Let’s use Balders Gate as an example… the majority of the really “graphic” intensive parts of the game are the cut scenes and not the actual game. So why would it need a substantial GPU? Isn’t it just playing back a prerecorded video much like a TV would? Or am I thinking of this wrong?
In: Technology
Well, smart TVs do have a GPU. I can say as much because I have worked on smart TV software ages ago; that and set top boxes.
What happens is that TVs will have a fancy SoC that processes video really, really well, to the point that the GPUs can support OpenGL ES 2.0. Today, they even go as far as support OpenGL ES 3.1, and even more crazy – Vulkan! Take for example the [Broadcom BCM7218X](https://www.broadcom.com/products/broadband/set-top-box/bcm7218x).
What it boils down to is the manufacturer: they choose what hardware they want and how fancy it needs to be. This is driven by what the OS is up to and what apps are going to be hosted. Generally it’s nothing terribly complicated like BG3 or whatever game out there, no RTX features needed for example, so the GPU is fairly low in memory and processing power.
When comparing Roku vs Tizen vs WebOS in TV form, you can get vastly different GPUs and CPUs. IIRC, my LG TV at home is using some quadcore CPU with an OpenGL ES 2.0 GPU SoC (it’s an older model).
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