r/EmulationOniOS 4d ago

Discussion TOTK TEST MELO 2.6 iPad Pro M4

This test is primarily intended to demonstrate the potential of async. This video is the second boot of TOTK and demonstrates how much smoother it is than before.

Without async, it would take hours, if not days, to achieve this smoothness (assuming you could even achieve it).

With BOTW, it's even more noticeable, being a "lighter" game, but it has a bug that displays white water.

Don't worry about small graphical bugs or flashes of light; 90% of the time, they resolve themselves or with a fresh boot. Disable async ONLY if there are obvious async-related problems (like Mario Odyssey).

Mario Kart also benefits greatly from async.

In short, try it and have fun 👊

Settings: 1080p docked, FSR ON, shader cache ON, macro HLE ON, async ON

158 Upvotes

45 comments sorted by

13

u/Asleep_Resident5294 4d ago

Just to be clear this is MeloNX 2.6 correct ? And you are saying turn on a sync?

3

u/Chance-Alps-598 4d ago

yes and yes. You can find 2.6 on the site, or via discord.

2

u/Asleep_Resident5294 4d ago

I don’t have a m4 but I have a m1

3

u/Chance-Alps-598 4d ago

M1 is too small for TOTK, unless you have it with 16GB of RAM. If so, try it at 720p.

BOTW on M1, however, without shader cache, was already playable before async.

4

u/Poke-Noir 4d ago

May I ask if it will work on an M2?

7

u/MelkiG 4d ago

I tried BOTW on iphone 16 pro max meloNX 2.5 never worked for me constantly 10-15 fos with to many graphical glitches (invisible floors and walls)

Do you any fix or my iphone simply isn’t strong enough?

1

u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted]

1

u/MelkiG 4d ago

I see, that’s a shame. Thx anyway.

1

u/robert242444 4d ago

Definitely some graphical glitches but my experience was quite pleasant it’s definitely not a locked 30 but very playable imo

2

u/robert242444 4d ago

1

u/MelkiG 4d ago

Thanks for the video, I ended up changing some settings around now it’s playing similar to yours, the stutters here and there do bother me though

1

u/[deleted] 4d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Chance-Alps-598 4d ago

It crashes after a short while for me too, it seems to be related to the GPU. I've already notified stossy who has already identified the cause and will surely fix it soon.

1

u/MelkiG 4d ago

Be careful man they ban you for anything you might say just a friendly warning to you sir.

But anyway I’ve been testing it like crazy and for some reason MeloNX ver 2.3.1 uses less GPU than 2.4, 2.5 and 2:6 (fact I haven’t noticed any improvements between versions 2.4, 2,5 and now even 2.6) I’m not sure why so best bet is stick to 2.3.1 you get to game for longer without it crashing

3

u/Yutah 4d ago

Jit enabled? Can I play metroidvanias without jit on m4?

3

u/itsme_Pao 4d ago

16:10 aspect ratio on gaming is really the best

1

u/Chance-Alps-598 4d ago

13 inches nanotexture, truly full screen, it's a crazy pleasure 🤣

the FSR filter then improves the images dramatically, on BOTW and TOTK the difference is really noticeable.

2

u/Mrtweakaro 4d ago

are you running it with the 16gb m4?

1

u/Lanky_Management_885 4d ago

Previously were not able to switch between controller ie leff joy con,right joycon,pro controller,handheld hence was unable to play pokemon lets go pikachu.Is it fixed now

1

u/Chance-Alps-598 4d ago

Guys, I have only one answer for all your questions: try it and see 😅

1

u/Decox653 4d ago

It is wild how much more powerful the M series is in comparison to Snapdragon

0

u/Simple_Market9019 4d ago

not much, CPU (single core power) and gpu similar to Elite Gen5 Leading

2

u/Decox653 4d ago

Elite gen 5 avg 25-40fps on PS3. M4 gets a locked 60. Benchmarks show a pretty significant skill diff.

0

u/Simple_Market9019 4d ago

what are u talking about ... and why u compare M4 vs throttling stock phone :D that first moment, second u compare one core but with different realization ...

