The new Galaxy S21 series devices have been on sale for a week now and we manage to get our hands on two Galaxy S21 Ultras – one with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 888 SoC and one with Samsung’s new Exynos 2100 SoC. Both chipsets are this year more than ever before, both now have similar CPU configurations and are both manufactured on a new Samsung 5nm (5LPE) process node.
Before our full review of the Galaxy S21 Ultra (and the smaller Galaxy S21), today we focus on the first test results of the new generation SoCs, to put them together and against each other in the new 2021 competitive landscape.
The Snapdragon 888
| Qualcomm Snapdragon Flagship SoCs 2020-2021 | |||
| SoC | Snapdragon 865 |
Snapdragon 888 |
|
| SVE | 1x Cortex-A77 @ 2.84GHz 1x512KB pL2 3x Cortex-A77 4x Cortex-A55 4 MB sL3 |
1x Cortex-X1 @ 2.84GHz 1x1024KB pL2 3x Cortex-A78 4x Cortex-A55 4 MB sL3 |
|
| GPU | Adreno 650 @ 587 MHz | Adreno 660 @ 840MHz | |
| DSP / NPU | Hexagon 698
15 TOPS AI |
Hexagon 780
26 TOPS AI |
|
| Memory Admin |
4x 16-bit CH
@ 2133MHz LPDDR4X / 33.4GB / s 3MB cache level at system level |
4x 16-bit CH
@ 3200MHz LPDDR5 / 51.2 GB / s 3MB cache level at system level |
|
| ISP / Camera | Dual 14-bit Spectra 480 ISP
1x 200MP or 64MP with ZSL 4K video and 64MP burst recording |
Triple 14-bit Spectra 580 ISP
1x 200MP or 84MP with ZSL 4K video and 64MP burst recording |
|
| 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 | no (Only connected to external X55) (LTE Category 24/22) (5G NR Sub-6 + mmGolf) |
X60 integrated
(LTE Category 24/22) (5G NR Sub-6 + mmGolf) |
|
| Mfc. Process | TSMC 7 nm (N7P) |
Samsung 5nm (5LPE) |
|
Starting with the new Snapdragon 888 SoC, Qualcomm’s new flagship model makes this generation repeat steps, with the biggest changes to the new design in fact in the form of the new Hexagon 780 accelerator, featuring traditional scalar and vector DSP operations fuses with tensor. execution engines within an IP block.
Of course, we’ve also seen upgrades elsewhere in the architecture, with the Snapdragon 888 being the first SoCs to use Arm’s new Cortex-X1 CPU-IP, which promises huge performance improvements compared to the last generation Cortex-A77 cores. The single X1 cores in the Snapdragon 888 beat at 2.84 GHz – the same as the previous generation Snapdragon 865’s first Cortex-A77 cores, and less than the 3.1 GHz and 3.2 GHz Snapdragon 865+ and Snapdragon 870 SoCs recently announced.
Next to the X1 we find three Cortex-A78 cores at 2.42 GHz, again the same clocks as the previous generation 865 SoCs, but this time with double the L2 caches at 512 KB.
The Cortex-A55 small cores remain identical in this generation and are 1.8 GHz.
Although we were expecting 8MB L3 cache flagship soCs this year, it does seem that Qualcomm has chosen to stay 4MB for this generation – but the company is at least pulling the X1 core with the maximum 1MB L2 cache configuration.
On the GPU side, Qualcomm’s new Adreno 660 GPU now beats to a peak of 840 MHz – a whopping 43% higher frequency than the Snapdragon 865 GPU. The performance demands of the company here are also astounding and promise a performance improvement of + 35%. We’ll have to see how it all ends up in terms of power consumption and long-term performance in the later dedicated GPU section.
What’s very different about the Snapdragon 888 this year is that Qualcomm has moved from a TSMC N7P process node to Samsung’s new 5LPE node – the common wildcard in this situation, as we have yet to have experience with this new 5nm knot.
