Device performance is important, and with Amazon’s latest Fire TV being a step back in performance from the 2nd generation model, I thought I would benchmark as much of the ecosystem as possible to take a little closer look at the performance of different Amazon Fire OS devices.
My plan with this article is to make it evergreen, updating it as new hardware is tested and released, or new benchmarks are released.
Tested Hardware
My starting point is to test every piece of hardware I own, but I hope to buy/borrow other hardware to expand things going forward. If you’d like to contribute an older Fire tablet (or a Fire Phone!) to the mix, please let me know. I’d love to get complete coverage of the Fire OS ecosystem.
| CPU | GPU | Fire OS Version | Android API Level | |
| 2011 Kindle Fire 7 | TI 4430HS 2X Cortex-A9 1.0 GHz | PowerVR SGX540 304 MHz OpenGL ES XXX | 6.3.4 (Current Version Benchmarks Do Not Run on This Android 2.3.3 Based OS) | 10 |
| 2012 Kindle Fire HD 8.9 | TI 4470HS 2X Cortex-A9 1.5 GHz | PowerVR SGX544 384 MHz OpenGL ES XXX | 8.5.1 (Current Version Benchmarks Do Not Run on This Android 4.0.3 Based OS) | 15 |
| 2013 Kindle Fire HDX 7 | Qualcomm 800 4X Krait 400 2.2 GHz | Adreno 330 450 MHz OpenGL ES 3.0 | 4.5.5.3 | 19 |
| 2016 Fire HD 8 | Mediatek MT8163V/B 4X Cortex-A53 1.3 GHz | Mali T720-MP2 650 MHz OpenGL ES | 5.6.0.0 | 22 |
| 2017 Fire HD 8 | Same As 2016 | Same As 2016 | Same As 2016 | 22 |
| 2014 Fire TV Stick | Broadcom BCM28155 2X A9 @1.0 GHz | VideoCore IV Capri VC4 ??? MHz OpenGL ES 2.0 | 5.2.6.1 | 22 |
| 2016 Fire TV Stick | MediaTek MT8127D 4X Cortex-A7 1.3 GHz | Mali 450 MP4 ??? MHz OpenGL ES 2.0 | 5.2.6.1 | 22 |
| 2015 Fire TV | MediaTek MT8173C 2X A72 @ 2 GHz 2X A53 @ 1.573GHz | PowerVR GX6250 ??? MHz OpenGL ES 3.1 | 5.2.6.1 | 22 |
Benchmarks Performed
The next question is what benchmarks should I use? Since this site has an obvious gaming focus, I picked 2 graphics benchmarks and one CPU only benchmark, and I used the latest version of each one.
| Geekbench | 4.2.0 |
| GFXBench | 4.0.13 |
| 3DMark | 2.0.457 |
Testing Methodology
In each test, the device is tested from a clean boot. Some devices are in active use in our household, and as such will not be restored to defaults prior to testing. When I have an opportunity to reset these devices to default and retest, I will do so. Finally, to the extent that new OS releases change performance, my plan to leave both new and old release in the results for comparison.
Battery powered devices will be fully charged, then disconnected from power during the test. Fire TV devices will be tested at 1080p. I will add 4k testing in the near future for capable devices.
- Page 1 – Introduction
- Page 2 – Geekbench
- Page 3 – GFX Bench
- Page 4 – 3D Mark
- Page 5 – Conclusions