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Omnimaga => News => Topic started by: critor on February 24, 2013, 03:13:57 pm

Title: TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition text output performance test
Post by: critor on February 24, 2013, 03:13:57 pm
In a previous news (http://ourl.ca/18399), the first performance test of the new TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition made it appear as an extremely slow device.
But this test was comparing it with a TI-83 Plus that has a different CPU clock and which is not weakened by the MathPrint mode. When we compare things, we must try to only change one parameter at a time.

Later on (http://ourl.ca/18402), we confirmed this sluggish behaviour by only looking at the menu display time.

However the fist 84C ASM game, by Kerm Martian showed very correct performances.


All this seems to be a little blurry and weirdly contradictory, so let's test the performances of text output function in TI-Basic on the text screen :

We'll be thus testing the performances of:
Let's start with a simple loop displaying the integers from 1 to 500, with the Disp instruction.

Here are the results:
So:
Anyway, the 84 Plus C, whether in Classic or MathPrint mode, still is at the end of the rankings. The vertical scrolling needs a full-screen refresh, which is now slow for 16-bit colors for the little z80 CPU that does that in about 1 second for 2 new lines...

But even if it comes last, we could in theory have expected something like 16x slower than a 84+, since it's going from 1 to 16-bit colors, which is far from being the case. :o



Let's go on and try to find these optimizations with a 2nd test, but using the Output instruction. We now have no more vertical scrolling.

Here are the results:
So:
This confirms the fact that optimizations were done, otherwise the 84 Plus C would still have been last.
More precisely, KermMartian from Cemetech (http://cemetech.net) discovered that contrary to the other calculators, theTI-84 Plus C does not necessarily refresh all the screen, but can limit the refresh to a specific area of the screen. An optimization perfectly fitted for our test ! :D



In conclusion, the TI-84 Plus C is not, in my opinion, the catastrophe that some (http://uccp.ucoz.com/forum/4-4-1) websites (http://casio.clrhome.org/2013/02/why-ti-84c-is-not-helping-programming.html) try to present.

It is clear that it isn't fitted for games needing a full-screen refresh, like games using horizontal/vertical scrolling, emulators, or Doom-likes.

But on other types of games, it is perfectly capable of doing even better than its predecessors and moreover in color, especially since most users stay with the latest OS with MathPrint enabled (by default), which is the now-optimized configuration ! :D



Video for the test:



Source:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11309&lang=en
Title: Re: TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition text output performance test
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on February 24, 2013, 06:01:53 pm
It definitively looks like MathPrint speed issues were fixed on the 84+CSE. I wonder if they'll eventually apply that patch to the 84+ too?

What I am curious about, though, is how with Disp the 6 MHz 83+Fr managed to run as fast as the 84+SE in Classic mode? It looks like this model uses a different LCD driver, because I remember stuff like how on my TI-81 Disp was much faster than on my 83+



Also how did the Nspire manage to be this much slower with a 90+ MHz processor? O.O
Title: Re: TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition text output performance test
Post by: calc84maniac on February 24, 2013, 06:07:49 pm
Quote from: DJ_O on February 24, 2013, 06:01:53 pm
What I am curious about, though, is how with Disp the 6 MHz 83+Fr managed to run as fast as the 84+SE in Classic mode? It looks like this model uses a different LCD driver, because I remember stuff like how on my TI-81 Disp was much faster than on my 83+
I thought the TI-83+.fr was really a TI-84+ in disguise, running OS 2.55MP? In that case, it would be running at 15MHz like any other TI-84+.
Title: Re: TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition text output performance test
Post by: Sorunome on February 24, 2013, 06:13:22 pm
Interesting, so maybe we can still make non-scrolling games then :D
Title: Re: TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition text output performance test
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on February 24, 2013, 06:22:28 pm
Quote from: calc84maniac on February 24, 2013, 06:07:49 pm
Quote from: DJ_O on February 24, 2013, 06:01:53 pm
What I am curious about, though, is how with Disp the 6 MHz 83+Fr managed to run as fast as the 84+SE in Classic mode? It looks like this model uses a different LCD driver, because I remember stuff like how on my TI-81 Disp was much faster than on my 83+
I thought the TI-83+.fr was really a TI-84+ in disguise, running OS 2.55MP? In that case, it would be running at 15MHz like any other TI-84+.

Actually the original 83 Plus.Fr from 2008 was a TI-83 Plus. It's just the 2013 one that is gonna be a TI-84 Plus. It has Boot code 1.01, though. http://datamath.org/Graphing/TI-83PLUS_FR.htm
Title: Re: TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition text output performance test
Post by: Stefan Bauwens on February 25, 2013, 04:17:04 am
Awesome!
I too am convinced that the Ti-84C doesn't seem that bad.
Title: Re: TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition text output performance test
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on February 26, 2013, 01:27:43 pm
Here is a review of the calc on ticalc.org:  http://www.ticalc.org/archives/news/articles/14/148/148274.html
Title: Re: TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition text output performance test
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on March 01, 2013, 04:35:08 pm
Hmm vijfhoek is saying that the 84+CSE in the video looks kinda faster than the one he tried at school in December 2012... O.O
Title: Re: TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition text output performance test
Post by: Sorunome on March 01, 2013, 09:14:17 pm
Maybe they did some software modification for faster routines?
Title: Re: TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition text output performance test
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on March 03, 2013, 01:29:26 am
I'm definitively thinking they optimized stuff. Also, apparently the calcs had no OS version number O.O

That said, even if scrolling is slow, you guys should be glad that it at least won't be as slow as the PRGM menu under OS 1.12 or below. When you had over 150 programs, this is how bad it was O.O

(http://img.removedfromgame.com/imgs/oldosscrolling.gif)
Title: Re: TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition text output performance test
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on March 20, 2013, 11:41:13 pm
Parker just got his calc and made a vid of it:



Notice how when he does the Disp loop it shows up fast at first and only slow down when it scrolls.
Title: Re: TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition text output performance test
Post by: Dapianokid on March 21, 2013, 06:14:30 pm
DJ_O, that vid isn't showing up.
Title: Re: TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition text output performance test
Post by: TheNlightenedOne on March 21, 2013, 06:22:20 pm
It's working for me. Anywho, that calc actually looks nicer than I thought it would! However, the speed really needs to be upped... it seems so crippled :'(
Title: Re: TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition text output performance test
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on March 25, 2013, 04:10:50 am
I don't think he ever did any BASIC programming (he is an Nspire guy and you know how BASIC is on that calc :P) so he is probably unaware of alternatives.