The Exynos 2100
| Samsung Exynos SoCs Specifications | ||
| SoC |
Exynos 990 |
Exynos 2100 |
| SVE | 2x Exynos M5 @ 2.73 GHz 2 MB sL2 3MB sL3 2x Cortex-A76 4x Cortex-A55 1 MB sL3 |
1x Cortex-X1 @ 2.91GHz 1x512KB pL2 3x Cortex-A78 4x Cortex-A55 4 MB sL3 |
| GPU | Mali G77MP11 @ 800 MHz | Mali G78MP14 @ 854 MHz |
| Memory Admin |
4x 16-bit CH
@ 2750MHz LPDDR5 / 44.0GB / s 2 MB system storage |
4x 16-bit CH
@ 3200MHz LPDDR5 / 51.2 GB / s 6 MB system storage |
| ISP | Single: 108MP Dual: 24.8MP + 24.8MP |
Single: 200MP Dual: 32MP + 32MP (Up to quadruple simultaneous camera) |
| NPU | Dual NPU + DSP + CPU + GPU 15 TOP’s |
Triple NPU + DSP + CPU + GPU 26 TOP’s |
| Media | 8K30 & 4K120 encode and decode H.265 / HEVC, H.264, VP9 |
8K30 and 4K120 encoding and Decode 8K60 H.265 / HEVC, H.264, VP9 |
| Modem | Exynos modem External
(LTE Category 24/22) (5G NR Sub-6) (5G NR mmGolf) |
Exynos modem Integrated
(LTE Category 24/18) (5G NR Sub-6) (5G NR mmGolf) |
| Mfc. Process | Samsung 7 nm (7LPP) |
Samsung 5nm (5LPE) |
On the Samsung LSI side, we find the brand new Exynos 2100. Unlike the Snapdragon 888’s more incremental changes in terms of the SoC design, the new Exynos is a pretty big departure for Samsung’s SoC division, as it’s the first flagship design in many years that no longer uses Samsung’s own internal CPU microarchitecture, but rather returns to the use of Arm Cortex cores, which in this case is also the new Cortex-X1 and Cortex-A78 core.
From a high level, the CPU configuration of the Exynos 2100 looks almost identical to that of the Snapdragon 888, as both are 1 + 3 + 4 designs with X1, A78 and A55 cores. The differences are in the details:
The X1 cores on the Exynos 2100 clock are slightly higher up to 2.91 GHz, while the Cortex A78 clock is significantly higher than the Snapdragon as they reach 2.81 GHz. The Cortex-A55 cores are also quite aggressive in terms of frequency, as they now reach 2.20 GHz – so generally higher clocks than the Snapdragon variant.
Where the Exynos are not as aggressive, they are in the casino settings. Most importantly, the X1 kernel here contains only 512 KB of L2 cache, which is a bit odd given the overall performance philosophy of the new CPU. The Cortex A78s also see the use of 512KB L2 caches, while the smaller A55 cores contain 64KB L2s – less than its Snapdragon counterparts.
Like the Snapdragon, the L3 cache also falls to 4MB instead of the 8MB we would hope for this generation, but Samsung surprises us with the use of an estimated cache of 6-8MB at the system level , compared to the 2MB design in the Exynos 990.
On the GPU side, we see a Mali-G78MP14 up to 854MHz. That’s 27% more key points and a higher frequency of 6.7%, and the company also boasts major performance improvements because it proposes a 40% generational improvement.
Let them fight
In today’s piece, we mostly focus on processing CPUs and GPUs, as a particularly interesting comparison would be to see how the two designs perform against each other, as they now both use the latest Cortex-X1 cores from Arm and both are sporty. the same manufacturing node.
The GPU comparisons will also be interesting – and perhaps quite controversial, as the results will not be what many people expected.
Although we wanted to showcase the AI performance of the two SoCs, the software situation on the Galaxy S21 at the moment means that neither of the SoCs are taking full advantage of their new accelerators, so it’s a topic to revisit in a few months. to visit the right frameworks has been updated by Samsung.