IssueTracker

This is something we've investigated a couple of years ago already and that we revisit
regularly. Of course we thought of using the GPU, but there are non-trivial issues on
many Android devices (a G1-class device for instance supports only one OpenGL
context at a time, which would prevent you from using any OpenGL based app like
games or augmented reality apps.) In our past experiments we even found many
cases in which using the GPU was slower than normal rendering.

New devices might allow us to overcome the past limitations that made GPU support
a not-so-good solution.

The "choppiness" and "lagginess" you are mentioning are more often related to heavy
garbage collection than drawing performance.

Thanks for your answer. I do have to say though that the constant choppiness i currently experience
when browsing on my droid/milestone has little to do with garbage collections. Things like anti aliasing,
text smoothing, fast zooming are currently handled by the cpu only.

The difference becomes especially clear when one compares the iphone 3gs to the droid. We are talking
about the exact same hardware, yet the smooth, constant high fps seen on the iphone is not seen on
the droid. I understand that most phones before the n1 and droid were not capable of much hardware
accelerated functions, but i really expected phones like the droid to offer a much smoother experience.

I agree with jakkoterborg,

I can understand from Google's point of view the difficulties in writing and
incorporating drivers for all the various gpus from the different manufacturers. But
there should be something done.  It's pretty ridiculous to have phones with such
power and it's wasting the gpu almost completely.  who is responsible for the gpu
coding for drivers or graphics in the kernel?  are these closed sourced video chips?
 I can guarantee give access to any rom dev on alldroid.org and you'll see 300%
improvement in speed overall in 1 week or less haha.

This is the cause of the problems with live wall papers and the 2.1 launcher and
we've already seen it proven in logs on alldroid.  it tries and uses cpu only for the
UI and bogs down trying to use these new features, features that should barely make
it raise a sweat if properly coded to use the gpu like any decent os would.

android is doing the equivalent of windows 7 running aero full settings using only
cpu power.

I understand older phones will lose out and start to fall by the wayside, but that is
life and just how things are.  Not incorporating full gpu functionality into android
is just holding us back.  It's not like every android phone is getting updated to 2.1
and beyond and soon enough neither the droid nor the nexus will be receiving updates
either as their next gen replacements come out.

The problem is I don't really know who to point the finger at, google for not forcing
hardware acceleration into the new products or the manufacturers for not adding full
support of their hardware into android or opening the source for drivers for the
hardware so the community can do the job for them.

It's just crazy to see phones with such massive specs and it's all being wasted.  We
have to turn to rom hackers and other community developers instead of Google and
phone manufacturers to actually realize the potential of our phones.  frankly I'd be
rather ashamed of myself if I were Google or Motorola.

community devs and hackers have managed to not only allow overclocks of over 100% on
the droid in some cases, STABLE btw with not much increase in temps (which we can now
monitor because of these devs) but seemed to have done a better job of getting live
wallpapers and even the 2.1 launcher to work than either of you.  There are roms for
2.0.1 even that run these things already and we're still waiting for the ota for 2.1
on the droid... what was supposed to be the cutting edge Google experience phone.
Will Google pull the same crap on the nexus next time a new phone comes out?
completely turn its back?  seems like it from the droid communities perspective.

anyways, I'm going off topic.. just had to let of steam.

Full hardware acceleration of the operating system and it's apps by the GPU should be
a PRIORITY for incorporation into the next maintenance update of android and should
come out asap.

A related issue, android currently does not use the NEON floating point part of the cortex a8. Is there
any reason why this is not the case?

Some custom droid roms allready have neon optimizations fixed.

http://code.google.com/p/0xdroid/issues/detail?id=57

I believe one of the barriers for many people that I have talked to is the relative
choppiness in scrolling and various animations... most importantly the browser.
Always when I talk to someone that's on the fence between Android and iPhone the
choppy scrolling is something they point out to me as a concern.... which is
frustrating to me as I see how powerful + free Android is. To have such a visual
element be a stumbling block is annoying.

I have both a Nexus One and a iPhone 3gs (although 3gs soon to be sold)--- and one is
simply blind if they think the nexus one's browser (and other areas) scrolls as
smoothly as the 3gs. I am most definitely an Android advocate. I'm someone that
appreciates function over form, which is why I chose Android again going forward, but
I think smoother visual GPU integration would do wonders for non-technical peoples'
perception of Android. (which is quite frankly only the pretty pretty flowing UI they
see)

Please reconsider this again. :)

I switched from the iPhone 3G to a Droid. I would never go back, but I'm still
stunned at how much smoother the UI is on the iPhone. It feels so much more
interactive when there is virtually no lag between your finger movements and the
movements on the screen. I've gotten used to the lag and I don't notice it as much
now, but whenever I use an iPhone, I'm reminded of it again.

It would be a gigantic boon if it were possible to use the GPU on the N1 or the
Droid. I realize it's a bit complicated, but the current situation is extremely
inefficient and a waste of available resources that could greatly enhance the user
experience.

I just got my milestone a week ago without trying it out first (bad idea), after
selling my 3gs. Sadly just like everybody here, I am disappointed with the fluidity
of its UI. It's even more disappointing to know that my milestone actually has what
it takes to match iphone's user experience, but isn't doing it.

"New devices might allow us to overcome the past limitations that made GPU support
a not-so-good solution."

So, there is the answer, new devices. I like android alot, but until this UI thing is
sorted out, i'm going back to 3gs and wait for "new devices" as suggested.

is the nexus one/desire/incredible/EVO 4G not "new devices"?

its really sad that android offers so much, but reality dictates that whoever has the
best presentation (UI in this case), wins in the real world regardless of features.

so yeah, the world is shallow and getting android up to par (GPU accel UI) is by far
the biggest leap you could do for android in the eyes of the masses right now (and i
doubt it would take as much time as the other planned features).

my suggestion, put this into maximum priority
but time will tell, and you will see im right ;)

Yes, I agree. Please add this.

I have a N1 and so disapointed about the jerky ui.
Google, please do something! PLEASE!

Add it!

If you star the bug, it counts as a vote. Please refrain from posting "I agree" or "Add
it" or "Me too" as it spams everyone who has starred this bug.

Please only post comments if you have some additional technical knowledge that you wish
to share.

Thanks.
(Sorry for spamming the list myself!)

If Android is aiming at the tablet/pad market this must be a top priority. Tablets will use resolutions if
1024x720 and higher. There is no way to push that much data using the CPU and still keep the overall
system performance at a high level. A multitasking system needs a Ul that doesn't halt the system while
scrolling homescreens and windows. Besides it really hurts to see unused hardware inside my gadget. ;)

romain... talked about hardware limitations on some android device.
WE know that, differently from iPhone, Android runs on many different platforms..But i don't think that it's too hard for you to enable GPU Acceleration only on some capable devices!
Moreover, Google doesn't release an unique update for all devices, but each one has its own. So it isn't hard to code each update in order to use GPU Power.
We want to be the No. 1 in the world..and this is where to start from, imho.

Please Google Use the GPU acceleration for the GUI please!

+1

The choppiness on the N1 is what makes the experience lacking. The UI is great but it's just not fluid.

