The new Galaxy S21 collection of units have been out commercially for every week now, and we’ve managed to get our arms on two Galaxy S21 Ultras – one with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 888 SoC, and one with Samsung’s new Exynos 2100 SoC. Both chipsets this yr are extra comparable than ever, each now sporting comparable CPU configurations, and each being produced on a brand new Samsung 5nm (5LPE) course of node.
Ahead of our full machine assessment of the Galaxy S21 Ultra (and the smaller Galaxy S21), as we speak we’re specializing in the primary take a look at outcomes of the brand new technology of SoCs, placing them by their paces, and pitting them in opposition to one another within the new 2021 aggressive panorama.
The Snapdragon 888
| Qualcomm Snapdragon Flagship SoCs 2020-2021 | |||
| SoC | Snapdragon 865 |
Snapdragon 888 |
|
| CPU | 1x Cortex-A77 @ 2.84GHz 1x512KB pL2 3x Cortex-A77 4x Cortex-A55 4MB sL3 |
1x Cortex-X1 @ 2.84GHz 1x1024KB pL2 3x Cortex-A78 4x Cortex-A55 4MB sL3 |
|
| GPU | Adreno 650 @ 587 MHz | Adreno 660 @ 840MHz | |
| DSP / NPU | Hexagon 698
15 TOPS AI |
Hexagon 780
26 TOPS AI |
|
| Memory Controller |
4x 16-bit CH
@ 2133MHz LPDDR4X / 33.4GB/s 3MB system degree cache |
4x 16-bit CH
@ 3200MHz LPDDR5 / 51.2GB/s 3MB system degree cache |
|
| ISP/Camera | Dual 14-bit Spectra 480 ISP
1x 200MP or 64MP with ZSL 4K video & 64MP burst seize |
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 |
8K30 / 4K120 10-bit H.265
Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HDR10, HLG 720p960 infinite recording |
|
| Integrated Modem | none (Paired with exterior X55 solely) (LTE Category 24/22) (5G NR Sub-6 + mmWave) |
X60 built-in
(LTE Category 24/22) (5G NR Sub-6 + mmWave) |
|
| Mfc. Process | TSMC 7nm (N7P) |
Samsung 5nm (5LPE) |
|
Starting off with the brand new Snapdragon 888 SoC, Qualcomm’s new flagship mannequin makes iterative steps this technology, with the most important modifications of the brand new design really being within the type of the brand new Hexagon 780 accelerator, which fuses collectively conventional scalar and vector DSP operations with tensor execution engines inside one single IP block.
Of course, we’re additionally seeing upgrades elsewhere within the structure, with the Snapdragon 888 being among the many first SoCs to make use of Arm’s new Cortex-X1 CPU IP, promising giant efficiency beneficial properties relative to final technology Cortex-A77 cores. The single X1 cores within the Snapdragon 888 clocks in at 2.84GHz – the identical because the earlier technology Snapdragon 865’s prime Cortex-A77 cores, and fewer than the three.1GHz and three.2GHz Snapdragon 865+ and not too long ago introduced Snapdragon 870 SoCs.
Alongside the X1, we discover three Cortex-A78 cores at 2.42GHz, once more the identical clocks because the earlier technology 865 SoCs, however this time round with double the L2 caches at 512KB.
The Cortex-A55 little cores stay similar this technology, clocking in at 1.8GHz.
Although we had been anticipating 8MB L3 cache flagship SoCs this yr, it does seem like Qualcomm opted to stay at 4MB for this technology – however at the least the corporate dons the X1 core with the utmost 1MB L2 cache configuration.
On the GPU aspect of issues, Qualcomm’s new Adreno 660 GPU now clocks in as much as a peak 840MHz – a whopping 43% greater frequency than the Snapdragon 865 GPU. The firm’s efficiency claims listed here are additionally astonishing,…
