In a previous news, the first performance test of the new TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition made it appear as an extremely slow device.
But this test was comparing it with a TI-83 Plus that has a different CPU clock and which is not weakened by the MathPrint mode. When we compare things, we must try to only change one parameter at a time.

Later on, we confirmed this sluggish behaviour by only looking at the menu display time.

However the fist 84C ASM game, by Kerm Martian showed very correct performances.


All this seems to be a little blurry and weirdly contradictory, so let's test the performances of text output function in TI-Basic on the text screen :

We'll be thus testing the performances of:

• TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition, MathPrint mode
  
• TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition, Classic mode
  
• TI-84 Plus Silver Edition, MathPrint mode
  
• TI-84 Plus Silver Edition, Classic mode
  
• TI-83 Plus.fr (2008, Classic mode)

Let's start with a simple loop displaying the integers from 1 to 500, with the Disp instruction.

Here are the results:

• 1st) TI-84 Plus Silver Edition Classic Mode (0min33s)
  
• 2nd) TI-83 Plus.fr (0min35s)
  
• 3rd) TI-84 Plus Silver Edition MathPrint Mode (1min53s)
  
• 4th) TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition Classic Mode (2min14s)
  
• 5th) TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition MathPrint Mode (2min33s)

So:

• On this program, the Classic TI-84 Plus, despite its 2x faster 15MHz CPU, has similar performances to the TI-83 Plus with its little 6MHz CPU.
• When enabling the MathPrint mode, as already known since the 2.55MP OS release, the TI-84 Plus becomes 2.5x slower but the TI-84 Plus C only slows down by 14%.
• In Classic mode, the TI-84 Plus C is 4x slower than the 84 Plus.
• But in MathPrint mode, the 84 Plus C is only slowed down by 35% more than the 84 Plus. Would the slowness issues in MathPrint mode be fixed ? Or is it the overall slowness of that beast that's "hiding" it ?

Anyway, the 84 Plus C, whether in Classic or MathPrint mode, still is at the end of the rankings. The vertical scrolling needs a full-screen refresh, which is now slow for 16-bit colors for the little z80 CPU that does that in about 1 second for 2 new lines...

But even if it comes last, we could in theory have expected something like 16x slower than a 84+, since it's going from 1 to 16-bit colors, which is far from being the case. :o



Let's go on and try to find these optimizations with a 2nd test, but using the Output instruction. We now have no more vertical scrolling.

Here are the results:

• 1st) TI-84 Plus Silver Edition Classic Mode (3s)
  
• 2nd) TI-83 Plus.fr (5-6s)
  
• 3rd) TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition Classic & MathPrint Mode (7-8s)
  
• 4th) TI-84 Plus Silver Edition MathPrint Mode (16s)

So:

• On this program, the 84 Plus in Classic mode still gets first.
• The TI-83 Plus is almost twice as slow, which is coherent.
• With MathPrint enabled, the TI-84 Plus is also 2.5x slower, but the TI-84 Plus C seems not to be slowed down at all ! :D
• The TI-84 Plus C is then 2.5x slower than the TI-84 Plus in Classic mode, but 2x faster than the TI-84 Plus in MathPrint!

This confirms the fact that optimizations were done, otherwise the 84 Plus C would still have been last.
More precisely, KermMartian from Cemetech discovered that contrary to the other calculators, theTI-84 Plus C does not necessarily refresh all the screen, but can limit the refresh to a specific area of the screen. An optimization perfectly fitted for our test !



In conclusion, the TI-84 Plus C is not, in my opinion, the catastrophe that some websites try to present.

It is clear that it isn't fitted for games needing a full-screen refresh, like games using horizontal/vertical scrolling, emulators, or Doom-likes.

But on other types of games, it is perfectly capable of doing even better than its predecessors and moreover in color, especially since most users stay with the latest OS with MathPrint enabled (by default), which is the now-optimized configuration !






Source:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11309&lang=en

What I am curious about, though, is how with Disp the 6 MHz 83+Fr managed to run as fast as the 84+SE in Classic mode? It looks like this model uses a different LCD driver, because I remember stuff like how on my TI-81 Disp was much faster than on my 83+

I thought the TI-83+.fr was really a TI-84+ in disguise, running OS 2.55MP? In that case, it would be running at 15MHz like any other TI-84+.

Quote from: DJ_O on February 24, 2013, 06:01:53 pm

What I am curious about, though, is how with Disp the 6 MHz 83+Fr managed to run as fast as the 84+SE in Classic mode? It looks like this model uses a different LCD driver, because I remember stuff like how on my TI-81 Disp was much faster than on my 83+

I thought the TI-83+.fr was really a TI-84+ in disguise, running OS 2.55MP? In that case, it would be running at 15MHz like any other TI-84+.

Actually the original 83 Plus.Fr from 2008 was a TI-83 Plus. It's just the 2013 one that is gonna be a TI-84 Plus. It has Boot code 1.01, though. http://datamath.org/Graphing/TI-83PLUS_FR.htm

Here is a review of the calc on ticalc.org:  http://www.ticalc.org/archives/news/articles/14/148/148274.html

Maybe they did some software modification for faster routines?

Parker just got his calc and made a vid of it:



Notice how when he does the Disp loop it shows up fast at first and only slow down when it scrolls.

It's working for me. Anywho, that calc actually looks nicer than I thought it would! However, the speed really needs to be upped... it seems so crippled :'(