Google need to pay more attention to UI smoothness as it seems that's what gives non-techy people trust in the system they're using.

Don't get me wrong, I love my N1 and wouldn't have any other phone, but it would be so much better with fluidity!

Google should listen to us customer and consumer. Please don't be Microsoft scared to implement new thing to avoid conflict with older device.

Not the future we want (you said this in Google I/O)

Walk the talk please.

that weird i thought it was gpu accelerated i guess that's just custom roms :( wtf?

Well if android was gpu accelerated it was way better..
We can have more UI effect, more fluidity more responsivness since the GPU can render the screen while CPU is working hard..
As i said before, Google release an AOSP source code that then is modified by vendor for each device..
So i can't see any problem! Just add GPU acceleration to capable devices only!
Hope to see a reply from Google soon...

I agree also, Romain guy your have been listening to the community implementing such features this should be one of them to really listen to. I can't even enjoy the standard launcher i have to use launcher pro or ADW just to have smooth scrolling even in froyo(pre-release) at times. There should be a simple switch to enable or disable 3d accelerations like how ubuntu does it with Compiz. Your seriously telling me your cannot implement a auto-detection feature to see if the phone can handle it and if it can, then the 3d accel is enabled for that phone?

THIS IS BLASPHEMY!

Completly agree with MykeB.NYC..
You must install ADW or LauncherPro to have better scrolling experience..using them everything becomes smooth..really smooth and fluid..!!
I Don't think this as implementation problem..i think it's just a feature to add..
Would be awesome to read something from Google about it :)

[Comment deleted]

""Completly agree with MykeB.NYC..
You must install ADW or LauncherPro to have better scrolling experience..using them everything becomes smooth..really smooth and fluid..!!
I Don't think this as implementation problem..i think it's just a feature to add..
Would be awesome to read something from Google about it :)"""

 - Thanks for backing me up i think this feature outweigh the positives more than the negatives...couldn't google implement a feature where if a game is loaded that requires 3d, 3d on the desktop is disabled until the game exited?

Surely if someone can do it with something like Launcher Pro, Google could do it! If not, hire the guy!

Well i think that this should be easy to do..
As i understood, the GPU must be used by one process at time so Using Priority, scheduler(maybe) and semaphore do the job.
If you run a game, it get exclusive use of GPU while all other app are rendered using CPU. As soon as you come back home, the game lose it's access to GPU that return to Home application.
This shouldn't be so different from the mechanism of giving CPU to each process :)
Google did a perfect job with multitasking..that's why i really want gpu acceleration!

"""Well i think that this should be easy to do..
As i understood, the GPU must be used by one process at time so Using Priority, scheduler(maybe) and semaphore do the job.
If you run a game, it get exclusive use of GPU while all other app are rendered using CPU. As soon as you come back home, the game lose it's access to GPU that return to Home application.
This shouldn't be so different from the mechanism of giving CPU to each process :)
Google did a perfect job with multitasking..that's why i really want gpu acceleration!"""

Cool, also doesn't ubuntu use this method if im not mistaken with compiz?

Well if i'm not wrong, ANY hardware component can do 1 job at time..
The user feel that Pc does 20/30 things at time..But it's just the abrstraction given by Operative System..a CPU can execute just 1 instruction at time.. (Ofcourse we are talking about single core architecture..)
It's the software implementation that changes everything..Google engineers surely know what to do :)

lol okay thanks for your responses ... welp guess last thing is if google implements it or not GO GOOGLE!

Star this issue folks. Android will never be able to compete with iPhone UI-wise w/o GPU acceleration.

Is there any phone today that runs android that doesn't feature a GPU (either buitin or dedicated)?

I mean, the MSM7200A/MSM7201A which is used in Dream, Magic, Hero aswell as a bunch of other phones should contain a builtin GPU, what other plattforms is it actually run on?

I've seen a lot of review about new Samsung Galaxy S i9000..
Despite it's running Eclair 2.1-R1, i think that samsung enabled gpu acceleration..Why?
Scrolling is so smooth and wherever you scrool, you also got additional effect like on the iPhone.. (you can check out this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz7fXu8MMlU&feature=player_embedded)
Check when he scrools in Gmail or just in settings menu..

Compare default Launcher App window->window scrolling and app launch animation with the ADW Launcher. The latter is waaay smoother. I haven't yet examined why that's the case.

It makes me wish the rest of the phone's apps were like it. :) Unfortunately it's still affected by touch input flood. (compare animation with "flicking" a screen vs "dragging" a screen)

I agree with the common opinion here... It is very hard to pitch Android to someone who is not tech savy, simply because of the choppy and sluggish UI.  This has also become the talk of the masses, most people who haven't even used Android say the following:  "I've seen Android, its cool, but its not as smooth and stable as the iPhone."  
The iPhone's hardware fails a lot (I've exchanged my 3Gs twice in less than a year), it also freezes at times and drops calls, but what do people see and remember!? UI!!  If android wishes to ever compete seriously with iOS, GPU acceleration is a must!
On a side note, who cares about the older phones!? they can keep being sluggish... There's less than a handful of Android phones that won't support GPU acceleration, there's more than 30 that do...
Conclusion:  MAKE THIS A PRIORITY, its time to put the choppy UI days behind us, this year is going to bring amazing hardware to the table, and the new iPhone is good, but not THAT good... As it stands, all iOS has on Android is a "smoother experience", why hesitate to fix it!?

Android is starting to follow the steps of windows mobile concerning user interface acceleration, a lot of 2007+ windows mobile devices had on board gpu's witch could render user interface, but MS never even bothered into making windows mobile user interface Hardware accelerated, even tho most of its new devices have on board gpu capable of rendering open gl es 1.0/2.0, Android sadly seems to be following this very same ideology, most if not all of current mid/high end devices are fully capable of rendering Open GL ES 2.0, this been said why is google crippling its UI to only software rendering is beyond my comprehension

Reviews are complaining about the Droid X's slightly jerky UI. GPU acceleration should be a high priority.

Star this issue folks. Android will never be able to compete with iPhone UI-wise w/o GPU acceleration.

to the people comparing android to the iphone os if you like it so much get one back on topic now gpu acceleration can help with battery life and on nevermind because i have a sneaking suspicion your already working on that since i know you have Nvida terga 2 devices coming out soon so I'll shut up and eat my gingerbread now with some froyo

[Comment deleted]

I also don't see why it is a problem to implement this if old devices can't use it, just make the old software renderer a fallback option and everything will be ok. Although if I think about that solution there is a big possibility that hardware vendors won't adapt their drivers etc. and update their android version on existing devices because they would want to use this feature as an argument for selling new phones. So on second thought maybe it would be better to make this feature mandatory for all Android phones from 2.2 on or so, that way there is a higher possibility that more users would profit from it.
In general I think it would greatly improve the user experience in general and after all that's a huge point in making a phone appealing to users. Users don't care _why_ something doesn't work the way they like (especially if they don't know and don't want to know about the technical stuff behind it), they just see it doesn't look as fluid as <competitors handset> so they won't buy it.
In my opinion Android absolutely needs this feature to fully compete in this rapidly changing market and this feature would be a huge step towards market supremacy.

