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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ikjadoon - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
Have you compared it to a Snapdragon browser? I used Chrome and thought it was the fastest...then I downloaded Tugabrowser. It was night & day on my SD801 device (OPO).Razzy76 - Wednesday, July 6, 2016 - link
No never used it. I compared it to my old Lumia Icon I had before this phone.Michael Bay - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
Does it mean 960 review is coming shortly? ^_^retrospooty - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
HA, forget that, I am waiting for the 1060 review to come in 2018.TheinsanegamerN - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
Nah, already been delayed to 2019, the 1080 review has to come out in 2018 to make way for the 1160 review in 2020.retrospooty - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
Dammit, I fell asleep and missed all of the changes that will eventually have had taken place. LOLasfletch - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
Re: UI failings, I recommend Samsung Good Lock. Have been using it for a couple of weeks on my Note 4 and it's a marked improvement. Of course I have to sideload it because Samsung doesn't want Australians to have it for some reason....Oh and the screen protector issue is really a big one for me...after the Note 4 halo saga I'll be seeking out a phone with a flat screen next time (if they still exist).
CoolDeepBlue - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
Ever since Anand Lal Shimpi left and joined Apple, it is questionable if Anandtech could still review anything related to Apple or their competition.Officially there are no ties, but this article does raise eyebrows...it's a pity!
Ryan Smith - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
Officially, there are no ties.Unofficially, there are no ties.
I cannot control what Anand does (obviously), but we made very sure that there would be no ties to AT once he was gone. Editorial integrity is paramount; without it, we have nothing.
The opinions you see here are our own opinions, backed by the data we've collected and our experiences in testing a device.
Alexey291 - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
Yes yes your integrity is indeed paramount. Or rather it was around 2008. Since then? You guys have been running a clickbait site that's notoriously slow on delivering reviews.