The Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 edge Review
by Joshua Ho on April 17, 2015 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Samsung
- Mobile
- Galaxy S6
- Galaxy S6 Edge
System Performance Cont'd: GPU Performance
As previously mentioned, the Galaxy S6 uses a Mali T760MP8 clocked at 772 MHz, which should provide a healthy improvement in GPU performance over the Exynos 5433. To test this, we run through our standard suite of game-style GPU benchmarks. However, there are still some CPU benchmarks present within these tests such as the 3DMark physics test. In general though, a strong GPU is needed to perform well in these tests. For those interested in an architectural deep-dive of the Mali T760, I would refer to Ryan’s article on the Midgard architecture for more information.
The Galaxy S6 starts out fairly strong in 3DMark. Overall performance is boosted by a chart-topping physics score, while pure graphics performance trails a bit. In this case the S6 is roughly on par with the iPhone 6 Plus, but would have to close quite a gap to catch up to the HTC One (M9).
BaseMark X finds the S6 the runaway winner. The phone is well ahead in both the Dunes and Hangar test, beating the next-best phones (primarily Adreno 420/430 based) by 25% or more depending on the test. The increase over the S5 is especially remarkable; Samsung has more than doubled their performance in this benchmark in barely a year.
GFXBench 3.0 is another strong showing for the S6. In both offscreen tests it's 15% or more ahead of the next closest phone, which is once again the HTC One (M9). Meanwhile compared once more to the S5, Samsung's performance has more than doubled. Consequently even the onscreen tests show significant gains, as the GPU performance gain more than outstrips the additional performance required to drive the higher resolution 1440p AMOLED display of the S6.
Overall, as we can see the performance of the S6 is in line for what is expected from its Mali T760MP8 configuration. Interestingly though the phone's performance exceeds the scaling we'd expect from adding two shader cores and increasing frequency to 772 MHz, as compared to the Exynos 5433-powered Note 4 Exynos. This suggests that the Exynos 5433's GPU was bandwidth-limited to some extent, in addition to any possible thermal throttling that would occur over the course of a GFXBench run. But I suspect we'll have to save the deep dive for a future article as I can't take the review unit apart to find out.
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juxt417 - Wednesday, April 22, 2015 - link
Unlike apple. Samsung has a solid reason to not have an SD card. This being that an SD card is too slow to handle 4k content without a lot of lag.Ufs 2.0 on the other hand handles 4k just fine. At least from what I have experienced so far.
Matthew Sobel - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
They make so many smart phones because there are so many markets & carriers and they all want to be special.I'm with you on the wish for two branches of the Samsung family tree. Don't forget about the 'Active' variant. There's speculation that this is still coming. If so it may be just what some of us are looking for.
FlushedBubblyJock - Friday, April 24, 2015 - link
The reason you won't get the choice is the constantly complaining crybaby crew has for years whined for an apple rectangle metal box with a brokenback glass rainbow they can selfie with in the mirror and prance around with feeling it up for a "quality industrial design build".Then they need it thinner like their figures should be, thinner because a metal clodheaded rectangle with heavy glass is a lead weight, thus paper thin is necessary, as it "gains status for eyebrow lickers".
See, we call this "the market". The primping faerie overlords knows what's best for their selfish little egos, and thus, you will be made into a dumbed down sheep in compliance with their frivolous vanities.
RiotSloth - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
That is the best thing I'm going to read all day. Thank you!Daniel S. Buus - Friday, July 17, 2015 - link
LOL :'D So much hate :Dh3ck - Friday, May 8, 2015 - link
I agree, the Note 5 will be for the power user and/or business person that wants to "have it all". Where as the Galaxy S line will be consumer friendly and geared toward "ease of use".medi03 - Sunday, April 19, 2015 - link
That will surely "help" increase sales, right.FlushedBubblyJock - Friday, April 24, 2015 - link
medi03 - see the finely tuned mind bending the sales crew sells to the clueless primpers>"Overall, the design of the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge is really unlike anything else they’ve produced in recent memory. The phone itself is well-sized and feels much more ergonomic than the Galaxy S5 due to the thinner build and mildly reduced bezel size. It really feels like Samsung cared about the design of the phone this generation, and the attention to detail here immediately puts Samsung near the top in this area. "
Ahh, they "cared" - it feels - even the word ergonomic, when the truth is it's a slippery heavy metal and smoothie glass nightmare ready to crash to the ground... at least the braindead can't "flex it" - the best feature of course is - it's apple clone "quality" for the elite snobs
Yeah man, that's it bro.
edlee - Monday, June 29, 2015 - link
how did anandtech find out what pvs bin they received, did they check it with a terminal command, and if so, what was that command?Flunk - Friday, April 17, 2015 - link
I predict that Samsung won't lose any customers because of this. Where are you going to find a modern phone with a removable battery and SD card slot? There just isn't any option anymore. Samsung is trading a few niche features for more mainstream appeal.P.S. Samsung will replace the battery for $45, but I imagine that a lot of people reading this site can just swap it themselves.