Most people who see an android phone will immediately do two things: swipe through home screens and scroll through the app list. If they see lag and choppiness they inevitably compare to the iphone and assume that the phone as a whole is not as fast and responsive, end-of-story for them.
If they know just enough to ask about what cpu/ram the phone has, they're even more amazed by the fact that a "1GHz phone" can't produce smooth enough scrolling.

This is definitely damaging to the platform; feature superiority isn't enough on its own to pull people in, especially when the competition has a "good-enough" feature-set done "better" (ok, just smoother)

i'm staying with android for a ton of reasons apart from features, but this thing bugs me.

Issues like this all belong to UX (user experience) category. Now as the article from TechCrunch (http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/16/android-team-laser-focused-on-the-user-experience-for-next-release/) points out, Google should have started spend more time on UX. Now, the question is how much more?? and how serious they are thinking about the problem. we should see some result of their effort in Gingerbread. I am a huge fun of Android but frankly speaking Android is still far behind iPhone in terms of UX. I hope Google have the confident to challenge Apple on this front.

From Anandtech's recent review of the EVO 4G (http://www.anandtech.com/show/3791/the-sprint-htc-evo-4g-review/11):

"There’s lag or choppy animations when scrolling down a page, swiping between screens and generally interacting with the phone. What’s even more frustrating is if you leave a lot of apps resident in memory there are times when the UI will stop being responsive. If you have haptics turned off there’s no way to tell whether or not a button tap was recognized, often resulting in a double or triple tap which then results in an unintended phone call or similarly frustrating action. It definitely hampers the experience."

"Scrolling isn't GPU accelerated, so a quick flick down a page will drive CPU utilization up to 40 - 50%. The only way around this is to either optimize the crap out of the code or move to dual core CPUs so there's another core ready to handle anything else you throw at it. Combined with a lightly CPU intensive app I found that scrolling can sometimes even send CPU utilization up above 70%!"

This is definitely something that needs to be resolved.

If i'm not wrong, without GPU Acceleration, we have also more battery drain due to high cpu utilization, don't we?
Dunno what they are waiting for..but i don't think that we need dual core to have fluid UI..

Can we have a reply from you, Google? :)

Everyone I talk to about android talks about how laggey the interface can be and they compare it directly to the iphone.
Sometimes when using my hero it seems alright, but often you will press something and the phone will take a little while to catch up and other times it just didn't respond to what you pressed. It improved a lot when the 2.1 update came and also when I used an overclock kernel.

Maybe there should be some sort of gpu requirement for android and phone manufactures should be developing phones which can make light work of rendering the UI.

But in terms of how the touch controls are handled Google is still going to have to do a lot of work to get this up to scratch. Lag and fluid animation are all issues at the moment.

It would be good to see this worked on, so hopefully we will see something happening about this when Gingerbread details start appearing.

I'm using Froyo now on my Nexus One and it's still the same. When I first had my N1 I loved the water live wallpaper with leaves on it. But since I know my device is so slow cause of the wallpaper I don't use it anymore. I'm only using static wallpapers now since it's the only way to have smooth scrolling between homescreens and apps. I really hope google will do something about is cause for a lot of people it is a very big deal.

Even with Final Froyo FRF85b, There is still lag in UI with live WallPapers - only stock - without even adding more widgets or icon, What is the use of live wall paper features & other interface features if it makes everything very slow?!

The issue of lagging UI has nothing to do with live wallpapers or cpu intensive widgets. Well it has but it still lags without any of these, a little less but far from smooth. I don´t think we should discuss the technical details of double buffering, gpu-accelerated block manipulation and update frequencies of the screen in this thread.

For all you people who don´t understand the technical details of graphic manipulation at a low level and how to keep it smooth just trust us who do understand them. Android DO need GPU-accelerated UI to keep it updated at such high frequencies as needed to feel smooth. There is no way around it, period.

The GPU inside most new phones is more than capable of handling this issue and leave the cpu free for all the other tasks. The GPU:s inside Android based phones are used only for gaming wich is a shame. My Amiga 500 7Mhz 68000 had a smoother UI than Android has on my Nexus one. Why? Because it offloaded the tasks of graphics manipulation to it´s GPU. That was in the 90:s.

I do understand why Google didn´t design it that way to start with BUT, NOW is the time to fix it.

I sign all what christian said right before me!
With GPU accelerated UI its much more smoother and the CPU can do other tasks.
So the UI and the HOLE system get boosted and I think the battery time will hold much longer, because of the faster and longer idle times for all, the CPU and the GPU.

I do also think, that the lack of a quick responding UI destroys a lot of the user experience.
If you tap a button or a key you the response (even if not the result) must be there INSTANTANEOUS otherwise the user might repeat the action an get into other problems

the same for scrolling, as the user gets frustrated if the layer he moves with his finger, does not do what he wants.

e.g. Google Maps, it is quite fast on a Milestone, but if i compare scrolling and display of new tiles with Google Maps on my 5year old SE P1i it seems slower, because the SE interface is GPU accellerated, it can handle the task better, even with its damn slow 206MHz ARMv7 and stupid symbian backend ;)

GPU usage in the UIclasses should be a big target for google and all the android devs :)

Guys, please read comment 1, and this:

http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/16/android-team-laser-focused-on-the-user-experience-for-next-release/

And then stop ranting.

another article:
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2010/06/30/android-3-0-gingerbread-rumored-to-launch-in-october-for-high-en/

it seems like gingerbread will be the first android release to use gpu acceleration.

Would be definately great. From time to time it's stuttering while changing desktops :/

[Comment deleted]

what? Rephrase that please ... in english this time.

[Comment deleted]

yes, GPU-acceleration is a feature which HAS to be implemented ... otherwise i wont consider using android ... really : a tablet or a phone which does software-rendering??! Methinks not, other solutions are using a GPU for several years now ...

[Comment deleted]

[Comment deleted]

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you seem confused ... you're explaining the primary aspect of a request inside the very request to people who support the request! Take a nap.

[Comment deleted]

mkay ... it appears that even mentally underdeveloped children are here. I thought about developing for android but since even kiddies are able to poison the project ... ill try to have you excluded of some sort because all you do is "trolling" and insulting around here - for no reason at all.

[Comment deleted]

[Comment deleted]

I didnt criticize you, i didnt insult you, which is clearly visible for everyone :-)
You are seeing things, obviously.

[Comment deleted]

"the weaker minded and defeated warriors retreat to something which is older than humanity itself : irrational, unguided and constant attack"

[Comment deleted]

"obsessed" ... yes, of course young one - of course. I am obsessed with everything. What else.

[Comment deleted]

Thread cleaned up on my end left my last post that was relevant to this topic :)

Unstarred.

Bye!

[revised my post]

Didn't know i was talking in spanish it was early /s

Anyway, basically the rumors that was set in stone is just that, rumors. Eldar from mobile-review or whatever that site name is ,was called out by google saying he was lying on the blog [in a non-direct way]. So in actuality we really don't know what will happen with gingerbread besides Revamped UI, what was displayed at Google-IO, and The music store rumors. We still need to push this issue until it is finalized and we know for sure GPU acceleration[in the browser and UI] is a FACT and not RUMOR.

