Arnova 8 G2 review part 2: Benchmark against Arnova 8 (G1)

Part 1 – Introduction and Arnova 8 G2 unboxing
Part 2 – Benchmark Arnova 8 G2 vs Arnova 8 (G1)
Part 3 – Arnova 8 G2 Mobile 3G networks support

Arnova 8 G2

VS

Arnova 8

The release of the new Arnova 8 G2 was a good opportunity to conduct a benchmark test between the Arnova 8 first generation and Arnova 8 G2.

Arnova 8 G2 vs Arnova 8: benchmarks results

Test conditions:
- both devices were using latest firmware from the manufacturer
- all benchmarks were executed after all task killed
- test were run multiple times to check for consistent behaviour, the results shown here correspond to average values

Arnova 8 G2 vs Arnova 8: benchmarks results

	Arnova 8 G2	Arnova 8
CPU / CPU speed GPU Memory	Rockchip RK2918 at 1 GHz Vivante Corporation GC800 512 Mb	Rockchip RK2818 at 600 MHz DSP? 256 Mb
Test setup Firmware version	Arnova 2.3 Gingerbread, firmware Android 2.3.1 Build GINGERBREAD.eng.20110903.152730	Android 2.1 Eclair, firmware version 1.0.3 Build number V0.18.ECLAIR.eng.root.20110920.174256
SetCPU v 2.2.4 native bench lower is faster	C: 902.31 Neon: 412.49	C: 2710.08 Neon: Not supported
Linpack Pro v 1.2.9 higher is faster	14.348 MFLOPS	4.003 MFLOPS
CF-Bench v 1.1 higher is faster	Native score: 3381 Java Score:1185 Overall Score: 2063	Native score: 681 Java Score: 433 Overall Score: 532
ArcTools v 0.57 higher is faster	Read: 24347 Kb/s Write: 4106 Kb/s	Read: 3799 Kb/s Write: 1743 Kb/s
Smartbench 2011 v 1.2.1 higher is faster	Prod. index: 687 Games Index: 778	Prod. index: 169 Games Index: 104
Quadrant Advanced 1.1.7 higher is faster	Total: 1363 CPU: 2602 Mem: 1025 I/O: 2284 2D: 157 3D: 748	Total: 251 CPU: 458 Mem: 202 I/O: 511 2D: 86 3D: (not tested)
Vellamo v 1.0.3 higher is faster	484	Vellamo not working (program crash)
Neocore v 1.9.22 higher is faster	46.0 FPS	1.5 FPS
Nenamark v 2.0 higher is faster	25.3 FPS	Program does not start
GPUBench v 1.0.0 higher is faster	Absolute: 42451 Relative: 31194	Program crash

Results interpretation

As you can see with the benchmark results, the Arnova 8 G2 is showing a performance boost from x2 to x3 over the Arnova 8 first generation. This result comes from different hardware upgrades on the G2, that are related to:
- Rockchip RK2918 CPU runs at a faster speed (1 GHz) and adds Neon advanced SIMD instruction support
- the RK2918 SOC also includes a Vivante Corporation GC800 GPU capable of 60 million triangles/second.
You can see the Arnova 8 G2 (marked AN8G2) is in Gpubench top 10 score.
- the system memory increase from 256 Mb to 512 Mb, also we suspect that memory on the G2 is operating at a faster speed
- the memory used for storage did get a serious speed boost from equivalent Class 2 to equivalent Class 4, as you can see in Arctools bench results.

If you are looking for a wider performance comparison with latest Archos G9 or Tegra 2 devices, we recommend that you check this article: Benchmark Archos 101 G9 1 GHz vs Asus TF101 vs Archos 101 IT vs Arnova 10 G2. These numbers can be easily extrapolated to compare the Arnova 7 (or Archos 7HT v2) with the Arnova 7 G2, or the Arnova 10 (or Arnova 10b) and the Arnova 10 G2.

Benchmarks pictures

Benchmark results pictures

Arnova 8 G2	Arnova 8
	Vellamo program crashed on Arnova 8
	GPUbench program crashes on Arnova 8
	Nenamark benchmark did not start on Arnova 8

Arnova 8 G2 8GB 8 inches capacitive screen, Rockchip 2918 CPU, 512 MB RAM, Android 2.3, 8 GB Storage		AMAZON UK	Usually dispatched within 24 hours	£ 139
		AMAZON FR	Habituellement expédié sous 24 h	179.78 EUR