For all you iPad gamers out there, The Verge has a very useful feature looking into how the new iPad’s A5X chip copes with the extra stress laid on it by the new Retina display, and specifically in terms of the demands of high-end iOS games. In particular, The Verge feature refers to Gameloft’s new N.O.V.A. 3 game, saying that new screenshots from the game appear to show that Gameloft has been forced to “dial back†some of the game’s effects in order to cope with all those extra pixels. The feature goes on to compare several key iOS games, including N.O.V.A. 3, Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation, and Infinity Blade 2, in a bid to see how the games run on all versions of the iPad. After giving the games a thorough testing, The Verge concludes that while the games tend to look suitably amazing on the newest iPad, the iPad 2 seems to be better at producing the best visuals in combination with the best graphical performance, with high-end games not performing quite as well on the newest iPad, due to the demands of the Retina display. The Verge notes that bearing this in mind, Gameloft says that it will soon be offering an update for N.O.V.A 3, which will enable the player to choose whether or not to run the game at full resolution on the newest iPad.
Source: Is the Retina display holding back iPad graphics? | The Verge