Please realize this issue is being followed by almost 300 people. You are not ment to have discussions here and certainly not flamewars. Just share your view/experience once.  ;-)

Yes you are right and i feel a little disappointed StefanD986 unstarred this issue im more upset by that then the rant we both displayed. I apologize.

"the rant we both displayed"

allegation.

Will those that are bickering please stop! Keep the thread on topic or move
on. Please.

I posted this earlier i deleted it by accident:

http://deals.venturebeat.com/2010/05/02/google-bumptop-android/

I know some people might have seen this, but this can be good news for Android if google is implementing some kind of feature set like BumpTop which clearly uses acceleration on the desktop. Hopefully Gingerbread gets something like this.

I vote for GPU acceleration.  Forget the G1 devices.  Particularly with the pressing need for something that rivals the ipad, this is not a trivial issue.

Just wanted to comment that I can't believe there aren't more forums posts and complaints out there about this. I had to dig to find this issue logged with Google. I am considering selling my N1 and buying a used 3GS because the scrolling performance is so poor. Outside of making calls and text messages, i spend the most time surfing the web on my phone.

Just wait for Gingerbread. That's pretty much guaranteed to have GPU acceleration.

"Just wait for Gingerbread. That's pretty much guaranteed to have GPU acceleration."

Link?

http://www.intomobile.com/2010/06/16/android-to-focus-on-user-experience-with-gingerbread/

It doesn't say it explicitly; I'm just connecting the dots here: since they're heavily focusing on user experience in Gingerbread, a smooth UI will be of high priority, and a smooth UI needs GPU acceleration.

Oh God I hope it's true.

It's very frustrating to not be able to use features that have been heavily hyped because of performance issues - case in point: Live Wallpapers. As soon as one's selected, the UI becomes completely unusable, both on my Desire (all ROMs I've tried) and on my old Milestone...

Why even add such a feature (which, by the way, everyone is using to make iPhone users jealous - "Hey, my Android phone does something the iPhone can't do..." - it's just a pity they usually forget to add that this slows the whole system to a crawl and causes you to turn it off again as soon as you're done showing it off) if you can't use it? I know, I know, function over form, but if it's a function of form, whose form is inadequate, the function also goes out the window ;).

In essence: Don't make stuff with the function of "being pretty" unless you can really make it pretty (i.e. smooth!)...


I suppose GPU acceleration would solve this, but how will this affect current devices? The GPUs on current and/or last year's devices, like the Droid, the Desire and the Evo, should be more than powerful enough for simple UI acceleration, shouldn't they? Will we need new devices come winter? Or will it be possible to bake custom ROMs with GPU support as soon as Gingerbread is out? I'm sure mobile Linux programmers would be able to answer this... does it depend on the implementation? Are the currently released/built-in drivers adequate for these purposes?

"I suppose GPU acceleration would solve this, but how will this affect current devices? The GPUs on current and/or last year's devices, like the Droid, the Desire and the Evo, should be more than powerful enough for simple UI acceleration, shouldn't they?"

The GPU in the Desire - the AMD Z430/Adreno 200 - can push 133Mpix/sec according to specs.  If that's not good enough to push pixels on a handheld GUI... yikes.

"The GPU in the Desire - the AMD Z430/Adreno 200 - can push 133Mpix/sec according to specs.  If that's not good enough to push pixels on a handheld GUI... yikes."

Specs and real-world performance are two different things :(. IIRC back in Windows Mobile days, Qualcomm GPU drivers were relatively problematic (on devices like the Touch Diamond, Touch Pro, Touch HD and their respective sequel devices) and didn't allow the GPUs to unleash their full potential at all. With the abysmal 3D performance of my Desire (it really is horrible - even the Droid/Milestone kicks its ass in terms of smoothness), I get the feeling that this is the case on Android too, and that worries me in terms of future GPU-accelerated GUI-implementations...

"Specs and real-world performance are two different things :(. IIRC back in Windows Mobile days, Qualcomm GPU drivers were relatively problematic (on devices like the Touch Diamond, Touch Pro, Touch HD and their respective sequel devices) and didn't allow the GPUs to unleash their full potential at all. With the abysmal 3D performance of my Desire (it really is horrible - even the Droid/Milestone kicks its ass in terms of smoothness), I get the feeling that this is the case on Android too, and that worries me in terms of future GPU-accelerated GUI-implementations..."

I was under the impression that TI omap has a better gpu than snapdragon.

"I was under the impression that TI omap has a better gpu than snapdragon."

Seems so, but how much of that is actually hardware based, and how much of it is driver problems? On paper, the Snapdragon GPU actually pushes something like twice as many polygons as the OMAP CPU...

"Seems so, but how much of that is actually hardware based, and how much of it is driver problems? On paper, the Snapdragon GPU actually pushes something like twice as many polygons as the OMAP CPU..."

really? wow that's amazing. i've actually been considering switching to windows phone 7 if gingerbread is a disappointment.

I dunno... WP7 looks a bit gimmicky - awesome but gimmicky.

Hardware acceleration or not,  I'm sticking with Android... although having a smoother UI would help with feelings of inadequacy when talking to iPhone users ;)

I had a Nexus One, and just upgraded to the Captivate. Ubelievable difference. The A8 Processor is SOOO much smoother than the snapdragon. It bothered me too as I had come from a 3GS and the browser was stuttery. I would love to see GPU acceleration still.

Problem with Windows Phone 7 is that there's no multitasking and no copy  and paste.

I know I've said this before, sorry to repeat, but if you use LauncherPro with the Nexus one, the home screen super zooms. Would still love to see GPU for maps and browser though.

"I know I've said this before, sorry to repeat, but if you use LauncherPro with the Nexus one, the home screen super zooms. Would still love to see GPU for maps and browser though."

I bought Launcher Pro Plus as soon as it came out of beta, but I don't think it uses the GPU - heavy CPU loads in other programs make it slow down too... as do live wallpapers.

Or do you have info I don't? :)

"I had a Nexus One, and just upgraded to the Captivate. Ubelievable difference. The A8 Processor is SOOO much smoother than the snapdragon. It bothered me too as I had come from a 3GS and the browser was stuttery. I would love to see GPU acceleration still."

How often do you upgrade your phones?!?!?!?!?!?! I still have a g1!

"I dunno... WP7 looks a bit gimmicky - awesome but gimmicky."
the main reason im considering it is the built in zune. it would be great not to have to carry both my phone and my zune with me.

just waiting for android phones with cortex a9 processor(multicore).hopefylly android will be able to benefit from the speed. gpu acceleration is still a must!

@geoff.ricks
All 3 phones you mentioned have different chipsets but are all based on the same Cortex-A8 processor.

It seems that in Android the only time the GPU is used is when OpenGL ES is running. There are Live Wallpapers based on OpenGL that run smoother than those that aren't.

"All 3 phones you mentioned have different chipsets but are all based on the same Cortex-A8 processor."

that's what i was thinking too. either the android build on the galaxy s is much more optimized than the one on the nexus or it's just a placebo effect.

