MPMan MID74c review part 2: Tablet performanceBoxchip Allwinner A10 CPU vs Rockchip RK2918

MPMan MID74c review part 2: Tablet performance
Boxchip Allwinner A10 CPU vs Rockchip RK2918

The MPMan MID74c tablet is powered by the Boxchip Allwinner A10 CPU running at 1 GHz assisted by an ARM Mali 400 GPU. Let’s see how these compare with another ARM Cortex A8 based tablet in the same price range, the Arnova 7 G2, equipped with a Rockchip RK2918 CPU (including a Vivante GC800 GPU).

MPMan MID74c vs Arnova 7 G2 benchmarks results

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

**MPMan MID74c vs Arnova 7 G2: benchmarks results**
	Arnova 7 G2	MPMan MID74c

CPU / CPU speed GPU Memory	Rockchip RK2918 at 1 GHz Vivante Corporation GC800 512 Mb	Boxchip Allwinner A10 at 1 GHz (up to 1.25 GHz) ARM Mali 400 GPU 512 Mb
Test setup Firmware version	Arnova 2.3 Gingerbread, firmware Android 2.3.1 Build 1.1.1.GINGERBREAD.eng.root.20111213.114505	Android 4.0.3 – Kernel version 3.0.8+ Build number: 97F2-D1-H1-M01-1561.20120302
AnTuTu Benchmark v2.7.2 higher is faster	Total score: 2433 RAM: 310 CPU integer: 561 CPU float-point: 142 2D graphics: 298 3D graphics: 726 Database IO: 200 SD card write: 79 (7.9 MB/s) SD card read: 117 (11.7 MB/s)	Total score: 2847 RAM: 383 CPU integer: 611 CPU float-point: 153 2D graphics: 149 3D graphics: 1087 Database IO: 240 SD card write: 73 (7.3 MB/s) SD card read: 151 (15.1 MB/s)
ArcTools v 0.65i higher is faster	Read: 28 152 Kb/s Write: 4 419 Kb/s	Read: 18 970 Kb/s Write: 4 929 Kb/s
CF-Bench Pro v1.1 higher is faster	Native score: 3578 Java Score: 1291 Overall Score: 2205	Native score: 3738 Java Score: 1389 Overall Score: 2328
GPUBench v 1.0.0 higher is faster	Absolute: 37 822 Relative: 35 594	Absolute: 38 478 Relative: 37 128
Nenamark 2 v2.2 higher is faster	31.5 FPS	31.7 FPS
Neocore v 1.9.35 higher is faster	51.2 FPS	57.1 FPS
Linpack Pro v 1.2.9 higher is faster	14.35 MFLOPS	15.58 MFLOPS
Quadrant Advanced v2.0 higher is faster	Total: 1287 CPU: 1233 Mem: 1176 I/O: 2301 2D: 182 3D: 1544	Total: 1723 CPU: 1401 Mem: 1501 I/O: 3684 2D: 271 3D: 1760
Smartbench 2012 v2.0 higher is faster	Prod. index: 428 Games Index: 1397	Prod. index: 491 Games Index: 1991
Vellamo v 1.0.6 higher is faster	491	745

Benchmark results interpretation

Raw numbers from these benchmarks show a clear advantage (from 5% to 30% depending on the tests) to the Boxchip Allwinner A10 CPU over the Rockchip RK2918 when both processors run at the same 1 GHz frequency. CF-Bench shows relatively similar results for both tablets in term of CPU pure processing power, the difference on the general benchmarks probably comes from other subsystems such as the memory speed and graphical processor (GPU). The single core ARM Mali 400 GPU seems to be more efficient than the Vivante GC800 integrated in the Rockchip RK2918 SOC. A quad core version of the Mali 400 GPU is included in some higher end devices such as Samsung Galaxy SII phone (Samsung Exynos 4210) and more recent Rockchip 3066 CPU.

Comparing two platforms with different versions of the operating system (Android 2.3 vs Android 4.0) isn’t an easy thing, we’ll try to update the benchmarks with the new Arnova G3 based on RK2918 running on Android 4.0 ICS.

Overclock the MPMan MID74c, Allwinner A10 CPU at 1.2 GHz

You can see at the end of the first video, the Boxchip CPU supports well overclocking to 1.2 GHz and we can see a proportional improvement of the performance for CPU related tasks, while it has almost no impact on the GPU performance. When clocked at 1.2 GHz the Boxchip CPU really surpass the RK2918 with over a 50% increase on the Total Index on Quadrant benchmark.

**MPMan MID74c (at 1.2 GHz & 1 GHz) vs Arnova 7 G2: benchmarks results**
	Arnova 7 G2	MPMan MID74c 1 GHz	MPMan MID74c 1.2 GHz

Quadrant Advanced v2.0 higher is faster	Total: 1325 CPU: 1299 Mem: 1181 I/O: 2264 2D: 198 3D: 1681	Total: 1723 CPU: 1401 Mem: 1501 I/O: 3684 2D: 271 3D: 1760	Total: 2076 CPU: 1685 Mem: 1615 I/O: 4912 2D: 292 3D: 1876
Neocore v 1.9.35 higher is faster	51.4 FPS	57.1 FPS	57.6 FPS

We’ve also made a specific video to see the performance on Linpack application as the CPU frequency increases from 1 GHz to 1.1 GHz, 1.2 GHz and 1.25 GHz. The system is stable up to 1.25 GHz but it freezes at higher frequencies.

Please use our MPMan MID74c forum if you have any question on the tablet and visit us soon for more articles and reviews on the MPMan MID74C: multimedia capabilities, battery life tests and applications reviews.