Snapdragon 801 Performance

The M8 is the first smartphone we’ve tested to use Qualcomm’s newly announced Snapdragon 801 SoC. At a high level the 801 is a frequency bump enabled by a 28nm HPm process push, giving it a tangible increase in performance (and potential decrease in power consumption) compared to the outgoing Snapdragon 800. The table below compares the 801 variants to the Snapdragon 800:

Snapdragon 800/801 Breakdown
  SoC Version Model Max CPU Frequency Max GPU Frequency ISP eMMC DSDA Memory IF
MSM8974VV v2 S800 2.2GHz 450MHz 320MHz 4.5 N 800MHz
MSM8974AA v2 S800 2.3GHz 450MHz 320MHz 4.5 N 800MHz
MSM8974AB v2 S800 2.3GHz 550MHz 320MHz 4.5 N 933MHz
MSM8974AA v3 S801 2.3GHz 450MHz 320MHz 5.0 Y 800MHz
MSM8974AB v3 S801 2.3GHz 578MHz 465MHz 5.0 Y 933MHz
MSM8974AC v3 S801 2.5GHz 578MHz 465MHz 5.0 Y 933MHz

In most parts of the world the M8 will ship with a 2.3GHz Snapdragon 801. In Asia/China however we’ll see the 2.5GHz MSM8974AC v3 SKU instead.

Compared to the outgoing Snapdragon 800, peak CPU performance shouldn’t increase all that much. What we may see however is an improvement in power efficiency thanks to the improved 28nm HPm process.

It’s really the GPU that will see the largest increase in performance. With a maximum speed of 578MHz and paired with faster LPDDR3-1866 memory, we should see up to a 30% increase in GPU bound performance over Snapdragon 800 designs.

- Physics

Snapdragon 801 vs 800 vs 600
  HTC One (M8) - Snapdragon 801 Google Nexus 5 - Snapdragon 800 HTC One (M7) - Snapdragon 600 801 vs 800 801 vs 600
SunSpider 1.0.2 772.8 ms 686.9 ms 1234.8 ms -12% +37%
Kraken Benchmark 1.1 6745.2 ms 7245.9 ms 12166.5 ms +7.4% +45%
Google Octane v2 4316 3726 3103 +16% +39%
WebXPRT Overall 373 392 244 -5% +53%
AndEBench - Native 17430 17480 12381 -1% +41%
3DMark 1.1 Ultimate 19631 17529 10519 +12% +87%
3DMark 1.1 Ultimate - Physics 50.5 51 33.1 -1% +53%
Basemark X 1.1 - HQ 12194 11275 4807 +8.1% +154%
GFXBench 3.0 - Manhattan Onscreen 11.1 fps 9.3 fps 5.1 fps +19% +118%
GFXBench 3.0 - Manhattan Offscreen 10.4 fps 8.7 fps 4.4 fps +20% +136%
GFXBench 3.0 - T-Rex HD Onscreen 29.9 fps 24.3 fps 12.6 fps +23% +137%
GFXBench 3.0 - T-Rex HD Offscreen 27.9 fps 22.9 fps 12.6 fps +22% +121%

 

CPU Performance

SunSpider Javascript Benchmark 1.0 - Stock Browser

Mozilla Kraken Benchmark - 1.1

 

AndEBench - Native

AndEBench - Java

 

GPU Performance

3DMark Unlimited - Ice Storm

3DMark Unlimited - Graphics

3DMark Unlimited - Physics

GLBenchmark 2.7 - T-Rex HD

GLBenchmark 2.7 - T-Rex HD (Offscreen 1080p)

NAND Performance

The One is available in either 16GB or 32GB configurations, there are no higher capacity versions offered. There is now a micro SD card slot on the right side of the device, just above the volume rocker.

Despite using a Snapdragon 801 SoC, the internal storage is still an eMMC 4.5 solution.

Random Read (4KB) Performance

Random Write (4KB) Performance

Sequential Read (256KB) Performance

Sequential Write (256KB) Performance

Subtle Cheating: New Benchmark Optimizations Battery Life
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  • albielin - Tuesday, September 30, 2014 - link

    You say "with the AT&T model locking out UMTS band 4 to discourage movement to T-Mobile."

    Do you know if the hardware lacks UMTS band 4 or is it just a software thing? If it's a software thing, do you know if rooting it can enable usage of that band?
  • hughhorton - Tuesday, December 9, 2014 - link

    Can you see the screen outdoors?

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