I am examining the scenario of using the same set of graphics in a universal 2D game for iPads. In order to reduce the size of graphics assets, I was thinking of keeping only the hires images for the sprites (eg discard 512x512 atlases to be normally in earlier iPads and keep only the 1024x1024 ones for usage in both elder & newer devices alike).
So the important question is: Does the usage of 2D sprites with images greater than the sprite resolutions in AppGameKit, affect the performance of the GPU in older generation devices (any device, Android and iOS)?
To be more precise, does the speed of drawing some hundreds sprites of 128x128 pixels on the screen depend on whether we choose an image of 128x128, or an image of 256x256 for all our sprites?
Or does OpenGL use draw calls in a clever way and takes care of that, so that the speed remains the same regardless of the size of images?