[Comment deleted]

Correct me if I am wrong: I do not think adding hardware acceleration to the Android Ui is just that easy.

Google made choice with Android; to be "jack of all trades, master if none". A medium powered smartphone ano 2007 was chosen as the base line hardware. This choice is what formed the design and architecture of the UI frameworks and the graphics pipeline. Retrofitting hardware acceleration onto that is not an easy task.

Apple also made a choice, and a leap of faith, with iPhone architecture. Apple bet that GPU for mobile use would only get cheaper. And that touch was the future. By discarding low end hardware and alternative input methods they could create a leaner and more optimized graphics pipeline.

Turns out that Apples leap of faith paid back. Google bet on the safe route came back to bite them.

I think for now OpenGL is the way for high perfomant Android UI. For the future a new UI framework and graphics pipeline is needed. 

Not having hardware accelerated menus and UI is incredible. I just bought my first smartphone - Samsung Galaxy S which is supposed to have better hardware than the iPhone 4 even. Still, menus are lagging - totally unacceptable.

GPU accelerated menus has been around for at least 10 years in Windows.

GPU acceleration seem like a basic linux feture that really should be included in android too. no reson not to...   looking forward to 3.0 :)  thanks!

@ Google Android workers,

You people have done a fantastic job.
But i want to mention, that most of the time I use my phone i am in the UI.
The UI is pretty smooth. But still noticable less smoother then say: iOS/WebOS/WP7.
The reason is why this topic is made: GPU accelerated UI.

I am using android 2.1 on my Galaxy S. Sometimes it's choppy because the CPU is bussy while doing some graphic animations in the UI.
If you seperate those 2 with the use of the GPU, you won't have these lags.
Even average consumers say that android is more choppy and laggy then iOS.

We need GPU UI acceleration. Or atleast make a light and a heavy version for phone makers. So they can choose.

I want to show an example: We all use the Gallery in 2.1/2.2 it's GREAT. And super smooth because it uses OpenGL!
This is how the UI must be like..

I hope Gingerbread UI makes use of the GPU.

thanks,

"either the android build on the galaxy s is much more optimized than the one on the nexus or it's just a placebo effect."

From what I have seen the Galexy S feels much more responsive then the Desire or the N1.
But that could be more to do with how it is handling menus and scrolling - it just seemed a little more refined on the Galaxy then on any other Android phones.

As for making use of the GPU for the UI, are we even sure that is the main problem here? Sure, it seems like it is, but that doesn't mean its where the problem is.
Like stated in the first reply things like garbage collection will have a huge effect on performance and could very well be the cause of the issue. Maybe if the UI had been written in something like C or C# it would be a lot different. We can't really forget that the phone is using Java to do the UI.  

I will go out on a limb and say: it's the lack of gpu. I don't think even their team thought gpus would be such an issue so quick.  Until it's addressed it will always feel a generation behind iPhone.  And for good reason- it is.
I have both the nexus one and captivate and it was depressing to look at the ui or browser performance.  It significantly reduces my will to develop knowing that I can't count on the browser to deliver a smooth webview experience.  What's hysterical is that the captivate gpu is so much faster than iPhone 4.  You just never feel it.  And at the current tech they'll need to announce a 5 ghz phone to supply the fluidity iPhone does with 1.  Time for android to make UI priority one.


I

If I didn't make myself obvious, I'd like to formally request this issue be bumped to the highest priority.  This will only get worse when tablets come into the picture and there are even more pixels to fill (scale, transform, blend, etc).

I love my Android device, but I put my hands on an iPhone 3G for the first time ever and I was blown away at how responsive it was.  I never considered switching due to many factors, but after that experience I feel that I should certainly leave it as a consideration.  

There have been plenty of advancements made in the past few years.  I think it's time to focus on something that's very much lacking - the UI as a whole.

**mumbles to self:  also... that stock dialer sure is fugly!

I'd say this is high priority.

It's pretty unacceptable!

romain...@android.com: "a G1-class device for instance supports only one OpenGL
context at a time, which would prevent you from using any OpenGL based app like
games or augmented reality apps."

as did the original iPhone apparently. Apple handled this limitation by multiplexing it in software, doing all OpenGL through an indirect context. There is of course a performance hit compared to direct rendering, but it's a lot faster than software-only-rendering.

[Comment deleted]

Reddit!

For people experiencing a lot of lag, I think it's garbage collecting related. On my rooted Evo, I installed Autokiller and used the Moderate preset, and it's been speedy every since. Autokiller tweaks Android's built task killer to be more aggressive, so garbage collecting tends not to happen when you scroll or do other things.  

That being said, some of the lagginess on the Evo is caused by a 30 FPS cap HTC implemented for some reason... There's a modified kernel on xda-developers that fixes this. With combined with Autokiller, my Evo flies now. No lag at all.

Seriously, a lot of my friends are turned off by android's the semi-lag that I get even after using LauncherPro on my N1.

My $.02 from the iPhone side of the world.  I started with an iPhone 3GS when they first arrived.  I made the choice after many lengthy comparisons and after buying and then returning-after-30-days an iPhone 3G about 4 months earlier.  Since then, I have been looking for an Android based device that would allow me to get away from the iPhone and AT&T.  I admit that it's shallow, but I have been so off-put by the sluggish performance of the UI that I'm still hanging onto my 3GS.  I would have long since been an Android convert were it not for this cruddy feeling UI.  Please do as this many other have asked -- make the UI hardware accelerated and stop chasing away willing (actually eager) potential users.

I'd like to vote one for this issue as well. I have been lurking around, waiting for the day when that status gets switched from "New" to "Reviewed", and it's not been much there.

So please, please, please fix this. Even with the top-of-the-line Hummingbird chipset, Android is really laggy, particularly in the browser, and even worse when Adobe Flash is enabled. Meanwhile, the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad enjoy butter-smooth scrolling in web browsing. The scrolling and the zooming experience are the only two factors holding me back from considering Android as my primary platform of choice. Please... fix it!

Yeah, the jerkiness of the Gram keeps making my widgets dance.  Then my chip gets all smokey and I dont know what thats all about.  Im just trying to figure out which OS is should install on my Epic, because a friend of mine said I could have the chip out of his iPhone 3G, then Im all like well wait... If I install your chip in my Epic, wont I look 4G functionality???

These are all things that I would not have to consider, if you idiots just made Android use the GPU but because you dont know how to reimage your system, you have out a block on all of us and I dont appreciate it because I paid $800 for Epic and I went into a REALLY bad neighborhood just to get it, and if something bad were to happen to me then you guys would have been hit with a law suit all because you wont just give us the GPU functionality on our phones.

Screw the G1... We dont care if it doesnt have the ability to benefit from the GPU being active.  And my grandma uses a G1, those are the only people who will be affected.  No one else cares about the G1 expect for losers.  So GIVE US OUR GPUs!  So we can act in a way similar to all those iPhone jerks.

Thanks.

This is a major issue that needs some serious attention from the Android team. I'm currently working on a project for both iPhone and Android, and it took me 2-3 times longer to implement certain UI animations on Android due to the CPU choking on blending and animation.

