What can you expect from the Mi Box CPU/GPU?

by kanarec

I recently bought a Mi Box mainly to watch online videos but also to play games. I knew that it couldn't play the games that Shield can play but I didn't care because there are other interesting games in the PlayStore like GTA San Andreas, Virtua Tennis and Max Payne.

My Smartphone, a S3 Neo, can play those games, so I assumed that the Mi Box also could (the S3 Neo has a 1.4 GHz processor and 1.5 GB of ram, the Mi Box has a 2GHz processor and 2 GB of ram). To my surprise, none of these games are playable on the Mi Box.

How is it possible that the Mi Box can't play games that a theoretically inferior device can play?

otakkuma

The number of cores and the frequency of the CPU is only one of multiple factors that determine the performance. In playing games GPU is much more relevant, for example. The Mi Box is a budget streaming box, that also happens to play a few games. I had very good results with emulators, but I never bought it expecting to use it as a gaming device, the chipset it's just not designed for it. Also, depending on the Android version, I think that a core might be shut off altogether. Lower power consumption and thermals are a bigger priority here.

everykenyan

Clock speed isn't necessarily more power nor are cores

aryal86

1080p gaming yes, 4K hell no. Mali-450 GPU is simply too old to handle heavy games. Also, if your S3 neo handle the games you play, Mibox should handle them just fine.

BiggussDikkuss

The Mi Box's AMLogic S905X CPU package cannot clock to 2GHz without a thermal shutdown, that is why it will not go over 1.536 GHz without major Kernel modifications and really good cooling.

This has been known about for over a year now:

https://www.cnx-software.com/2016/08/28/amlogic-s905-and-s912-processors-appear-to-be-limited-to-1-5-ghz-not-2-ghz-as-advertised/

Anyone still advertising that any AMLogic S9xx Chipset can run at 2GHz is falsely advertising their media player. They are frankly lying, which is pretty common in Tech advertising.

You want a powerful GPU if you are playing Games like the one in the NVIDIA Shield or at the budget end - the AMLogic S912 Chipset. Then you also want proper Chipset cooling so you can ramp up the GPU clock speed without thermal Shutdowns.

npaladin2000

I don't expect much from their GPUs at all, they use reference Mali cores and don't work very hard at them to begin with. Their CPU cores are OK, enough to handle 1080p easily, and sometimes 4k depending on the implementation (sufficient cooling at hardwired Ethernet).

Bodycount9

If you want to game, you really should get a shield or just get an Xbox One S/X.

If you want games over streaming, the Xbox will do both but games is its main focus. If you want streaming over games, the shield will do both but streaming is its main focus.

The Mi Box is designed to run games but it won't run them well because it just doesn't have enough GPU power to do it. It's mainly for streaming media.