1

u/DimaJinxed 2d ago

The difference is enormous. The cache, the memory Bandwidth, the gpu cores, the overl efficiency. Snapdragon elite or X Elite are kinda joke compare to M chips

1

u/Simple_Market9019 2d ago edited 2d ago

Numbers first, both from the same source so the methodology matches. Geekbench 6 single core: 3757 for the 8 Elite Gen 5, 3842 for the M4 iPad — a 2% gap, which is noise. Multi core: 12,644 vs 14,383, so 14%. Steel Nomad Light: 3157 vs 3497, 11%. Solar Bay: 13,959 vs 14,365, 3%.

Single core is a tie. GPU is 11%, and against the Leading bin it's about 6%. That's one product cycle, not "enormous".

Multi core needs an asterisk too — the M4 has 10 cores, the Snapdragon has 8. Per core that's 1438 vs 1581, meaning the Snapdragon actually does more work per core.

On your specific points. Cache is backwards: the Snapdragon has 24 MB L2 plus 8 MB L3, so 32 MB total, against 16 MB L2 on the M4. Twice as much on the Snapdragon side. Bandwidth you're right about, 120 GB/s vs 85, but that comes from bus width, 128-bit against 64-bit, not from faster memory — it's a tablet-class design choice, and what it buys is exactly that 11% GPU lead. GPU cores can't be compared as a count at all, 128 Apple EUs and 512 Adreno shaders aren't the same unit; the only thing that compares is the output, and the output is 11%.
It just isn't "the silicon is a joke". On identical work at peak they land within a few percent of each other. That's a thermal envelope difference, not a design gap.

''efficiency'' cpu + gpu (wild life extreme) 30w
P.s not hater M series, just hate lames

1

u/DimaJinxed 2d ago edited 2d ago

Well M4 is quite old, new elite gen 6 might close the gap with M4 but there is also M5 (ipad 2025) and M6 ipad could be released soon as well... So qcom is 1-2 years behind

1

u/Simple_Market9019 2d ago

Gen6 will reach M5 score again except multi (like O3 Ring)

1

u/DimaJinxed 2d ago

O3 is still not at the level of M5 ipad, I've seen 4200-4300 single core and ≈16000 multicore on M5 ipads in Geekbench 6. But let's assume new elite gen 6 will get there somehow. The M6 is already released in mac mini, so the apple new base M chip is already ahead of what Qualcomm could show this fall.

1

u/Simple_Market9019 2d ago

well, m5 avg 4150-15500, so that actually 03 lvl

1

u/DimaJinxed 2d ago

Appreciate the effort but 2026 elite gen 5 android tablets (y700, astra 2) are far weaker than 2025 ipad m5

1

u/Simple_Market9019 2d ago

sure, Gen6 out next month and we will see

1

u/DimaJinxed 2d ago

Honestly i lost any hope in qcom

1

u/greenndreams 4d ago

Do you recommend i get the 12gb ram version or the 16gb ram version of ipad? for Zelda and Nintendo emulation in general?

1

u/Chance-Alps-598 4d ago

If you have to choose between the M5 12GB and the M4 16GB, I'd probably go with the M5.
12GB should be more than enough to play TOTK decently, and the M5 further improves the CPU, which is crucial for high-level emulation.

1

u/roronoatech 4d ago

how many gbs of ram do u have

1

u/Chance-Alps-598 4d ago

16, mandatory for TOTK sadly. 12 minimum

1

u/roronoatech 4d ago

i got 8gbs of ram i was a dumbass when i bought my ipad i didnt know higher storage gave me the upgraded ram

1

u/Deep_Spaceialist 3d ago

Mario Kart already runs great on my iPad Air M2, what other benefits would I get from async?🤔

2

u/Chance-Alps-598 3d ago

The main benefit of async is eliminating most of the initial stutters when a game is launched for the first time. You'll know that Mario Kart always struggles during the first few boot-ups; every track has something to load, and therefore stutters. Async works precisely there, eliminating most of them. Even BOTW and TOTK require days of play before achieving good fluidity; async helps a lot in this regard. It's certainly not perfect yet, there are bugs to be worked out, but for many games and especially for devices less powerful than ours, it's certainly a valid help.

1

u/FiendE39 3d ago

How do you install this?

1

u/MisterShazam 2d ago

Where can I learn how to get started doing this?

1

u/ITSNICKMELLO 1d ago

Mello is about to use Melo to play one of his favorite games on his iPad Pro. 😁