For example, I had to turn off filtering on bitmaps while they're being animated and then turn them back on when the animation is complete and the images are static. It's frustrating to have to implement such optimizations for phones such as the Droid which has a perfectly good SGX 530 GPU.

Why couldn't you provide an option for vendors to integrate some sort of 2D hardware acceleration? You could provide a library and spec and then vendors can implement a low level driver if they wish to.

This seems like an ongoing issue with Android that shouldn't be ignored. It won't go away.

Thanks.

"Romain @ Android" i SERIOUSLY hope that your lack of response to all this is because you are sucking all this in to your brain, and going back to the drawboard to solve these issues!

THIS IS PRIORITY #1 GOOGLE!!!

Whats the point of having one of the best tech specs in a phone (galaxy s) when something as basic as smooth UI is not supported with the GPU?

I can guarrantee this: if this is NOT resolved soon (maybe a 2.3 update supporting GPU) i will sell my device and go with the mainstream= IPHONE

And as you may have heard before, once you go iphone you will never go back. To this day i never considered an iphone even with all the pressure of friends and media, because of one single fact: everyone has it!
But are you willing to risk losing me (and perhaps millions of others) because you are not willing or able to implement something as postulate as gpu support in UI and browsing in todays smartphones??

It's critical that Android Gingerbread has full hardware acceleration. This will be needed to handle the higher 720p display resolution that is rumored to come to 4"+ devices.

I just hope the browser will be hardware accelerated too, but I'm afraid it won't be until Honeycomb since Chrome 7 is barely getting it now. I don't think I'll get an Android tablet until the browser is hardware accelerated.

Every little bit of extra performance helps because I don't want browsing on a tablet to be much slower than on a laptop or even a netbook. Dual Core Cortex A9 CPU's will help but it won't be enough.

google..we have been supporting you.please return our support ....

romain, you say that older gen phones like the G1 arent capable of using the GPU to render the UI, but newer phones are capable. But these older phones are not being supported anymore! Almost every single Android phone released this year has a GPU more than capable enough. The new Desire HD has a GPU as fast as the Galaxy S one! The hardware is moving forward, why can't the software too??

Google get your priorities straight! This is VERY important!

I have some questions..  (i don't understand the above talks clearly because of my bad english)

the questions are...

the chopinness and lagginess is caused by not supporting GPU?

only using CPU, making a smoothness like an iphone is possible, but the other facts
(such as garbage collection) tackle it? or impossible without GPU supports?

i'm confused. somebody help me ;)

sorry for repeating my stupid question.

iphone 3gs is an old model comparatively, but still much smoother than most recent android phones. does it mean that iphone 3gs uses much hardware support(GPU or something) and the recent phones are not enough to cover the gap without GPU?

@uropsm

Yes it seems that the reasons Android's ui is not as smooth as iphone's are not using the gpu and the slow garbage collection. So Android's team need to tackle those 2 problems in order to make the ui smooth as butter. I hope it's coming with Gingerbread.

I am amazed this is still considered medium priority.  I am currently typing thison my droid , which despite its increased graphics over my droid incredible, has a laggier UI.  Not to mention my typing is currently lagging due to having a couple browser windows open, draining the cpu... really google, get your act together... at the very least assure those angry at the situation that you understand an are working on it. This is unacceptable in a great many ways. The fact that this issue has been open since may, and has received just one response from your team essentially stating that you could care less what we want and that you are more interested in the easy and safe way out, keeping support for older devices... there are ways around obsolecense, as has been stated in this thread.  Please give some form of acknowledgment... I would hate to have to finally admit to my friend he has won the perpetual argument of iphone over android... though I would sooner jump out of a plane without a parachute, than use an iphone, win phone 7 is another option...

I managed to get a reply from Romain Guy on Twitter.
Here's what he stated:

"It's not a magic bullet, using the GPU has many drawbacks. And like I said, the bottleneck is rarely the drawing itself."

http://twitter.com/romainguy/status/26376917124

i think that we won't have GPU acceleration in the next release (Gingerbread).
So if won't, how is the new release optimized for Tablet? It will be really ugly if a tablet will get the same poor performance we get on our smartphone in the launcher and in the browser. The CPU will have to move much more pixels and the performance will drastically decrease. Remember that people looks first at the "visual performance" then at all the rest.
But honestly, i'm thinking that Google has another key to accelerate the UI and the browser performance, maybe by optimizing SKIA, the launcher or something else.
In the end, we need to have FAST and SMOOTH UI and Browser navigation, and i don't care how Android Engineers will bring it.

Thanks Romain ;)

It's one thing tho have Apple figure out how to have a properly functioning accelerated UI, but even MS has done it (Aero, Zune HD, and now WP7). If Google can't figure out how to make it work, well, maybe it's time to hire real programmers? I just find it funny that they're running into all of these drawbacks that Apple and MS don't have.

Don't get me wrong, I love Android. I know I'm just hoping for the best of both worlds. I'll take the drawbacks of Android over the drawbacks of using the iPhone or WP7. Still, those smooth UIs are nice. Oh yea, Palm figured it out with WebOS, and Symbian^3 is also using it now.

[Comment deleted]

Wow today i found a promising news...
Opera is gonna release, this month, Opera Mobile for android with Pinch-zoom & HARDWARE ACCELERATION!
Awesome..
http://androidcommunity.com/opera-mobile-for-android-due-within-a-month-pinch-zoom-hardware-acceleration-20101014/

Crasher - The LG Optimus 7 is using an Adreno 205 GPU, which is on par with or just shy of the PowerVR SGX 535 used in the iPhone 3Gs and iPhone 4. It is superior to the SGX 530 used in the Droid, Droid X, and Droid 2. So yes, that phone is most certainly using UI acceleration.

Also note that Microsoft REQUIRES a GPU in all WP7-based handsets capable of OpenGL ES 2.0 and DirextX 9 mobile.

You're right jaykresge..I've just deleted my previous comment about WP7 :\
Well in these days i read a lot of rumors about Gingerbread..They rumored about "hardware acceleration" but i think that these are only rumors..
If Romain Guy is not joking us, we won't have accelerated UI in the next release...
Maybe in half 2011 with Honeycomb (since Lenovo said they will start releasing tablet with android as soon as 4.0 is available).
The worse thing is that Android is the only relevant Mobile O.S. with choppiness and lagginess in browser and UI...even Microsoft and Web/PalmOS got Gpu acceleration!

I hope that they are not replying us just because they don't want to reveal new features of the upcoming Gingerbread...at least i hope.

I really hope that gingerbread will use the GPU accleration, if gingerbread is coming to improve the user experience, the most important thing is to implement the GPU acceleration.
See the iOS. Poor os, only few features (compared with android) but perfect user experience= many many sales.
The only think i dont like with android is the choppiness of the scrolling.

PLEASE GOOGLE!!

agree, i really enjoy the smooth and perfect ios experience, i hope Android could do that...though I only have a htc magic...

