post.
    Rollover images will take longer to load on slower connections.
    If you’re on an iPad, simply tap and hold on an image to see the iPad 2 version!

    Infinity Blade

    The iPad 2 version of this game makes me wonder why I liked the visuals of the original iPad version so much.

    Ooo… better lighting!

    Gotta love the hi-res textures and added shine to the armor.

    Check out the anti-aliasing on the pillars and staircase.

    Dead Space

    This is more than just a texture upgrade. There are some major lighting improvements in the iPad 2 version, and even a dramatically better detailed suit for the protagonist.

    Necromorphs look scarier!

    Check out the shoulder; what once was a texture is now actual geometry!

    Better textures and lighting.

    Who turned on the lights?

    What do you think?

    If you already own an original iPad, do these kinds of aesthetic updates to games warrant an upgrade? To those who don’t own one, do the improved graphics make you want to buy an iPad 2? Sound off in the comments!

    The full-size screenshots below really show the dramatic difference between the old an new iPads!

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    • Mark

      i don’t think it’s all that big a difference. sure it looks better, but that to warrant upgrading if you own an iPad 1? No…not unless you have money burning a hole in your pocket

    • Truth

      The graphics of Infinity Blade and Dead Space on the iPad 1 were already amazing and impressive as they were; hence, the upgrade to the iPad 2 was just like icing on the cake IMO. The improvements are noticeable at times, and sometimes they’re not. For the most part, the graphics on the iPad 2 don’t really lower my appreciation of how the graphics are on the iPad 1. Like I said, for me, it’s just an add-on. What I do think would matter, on some future games though, is the FPS improvement of the iPad 2. However, as it is now for the currently available games, FPS slowdown isn’t much of an issue anyway for most of the popular games. And IMO, I think it will take several months before developers would focus on designing games that fully maximize the iPad 2 to the point that those games would look bad on the iPad 1. By the time that happens, iPad 3 would already be out (or very soon to be), and that’s when I’ll be upgrading.

    • Karl

      I don’t see a big difference. Infinity Blade on the iPad 2 still looks worse than the iPhone 4 version.

      Even though the iPad 2 is more powerful, the iPhone 4 has higher texture quality and less saturated colours (which looks better IMO). The iPad 2 version does have better anti-aliasing though. For whatever reason, chair took the original iPad version and added anti-aliasing, better lighting and effects, but didn’t increase the texture quality to match the iPhone 4 (most noticeably the rock and ground textures).

    • nizy

      Over at http://www.anandtech.com they’ve done some GPU benchmarks. And the iPad2 scores very well, significantly beating out the Xoom even. These titles are only scratching the surface of whats possible.

      I’m glad I waited for the 2nd gen to get my iPad!

    • http://estudiogdesign.com/ estudioG design

      I have the original iPad, and most likely I’ll wait for iPad 3.

    • xstra

      Got the iPad 2 and was suprised at the graphical difference from my iPod Touch 4th gen. Infinity blade didnt look half as good on the iPad as it does on the iPhone 4 or iPod Touch 4

    • Richard

      I dont care what people say about ipad 2 im getting it this summer!!!!! Games look gorgeous!!!

    • Alejandro

      well… i have the iPad 1, and i did change two files in the dead space for iPad with iFile(must be jailbroken) and i have the iPad 2 textures! and seriously it looks the same fps!!!!! it only slows down when i shoot necromorph because it ahs blood

    • BigBoy

      @ Alejandro
      I know im late but could you give any info? What files i need to modify?

    • Alejandro

      @BigBoy

      you must have a jailbroken iPad. install iFile from cydia, and select applications, look for the dead space app. there ir a folder named published ipad and published ipad 2 or something like that, well copy the everyting on the ipad 2 folder and paste it in the iPad 1 folder. it only adds the textures, and the blood effect that owns the iPad 1 when you shoot a necromorph, the detail increases anyway. hope it helped you

    • BigBoy

      It works! Thank you. And you are right, the framerate still good. I guess the devs were somewhat lazy and not really tried to use all the ipad 2 potential.

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