Today for the primary day of Mobile World Congress, Qualcomm is asserting its typical yearly mini-refresh of its flagship Snapdragon SoC within the type of the brand new Snapdragon 888+. As in the last few generations, proper across the summer time interval, Qualcomm is making the most of the finished spring gadget cycle and shifting focus onto newer gadgets within the second half of the yr with, and a brand new SoC that’s barely boosts efficiency.
| Qualcomm Snapdragon Flagship SoCs 2021 | |||
| SoC |
Snapdragon 888+
|
Snapdragon 888
|
|
| CPU | 1x Cortex-X1 @ 2.995GHz 1x1024KB pL2 3x Cortex-A78 4x Cortex-A55 4MB sL3 |
1x Cortex-X1 @ 2.84GHz 1x1024KB pL2 3x Cortex-A78 4x Cortex-A55 4MB sL3 |
|
| GPU | Adreno 660 @ 840MHz | ||
| DSP / NPU | Hexagon 780
32 TOPS AI |
Hexagon 780
26 TOPS AI |
|
| Memory Controller |
4x 16-bit CH
@ 3200MHz LPDDR5 / 51.2GB/s 3MB system stage cache |
||
| ISP/Camera | Triple 14-bit Spectra 580 ISP
1x 200MP or 84MP with ZSL 4K video & 64MP burst seize |
||
| Encode/ Decode |
8K30 / 4K120 10-bit H.265
Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HDR10, HLG 720p960 infinite recording |
||
| Integrated Modem | X60 built-in
(LTE Category 24/22) (5G NR Sub-6 + mmWave) |
||
| Mfc. Process | Samsung 5nm (5LPE) |
||
The new Snapdragon 888+ is a velocity bin of the Snapdragon 888 that we’ve seen earlier within the yr. What’s modified within the new unit is that Qualcomm is upgrading the CPU frequencies from the unique 2.84GHz to 2.995GHz – a 5.2% efficiency improve. It’s not an excessive amount of of a serious improve, and I’m curious to see the way it performs out by way of energy consumption because the X1 cores within the 888 have been already fairly energy hungry.
Besides the CPU uplift, the AI engine has additionally seen a mixed efficiency uplift via frequency bumps in addition to software program optimisations that will increase the AI throughput from 26 TOPS as much as 32 TOPS. As a reminder, that is an mixture determine throughout the entire SoC’s computational blocks of CPU, GPU, and DSP/NPU.
The one factor that’s not been upgraded this yr is the GPU efficiency, which is a bit uncommon for a “+” half as usually prior to now few years we’ve additionally seen frequency will increase on this SoC block. Generally, this may be defined via the truth that the Adreno 660 within the Snapdragon 888 is already working at extraordinarily excessive frequencies and corresponding high-power draw, and most gadgets immediately should not in a position to maintain these peak efficiency states – additional growing frequencies would have little advantages.
ASUS, HONOR, Vivo and Xiaomi have been companion distributors which endorsed the brand new Snapdragon 888+ and are engaged on gadgets that includes the chipset. We ought to be anticipating the primary Snapdragon 888+ gadgets to start out being introduced within the third quarter.
