The Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge Review: Part 2
by Joshua Ho on July 5, 2016 8:00 AM ESTSystem Performance Cont'd
Now that we've gone over the more general purpose system benchmarks we can focus on new benchmarks that emphasize GPU performance much more strongly. For the most part we haven't had huge issues here like we've had with good CPU and general performance benchmarks, but it's important for us to keep our benchmarks up to date in terms of workload balance and overall performance.
One of our first new benchmarks designed to better test the GPU is 3DMark's Sling Shot ES 3.1 test, which is designed to test a GPU's performance when the application is either using OpenGL ES 3.1 or Metal. As one can see, the Snapdragon 820 and Exynos 8890 have basically comparable GPU performance in this test and in the physics test as well. Once again we're seeing how core count and clock speed are basically the primary determinants of performance in the physics test when the device isn't strongly limited by thermals. I wouldn't draw any real conclusions from this as generally game CPU code can extract ILP unlike what we're seeing in this test.
In this test we start to see that the Mali GPU in the Exynos 8890 and the PowerVR GPU in the A9 are providing a noticeable advantage over the Snapdragon 820's Adreno 530 to a noticeable extent.
With GFXBench we can see that in Car Chase and Manhattan the Adreno 530 actually manages to pull away. However, because we have basically zero architecture disclosure on the Adreno 530 there's really no way for us to explain what's going on here and why. The reasons for the difference in performance could be related to drivers or architecture or architecture implementation and in the absence of information it's probably best to avoid making blind guesses. Regardless of these details, the Snapdragon 820's GPU should be more than enough for playing the latest games, but unless you use Samsung's automatic game optimizer system to set render resolution to 1080p it won't do as well as the iPhone 6s but given that most Android games target a much lower spec level it's likely that you won't have any problems given that the Adreno 530 is on the bleeding edge for Android SoCs.
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retrospooty - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
Apple has consistently made great CPU's (at thier times) for their iPhones at least since the iPhone 4 if not longer. The CPU is great and the integration makes it even faster. Now getting past that one single measure of a phone that really matters very little anymore (its like saying my Lamborghini si faster than your Ferrari). The OS is outdated, you still dont have alt key mappings in 2016, the battery life on many of them is lacking (of course not hand picked review samples). , the Bezels are huge, the screens are still low res except for the 5.5 inch models, You still cant have more than 4 icons in a row... Even on the immense 12+ inch iPad pro, you have only 4 icons. Still a default app issue, still limited in many ways. None of that is ever mentioned. Nor is the MASSIVE list of missing features that IOS lacks. In the past 3-4 years they have "borrowed" many features from Android, Web OS, and others, but still many are missing.- Uh oh, I said negative things about Apple, waiting for the rebuttal because I know its unacceptable to say anything negative about Apple. /shrugs
felipecn - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
Sure, there are lots of reasons to dislike iOS, but it's still faster on some stuff.More icons on the home screen wouldn't change the benchmarks, would they?
retrospooty - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
No it wouldn't. I am just saying the fastest CPU in a benchmark isnt the only measure of a good smartphone. They are all fast. Even a snapdragon 800 from 3 years ago is plenty fast. Comparing the A9 , SD820 and Exynos 8890 is like comparing a Lamborghini, Ferrari and Maserati. They are all fast and all good - once tested, one would eventually be the fastest, but that doesn't make it the best car overall... More to point it doesn't mean a car enthusiast site should favor one over the other.mrochester - Wednesday, July 6, 2016 - link
What you're basically demanding is that everyone should think the same as you. You don't get to demand that.fanofanand - Monday, July 11, 2016 - link
Try reading it again, he demanded nothing, he simply pointed out that raw CPU speed does not solely define the user experience, just like top speed does not solely define the experience of driving a supercar.Geranium - Wednesday, July 6, 2016 - link
What do you mean??? I am telling that comparing two platform is unfair. And cross platform benchmark don't give accurate results.retrospooty - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
Wow, and only 4 months in the making. This would have been great to read 3 1/2-4 months ago. Its almost fun to come back to Anandtech every so often just to see how late the reviews are. looking forward to the Note 7 review in January 2017 - marked my calendar already ;)10basetom - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
Maybe the S7 got slow after four months of heavy usage ;).Geranium - Wednesday, July 6, 2016 - link
Different browsers on same hardware gives different results, let alone different operating system.Razzy76 - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
Weird. I have a regular S7 - Chrome is quite fast - not painfully slow. Facebook is smooth as it can be. And other sites as well. Overall the phone is snappy to me.