Nvidia has launched their new Tegra 3 processor, reports Reuters, which delivers up to 3 times the performance of its predecessor, the Tegra 2, and uses 61% less power. This is NVidia’s newest attempt to be a part of the tablet market, which is slowly eating away at standard computer sales. Nvidia, who are best known for their graphics hardware, will be desperate for the Tegra 3 to be used in many tablets in the rapidly growing tablet market.
The Tegra chips can also be used in phones and tablets, and companies like Samsung and Astutek Computer Inc are already using the previous Tegra 2 model. Nvidia confirms that the first tablet to feature NVidia’s brand new chip will be Asustek’s Eee Pad Transformer Prime.
The Tegra 3 will be in direct competition with Apple’s A5 chip, which has been integrated into the new iPhone 4S. We will have to wait for performance tests to see which is better, but from the stats listed above, the Tegra 3 does look like quite a beast and a serious competitor.
It’s important to remember, however, that while the Tegra 3 certainly seems impressive, hardware is only one part of the equation when it comes to smartphones and tablets, and many devices with better hardware than the iPhone and iPad have utterly failed to compete in the market (and in some cases have even benchmarked significantly lower).