The Snapdragon 855 Performance Preview: Setting the Stage for Flagship Android 2019
by Andrei Frumusanu on January 15, 2019 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Mobile
- Qualcomm
- Smartphones
- SoCs
- 7nm
- Snapdragon 855
GPU Performance & Power
GPU performance of the new Adreno 640 in the Snapdrago 855 is interesting: The company’s performance claims were relatively conservative as they showcased that the new unit would perform only 20% better than its predecessor. This is a relatively low figure given that Qualcomm also advertises that the new GPU sees a 50% increase in ALU configuration, as well as of course coming on a new 7nm process which should give the SoC a lot of new headroom.
Before discussing the implications in more detail, let’s see the performance numbers in the new GFXBench Aztec benchmarks.
As a reminder, we were only able to test the peak performance of the phone as we didn’t have time for a more thorough sustained performance investigation.
Both Aztec High and Normal results fall pretty much in line with Qualcomm’s advertised 20% improvement over the Snapdragon 845. Here the new chipset falls behind Apple’s A11 and A12 chips – although power consumption at peak levels is very different as we’ll see in just a bit.
GFXBench Manhattan 3.1 Offscreen Power Efficiency (System Active Power) |
||||
Mfc. Process | FPS | Avg. Power (W) |
Perf/W Efficiency |
|
iPhone XS (A12) Warm | 7FF | 76.51 | 3.79 | 20.18 fps/W |
iPhone XS (A12) Cold / Peak | 7FF | 103.83 | 5.98 | 17.36 fps/W |
Snapdragon 855 QRD | 7FF | 71.27 | 4.44 | 16.05 fps/W |
Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon 845) | 10LPP | 61.16 | 5.01 | 11.99 fps/W |
Huawei Mate 20 Pro (Kirin 980) | 7FF | 54.54 | 4.57 | 11.93 fps/W |
Galaxy S9 (Exynos 9810) | 10LPP | 46.04 | 4.08 | 11.28 fps/W |
Galaxy S8 (Snapdragon 835) | 10LPE | 38.90 | 3.79 | 10.26 fps/W |
LeEco Le Pro3 (Snapdragon 821) | 14LPP | 33.04 | 4.18 | 7.90 fps/W |
Galaxy S7 (Snapdragon 820) | 14LPP | 30.98 | 3.98 | 7.78 fps/W |
Huawei Mate 10 (Kirin 970) | 10FF | 37.66 | 6.33 | 5.94 fps/W |
Galaxy S8 (Exynos 8895) | 10LPE | 42.49 | 7.35 | 5.78 fps/W |
Galaxy S7 (Exynos 8890) | 14LPP | 29.41 | 5.95 | 4.94 fps/W |
Meizu PRO 5 (Exynos 7420) | 14LPE | 14.45 | 3.47 | 4.16 fps/W |
Nexus 6P (Snapdragon 810 v2.1) | 20Soc | 21.94 | 5.44 | 4.03 fps/W |
Huawei Mate 8 (Kirin 950) | 16FF+ | 10.37 | 2.75 | 3.77 fps/W |
Huawei Mate 9 (Kirin 960) | 16FFC | 32.49 | 8.63 | 3.77 fps/W |
Huawei P9 (Kirin 955) | 16FF+ | 10.59 | 2.98 | 3.55 fps/W |
Switching over to the power efficiency table in 3D workloads, we see Qualcomm take the lead in terms of power efficiency at peak performance, only trailing behind Apple's newest A12. What is most interesting is the fact that the Snapdragon 855’s overall power consumption has gone down compared to the Snapdragon 845 – now at around 4.4W versus the 5W commonly measured in S845 phones.
T-Rex’s performance gains are more limited because the test is more pixel and fill-rate bound. Here Qualcomm made a comment about benchmarks reaching very high framerates as they become increasingly CPU bound, but I’m not sure if that’s actually a problem yet as GFXBench has been traditionally very CPU light.
