During Apple’s keynote to unveil the new iPad, the company stated that its A5X processor boasted four times the graphics performance of the Tegra 3, NVIDIA’s quad-core powerhouse. while claims of bold performance improvements are standard operation procedure for Apple events, such a narrow focus on a single competing product is rare. Naturally, NVIDIA was quick to respond, raising questions about the benchmark methods used and promising further analysis post-release.

With the help of benchmarking apps for iOS and Android, we’ve been able to conduct a few tests of our own with interesting results. while the Tegra 3 seems to trump the A5X in CPU performance, the new iPad makes clear gains in terms of graphics. Here’s a more detailed look at what we’ve found.

For our testing, we used a third-generation iPad and an iPad 2, as well as a Tegra 3-powered ASUS Transformer Prime TF201 and a Tegra 2-powered Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.

When it comes raw CPU power, the Tegra 3′s quad-core configuration blazes past the dual-core A5X, garnering GeekBench scores of 1540 and 750, respectively. interestingly, the A5X’s average score fell a few points short of the iPad 2′s standard A5 chip, 753. both the A5X and the A5 also fell shy of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1′s Tegra 2, which received an overall score 905. the gains made by the Tegra 3 are easily chalked up to its two extra cores, but it is also boasts the highest clocking speed of the group at 1.6GHz, compared to the 1GHz clock of the A5X, A5 and Tegra 2.

The overall impact of the Tegra 3′s gains over the A5X in terms of user experience, however, isn’t as cut-and-dry. Software plays as critical of a role in performance as processing power, and without running the same OS, it’s impossible to see how the two truly match up in terms of app load speeds, multitasking and other CPU-heavy tasks. What’s more, Apple seemed to recognize that the A5X couldn’t go toe-to-toe with the Tegra 3′s CPU performance, and instead singled out the gains it makes in terms of graphics.

Did its claim of four times the performance hold up? not quite.

For graphics testing, we used GLBenchmark 2, a cross-platform app for both Android and iOS. the app offers an array of detailed tests, both on-screen and off-screen, including two notable 3D tests: GLBenchmark 2.1 Egypt and GLBenchmark 2.1 Pro. while the on-screen tests allow user to watch the tests in realtime, the app currently lacks the ability to manually set the output resolution, thus limiting our ability to standardize the test across all four devices. Instead, the app ran at the native resolution of whatever device it was running on. interestingly, the iPad 2 outperformed both the iPad 3 and Transformer Prime, while the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 fell far below the others.

For the Egypt test, the iPad 2 (1024×768) produced 6,709 frames at a framerate of 59 frames-per-second, while the new iPad (2048×1536) ran 5,974 frames at 53 FPS and the Transformer Prime (1280×800) generated 5,955 at a rate of 52 FPS. the Galaxy Tab 10.1 (1280×800), on the other hand, produced only 2,465 frames at a surprisingly low 21 FPS.

The Pro test, a more basic 3D gaming test, delivered slightly different results. the iPad 2 still lead the pack, though at a smaller margin, generating 2,986 frames at 60 FPS, while the new iPad producing 2,912 frames at a rate of 58 FPS. the Transformer Prime delivered 2,794 frames at 55 FPS, while the Galaxy Tab 10.1 offered 1,537 frames at 30 FPS.

For a more accurate sense of true processing power, we had to utilize the off-screen tests, which run at a fixed resolution of 720p. On a level playing field, the A5X’s processing prowess came to light.

As you can see, when freed from the binds of the new iPad’s staggeringly high-resolution display, the A5X was able to generate 15,412 frames at a rate of 138 FPS, while the iPad 2 rendered 10,143 frames at 90 FPS. Comparatively, the Transformer Prime pushed about 7,837 frames at 69 FPS and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 delivered 2,821 frames at 82 FPS.

The results were similar in the off-screen Pro test with the new iPad delivering 12003 frames at 240FPS, the iPad 2 7339 frames at 147 FPS, the Transformer Prime 2794 frames at 56 FPS, and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 2169 frames at 43 FPS.

As you can see, our independent testing indicates that the NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 offers increased CPU performance, while falling short of the A5X in terms of graphics, though not quite matching the Apple’s 4x claim. Of course, the only way to get true apples-to-apples results would be to test the chips on identical hardware on the same OS, but even our more imprecise methods showed impressive gains.

Scott is IGN.com’s resident tech guru. Follow him on IGN and Twitter for more gadgety insight and frequent pictures of food and his cat Raichu. For fewer posts about food and cats, also follow IGN and IGN Tech on Twitter.

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