Anyone who has used an iOS device can tell you how smooth and pleasant the UI is. The scrolling, browser and other area of iOS is way too smooth and pleasant to use, and yes I have used both iPhone 3GS and Samsung Galaxy S, take the browser for comparison both of the browser are webkit based, but iPhone browser is much better handling the zooming and scrolling. You can't say 3GS has better hardware than Galaxy S, but its so much better. The only difference is iOS is using hardware acceleration and Android isn't. Google can keep denying the fact that GPU acceleration are not that effective, lets wait until Opera releases their browser with hardware acceleration. I think Android should use GPU acceleration not just in their browser but every where else too. As someone has already pointed out that almost all Android devices are coming with descent GPU, It's kind of stupid not to use them because some two year old device doesn't have it. You can't punish 90% people because you want to make 10% happy. Have a look at the video that Microsoft released about IE 9 using GPU acceleration and comparing it against Google Chrome and FF, Chrome & FF were dead slow compare to IE9. I think it's all down to the mentality and the mindset of the architects at Google who are either undermining or doesn't know what a GPU can do these days, May be they haven't read last week news that China has built the fastest Super computer mainly relying on GPUs. So if Google doesn't know how to do it then hire someone who knows how to do it, and by the way I still waiting for the WiFi proxy support in Android which makes my Android device useless to use at work because the WiFi connection doesn't work on proxy. These GPU acceleration for UI and the WiFi proxy issues are not Medium priority but are HIGH. This is not just me but look in to your own forums you can find thousands of people have raised these issues, and there are countless non technical people who can't post on these forums.

GPU is just a technic. Most people do not care about how an iPhone works as long as it looks good.
Using a GPU might sound very nice for some, and it might sound like the solution, but maybe there are other solutions too. Some that let android run on all devices out there, but still be fast.

btw: I have the Moto Milestone (EU version of the droid). Since I installed Cyangenmod (6.1 / froyo) last week, it runs _very_ smooth. And they are not using gpu as far as i know. So there _are_ other ways.

@mdopp79
Yes, it's smooth, but still not as smooth as iPhone or Windows Phone 7. When I use a live wallpaper, even on a fast phone like a Droid X, scrolling across home screens is choppy. Having the UI accelerated by the GPU would very likely solve that choppiness.

I guess the reason why Google doesnt use the hardware acceleration is that, there are so many different cellphones, and android can not handle so many gpu drivers for those phones, and  of course, some low-end phone doesnt have gpu so they can not use it to accelerate.

@Comment 136 by emanas, Oct 30, 2010

Very good point. Google should definitely learn about that. Loading a large image intensive web page is slow as hell with Android. Even with Droid X and Galaxy S, the pinch zoom and scrolling is way slower than iOS.

A lot of customers will be turned off by the slow UI and turn to iOS or Windows Mobile 7 which are both pretty responsive.

Android slow? what? choppiness and slowness are very different issue. Android is the fastest O.S. in browsing, but it isn't smooth.

I actually really do not understand google at this point! I know some people by myself who chose the iPhone instead of an android device because of it's undeniable choppiness, even overclocken and with the best roms out there android on a 1ghz device is not running as smooth as an old iphon 3g which is just a pain in the ass for the average "non-geek" user. I mean choppiness is just not the thing a HIGH-END smartphone should have to deal with in the year 2010!!!

I say we need gpu acceleration its undeniable at this point.

Despite having an old and slow browser, Windows Phone 7 provides and excellent GPU rendering backend even on the old Adreno 200 GPU, which is actually the only supported GPU on WP7: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4015/htc-surround-review-pocket-boombox/9

Google, PLEASE DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

this is the most important thing android needs IMO.

android cannot multitask as anything going on in the background (installing a load of apps, or anything more strenuous than playing music) leads to UI stuttering.

now, i hate apple so can't get an iphone, but winmo7 is an option.  come update time, this will be the feature thats the deciding factor.

that's not till nov 2011.  if it's not done by then, then clearly google simply can't be bothered.   gpu accelerated UI would haev been more of a boost to the end uxer experience than the performance improvements in 2.2

I completely agree with you :"gpu accelerated UI would haev been more of a boost to the end uxer experience than the performance improvements in 2.2"
People looks first at how the device feels, then how it performs.
With 2.2 you gave us insane speed..
With 2.3, please give us a smooth experience.

Same here. Sick of those Iphoners bragging off their UI all the time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAqBPW3avYs
Looking at this demonstration of a Honeycomb powered tablet prototype it definitely looks like the UI is hardware accelerated. Of course that leaves the question whether that goes for current smart phones as well. I think Gingerbread is not using GPU power for the UI as far as I've read the SDK specs, that's kinda disappointing of course. High-end Android phones today can render 3D environments at 60fps, but a simple flawless UI is still not possible at the late evening of 2011. I hope Android won't lag too far behind Winmo 7 and IOS.    

A GPU accelerated UI would be great. I am always frustrated by the lack of smoothness in the Android UI, especially when compared with the iphone, or even the new windows phone (both of which use gpu hardware acceleration). I was using my friends Zune HD the other day and there is such a huge difference in navigating the interface as well as scrolling and pinch-to-zooming in the web browser - everything is just butter smooth.
I just don't understand why the old iphone 3g runs more smoothly (with higher fps) with its last gen hardware than my droid X (2.2, and yes I do use launcherpro) with a 1ghz processor and 512mb of ram.

It's so obvious that this is a serious issue that will not simply disappear. The choppy UI completely destroys the end-user's Android experience, will (has) deter a large percentage of the market from choosing an Android device, and will become a much more prevalent problem in the future when the masses compare Android with iOS, webOS, WP7, MeeGo (et al) and questioning why it is that only Android's UI is so choppy. While Google doesn't exactly rely on Android as its main revenue stream, they are fully aware that mobile is the future. Until this issue is addressed, Android will always be "the other OS with lots of features and future potential and promise".

At present Google can afford to be complacent and completely ignore this issue, but it will come back to haunt them as consumers are given more platforms to choose from. After personally spending my hard earned cash on a Dell Streak, Galaxy S, and now HTC Desire HD, I have decided to return to iOS. I'm one of many who doesn't care too much for the super features and functions of Android, I simply want something that doesn't make be cringe every time I have to use it (a bit harsh, but I'm just being honest). I'll think about another Android handset when/if Google addresses this problem.

On another note: the Android emulator that comes with the SDK is awful.

I, as an adroid user, have to vote this as the MAIN issue to be solved in the next releases...

Froyo's launcher got so stupid slow that sometimes I have to wait 5 seconds for the Icons and widgets to load, and as I install other things in my cell phone, it's starting to get REALLY slow.

It's in fact affecting my user experience, and After trying a Iphone 4, I can't help but to feel too choppy.

I must concur with BlackOmegaTM, I currently own a Motorola Milestone, and even with it's cpu overclocked to 1ghz, the phone feels sluggish when compared to the iOS.

One thing is certain... When it come to tablets, I'm NOT going buy and android one, unless full GPU aceleration is implemented in the whole OS. I hate browsing Icons and webpages at 10 frames per second, it's ridiculous considering today's smartphone's hardware.

I bet it's not coming to Honeycomb, but I hope Google can give the mobile browser hardware acceleration, too. I don't mean just for scrolling and stuff like that. I mean the type of full hardware acceleration and WebGL that Chrome 9.0 is getting soon.

