(09-05-2017, 01:20 PM)Nintonito Wrote: [ -> ]Mi Pad 3 is not getting any android updates ever beyond security patches. Xiaomi never contracts the code for successive updates. I'm selling my RN4 for that very reason. So it's stuck regardless. S3 will make it to 8.0 or so, so not particularly much further. And frankly the Pixel C's Nvidia drivers still smoke the pants off of every other vendor. The Pixel C and Shield TV will be the best devices for the next 2 years at this rate. The other vendors are just that far behind.
Blerg - being on the other side of this doesn't make it any less annoying (Arguably more, as we still support these gpu revisions and it feels like a waste if the updates are never actually used....)
(09-05-2017, 01:42 PM)JonnyH Wrote: [ -> ]Blerg - being on the other side of this doesn't make it any less annoying (Arguably more, as we still support these gpu revisions and it feels like a waste if the updates are never actually used....)
Well unfortunately we are still pre Treble so Graphics driver updates aren't possible, and while Mediatek will very likely update the MT8176 to android 8.0, their "pay as you go" approach to selling further updates has not been popular with many OEM's. Xiaomi outright refuses, which contrasts their Qualcomm devices which do receive a decent level of support. ASUS is the only other with a popular MT8173 tablet but they will likely opt out as android 7.0 was already an update for the tablet from 6.0. It's crazy because these devices rarely ship with fully working stacks, bugs galore, yet updating the stack is usually the last priority.
If you *really really* want an android tablet with dolphin, just buy a 2-1 convertable and install android-x64. This is likely the fastest device you might get. For example the Acer Switch Alpha 12 can be powered with an i5 CPU.
Edit: The Acer Switch 7 seems to be available with a Kaby-Lake-R CPU and Nvidia MX150 GPU. No way to get Android on it, but it has the form factor of a Tablet as well.
(09-05-2017, 01:58 PM)Nintonito Wrote: [ -> ]Well unfortunately we are still pre Treble so Graphics driver updates aren't possible
Actually, graphics drivers are one of the few parts that treble won't really affect - the shared objects are still loaded in the process images rather than a separate process, as any kind of IPC would completely kill performance there.
But due to that already having been the case the graphics drivers have *Always* been extremely careful about what symbols they expose and avoid pulling in unnecessary dependant shared objects, so it's often can be replaced under the hood with little issues already. Google just tightened and started enforcing this requirement for O.
The real issue is interface compatibility between the (possibly multiple different versions of) userspace and the kernel driver, and vendors like adding back-door APIs to other modules into the gpu driver for various reasons (like the hwcomposer or the camera driver), which effectively breaks the interface specification
(09-05-2017, 09:06 AM)JonnyH Wrote: [ -> ]I think the pixel-c is no longer getting updates - that may have implications WRT driver bugs and similar....
It might get new drivers if it get's updated to O with trebbel.
(09-11-2017, 08:43 AM)Whatnoww Wrote: [ -> ]It might get new drivers if it get's updated to O with trebbel.
Unfortunately, treble (IE out-of-process HALs communicating over a standard ipc with forward compatibility) doesn't affect graphics drivers at all. They're pretty much the only vendor supplied libraries still loaded in process now.
And I mixed up the pixel c and nexus 9 - the pixel C should still be getting updates.
(09-11-2017, 11:25 AM)JonnyH Wrote: [ -> ]Unfortunately, treble (IE out-of-process HALs communicating over a standard ipc with forward compatibility) doesn't affect graphics drivers at all. They're pretty much the only vendor supplied libraries still loaded in process now.
And I mixed up the pixel c and nexus 9 - the pixel C should still be getting updates.
Well it must at least be somewhat modularized considering google specifically made a point of GPU drivers being updatable via the play store. Wouldn't be much of a feature if it didn't do anything. Also lol the pixel c is never getting another GPU driver update, nor treble. Google no longer treats Tegra devices with much respect. The Nexus 9 didn't get a single GPU driver update, to the point where ES3.2 and Vulkan never arrived with android 7.0. Google did good once with the Nexus 7 2012 in fully implementing Tegra hardware in stock android, but subsequent efforts are lackluster at best.