GFXBench T-Rex Offscreen Power Efficiency (System Active Power) |
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Mfc. Process | FPS | Avg. Power (W) |
Perf/W Efficiency |
|
iPhone XS (A12) Warm | 7FF | 197.80 | 3.95 | 50.07 fps/W |
iPhone XS (A12) Cold / Peak | 7FF | 271.86 | 6.10 | 44.56 fps/W |
Snapdragon 855 QRD | 7FF | 167.19 | 3.83 | 43.65 fps/W |
Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon 845) | 10LPP | 150.40 | 4.42 | 34.00 fps/W |
Galaxy S9 (Exynos 9810) | 10LPP | 141.91 | 4.34 | 32.67 fps/W |
Galaxy S8 (Snapdragon 835) | 10LPE | 108.20 | 3.45 | 31.31 fps/W |
Huawei Mate 20 Pro (Kirin 980) | 7FF | 135.75 | 4.64 | 29.25 fps/W |
LeEco Le Pro3 (Snapdragon 821) | 14LPP | 94.97 | 3.91 | 24.26 fps/W |
Galaxy S7 (Snapdragon 820) | 14LPP | 90.59 | 4.18 | 21.67 fps/W |
Galaxy S8 (Exynos 8895) | 10LPE | 121.00 | 5.86 | 20.65 fps/W |
Galaxy S7 (Exynos 8890) | 14LPP | 87.00 | 4.70 | 18.51 fps/W |
Huawei Mate 10 (Kirin 970) | 10FF | 127.25 | 7.93 | 16.04 fps/W |
Meizu PRO 5 (Exynos 7420) | 14LPE | 55.67 | 3.83 | 14.54 fps/W |
Nexus 6P (Snapdragon 810 v2.1) | 20Soc | 58.97 | 4.70 | 12.54 fps/W |
Huawei Mate 8 (Kirin 950) | 16FF+ | 41.69 | 3.58 | 11.64 fps/W |
Huawei P9 (Kirin 955) | 16FF+ | 40.42 | 3.68 | 10.98 fps/W |
Huawei Mate 9 (Kirin 960) | 16FFC | 99.16 | 9.51 | 10.42 fps/W |
Again switching over to the power and efficiency tables, we see that the Snapdragon 855 is posting a ~30% efficiency boost over the Snapdragon 845, all while slightly improving performance.
Overall, I’m very happy with the initial performance and efficiency results of the Snapdragon 855. The S845 was a bit disappointing in some regards because Qualcomm had opted to achieve the higher performance figures by increasing the peak power requirements compared to exemplary thermal characteristics of the Snapdragon 835. The new chip doesn’t quite return to the low power figures of that generation, however it meets it half-way and does represent a notable improvement over the Snapdragon 845.
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SirMaster - Sunday, January 20, 2019 - link
Very untrue.Are you saying that somehow the iOS vs. Android OS integration with the CPU has an affect onb geekbench benchmarks?
That makes no sense. Geekbench is a purely mathematical benchmark and the OS should have no affect on its results other than how it power manages the SoC during the benchmark.
joms_us - Tuesday, January 15, 2019 - link
Take a look at the last 2-3 years speed (real-world apps, productivity and games) tests, iPhone with its fastest SoC on imaginary paper lags behind the competition.29a - Tuesday, January 15, 2019 - link
I'd be bitter too if I had to use and Android phone.cwolf78 - Tuesday, January 15, 2019 - link
Ditching my iPhone for a Pixel was a smart move. OS is light years ahead.techconc - Tuesday, January 15, 2019 - link
Examples of your claim? Android devices can't even do something like Fortnite at 60fps and you claim Android devices are faster? Pretty funny.dudedud - Tuesday, January 15, 2019 - link
He meant those "speed test" that consist on opening apps with your fingers trying to match the touch... you know, measuring the storage and ram and not so much the SoC's capabilities...Also, iOS and android diverge in animation speed, sometimes assets and most of the time longer screen logos (or inexistent on android).
A total waste of time.
joms_us - Wednesday, January 16, 2019 - link
As if you can use the SoC alone, you know computer don't just run with processor alone so yeah in actual usage A12 inside.iPhone is just as fast if not slower than competition.joms_us - Wednesday, January 16, 2019 - link
It's a game-related issue (I think there is an FPS limiter set to 30fps on Android version of Fortnite) and most of them are optimized for iOS, and FWIW, a phone with mediocre resolution will have fast FPS on games.PeachNCream - Tuesday, January 15, 2019 - link
Ironchef, comments like that are just going to trigger a bunch of brand loyalty arguments where people banter over insignificant points and ultimately change no one's opinion about which piece of consumer electronics gets them feeling warm and gooey inside.techconc - Tuesday, January 15, 2019 - link
The short answer is no, it's unlikely anyone will catch Apple on ARM. ARM reference designs are several generations behind Apple and when companies like Samsung attempt their own design like they have with recent Exynos, it's clear that not only can't they match performance, but efficiency is horrible by comparison. Apple has a world class team that is likely the best design team on the planet right now.