NVidia has rebuffed Apple’s claim that their A5X graphics chip, found in the iPad 3, is four times as fast as NVidia’s Tegra 3.

Apple first made the claim during CEO Tim Cook’s presentation launching the iPad 3. The slide that made the claim did not provide any technical footnotes or references to benchmarks that are typically cited when manufacturers make such a bold statement.

“It was certainly flattering to be called out by Apple,” said NVidia spokesperson Ken Brown.

“People noticed. When Apple calls out your processor as the one to beat, it gets attention. We’ve gotten some questions about it,” Mr. Brown remarked. “It almost looks like it’s a two-horse race between Apple and Tegra”.

Mr. Brown told ZDNet that without solid benchmark data, the claims are sketchy at best.

“We don’t have the benchmark information,” said Mr. Brown. “We have to understand what the application was that was used. Was it one or a variety of applications? What drivers were used? There are so many issues to get into with benchmark.”

While Apple will not likely ever provide technical benchmarks to verify their claims, NVidia plans to do their own testing. Mr. Brown mentioned that they plan to purchase a new iPad when they go on sale to run some tablet to tablet comparison testing in NVidia labs.

“At some point it will become more clear what the performance really is,” said Mr. Brown. “For now, Apple has a really generic statement.”