So how about it, Google? Think you can make this ready for the version after Honeycomb? I'll hold off from buying a tablet until that happens, and also maybe for a Tegra 3 chip, because I think even with a Tegra 2, page rendering will still be slower than my netbook. Since I'd like to replace my netbook with a tablet, I'll wait until tablets get powerful enough in rendering web pages. Hardware acceleration can help give rendering a boost on top of the dual core CPU performance.

I agree with the general consensus here. The "Android experience" is second rate purely because of the non GPU rendered GUI. No matter how much hype or marketing you throw at Android, the ugly truth will always manifest on the form of users feeling "ewe" instead of "wow!". To increase Android up-take you will have to relegated Android to a platform mobile operators aggressively push by giving mobile operators huge incentives, instead of allowing Android to flourish as the "platform of choice" (and we all know who currently holds that title, don't we!).

... GPU support for a handful of android devices?   microsoft does it for THOUSANDS of 3rd party devices ... i think dejanews could cover the spread ...

Be it via GPU or simply faster code, the Android UI responsiveness and smoothness needs to be improved. I personally find it quite distracting.

i love android but this is only issue that is annoying me... :(

oh yeah, that motorola tablet is definately accelerated. maybe 3.0 will finally bring android out of beta >.<

OR, come to think of it, maybe that's what the dual-core is for.. offloading the UI onto the second core to free up the CPU ;)

i really wouldn't be surprised. xD

It's a poor rendering framework if Google can't tune to maximize available hardware.  There's no reason the UI cannot auto-tune depending on available hardware.  Afterall, AOSP builds are aware of which platform it's being built for!

Even the awful and extremely bloated Qt framework has software and hardware acceleration paths for its Renderer.

It's a poor, poor design choice and baggage to tune Android for the lowest hardware spec, meaning the extremely broken MSM720x baseline. You should've chose PowerVR from the beginning instead having to "grow up" with the crappy Qualcomm GPUs.

This is how Windows Mobile broke itself by relying on OEMs to implement DirectDraw/3D of which none did or did it well, and so dragged the whole platform down.

I have just got the Nexus S and cant say how disappointed I am with the UI and especially browsing experience.

Still choppy.

In the browser - this page [ http://powerampapp.com/features/ ] lags and chops terribly.

I have read that Samsung released a lag fix (aka GPU accelerated browser) for the Galaxy S - why on earth would this not be available to the flagship Nexus S - also made by Samsung???

I like android way more than IOS but it doesn't mean I wont jump ship if things don't improve FAST.

Please respond Google!

There are a LOT of people buying Android devices today, yet the customer satisfaction index is way behind that of iOS. Improving the user experience of EXISTING customers needs to be a priority, because when grandma is ready to get a new phone in 12-18 months, she's going to think of Android as sluggish, and iOS as smooth.

And if someone counters that "well, newer Android phones are smooth, yours is just on an older version of the OS," Grandma can counter with, "So, Apple pushes updates to all of theirs customers, but you don't?" Either way, you've just lost a customer.

Basically, the user experience should have been developed in parallel with the feature set. It wasn't, and that was a massive fail on Google's part. But to ignore it now is beyond just being a failure. It's straight up ignorant.

I feel this is a bigger issue than our Android devs are letting on. It really gives Android a lower-class image than it deserves. The fluidity of scrolling and animation makes a device like these feel fast. Android devices are now generally powered by quite fast hardware, but the GUI still doesn't look very fluid.  I have a good friend who is still a big iPhone fan, and his number one complaint about Android is the smoothness of the UI just not coming close to the iPhone.

Please please please make this better. Add a secondary texture-cached OpenGL render path for devices that support it or something.

bah. hoped this had been fixed in gingerbread / nexus s. The nexus s is a great device, I really like it, but browsing is a pain.

Had to set Opera Mobile as my default browser for now. Much, much better.

Stock browser is terrible on sites with lots of js or heavy imagery. Friends asked me about my phone, complimented about the feel and amoled screen. Opened up tbe browser, did some scrolling and said; see, this is why I have an iPhone. Stuff is too choppy without GPU support.

This really needs to be fixed ASAP. I have plenty of friends who prefer the iPhone over Android because of this. And now that WP7 is out, it is making Android look like garbage too. Android is so superior to any other OS out there with its features, but the choppy movement and lag makes it look really elementary. I do love Android, and I thought Google would fix this sooner rather than later, that's one of the reasons why I decided to go with Android for my first smartphone. But since Google still has done nothing about this, I will definitely be getting an iPhone now that Verizon will be selling it. I know i'll miss a lot of the features of Android, but it's worth it to have a smooth UI that is above par. I can always just jailbreak the iPhone to get any of the cool features of Android that I'll miss. And getting dual core CPUs wont solve the problem either. It will help, but the GPU should be doing this work, that's what it's made for!! Not pawning it off to the other core of the CPU! Google fix this please. I thought it was going to be taken care of in 2.2, then in 2.3, now I'm pretty certain it may never be taken care of, and if finally so, it will be too late.

GPU acceleration needs to be #1 priority.

I've modded my Galaxy S. UI is extremely smooth (maybe almost Iphone4-esque). Browser is a different story.

Android users can't really 'brag' about being able to display Flash when browsing when it lags the crap out of the browser.

This is the ONLY thing iOS has on Android in my opinion.

Better battery life and smoother UI from GPU acceleration is all I want...and my guess is that Honeycomb will address this...if not, GOD help Android.

From reading #1 it sounds to me like Google may simply not have the know-how to enable GPU acceleration as it sounds like they are having problems solving what 10+ year-old well-established Design Patterns were invented to deal with.  All the good GPU people are probably at Apple/nVidia/Facebook at this point, which is why they're stuck with a GUI paradigm that might have been OK 15 years ago, but has no place in this millennium.  Android's are wasting hardware, wasting silicon gates, and wasting power while providing an inferior responsiveness in user interface.

In response to:
"Comment 28 by CrAsHeR.iT, Jun 13, 2010
Well if i'm not wrong, ANY hardware component can do 1 job at time..
The user feel that Pc does 20/30 things at time..But it's just the abrstraction given by Operative System..a CPU can execute just 1 instruction at time.. (Ofcourse we are talking about single core architecture..)"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superscalar

I think while gingerbread and its new garbage collection scheme is a step in the right direction, it still isn't addressing a major problem.  Yes, in Gingerbread, the UI interaction is much smoother, but still not smooth enough.  GPU acceleration seems to be a given on every new device, even a lot of low end ones.  If you really want to ensure compatability with devices that don't have advanced graphical capabiltiy, at this point I think a decision needs to be made. If possible, android should be branched to deal with these two groups of devices separately, allowing those people with higher end hardware to take advantage of their GPUs, while maintaining the current method for older devices.  I hope that Honeycomb brings some of this functionality.  Honestly this issue was only submitted in March, but its something I haven't understood about Android from the beginning and especially with the introduction of 2.0 devices and its priority should be far higher than medium.  An overhaul of the way the UI is drawn is long overdue, and its inability to take advantage of the GPU and subsequently the higher CPU and RAM usage makes no sense.  We can't keep relying on manufacturers and hardware designers to make up for such a serious design flaw.