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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phoenix_rizzen - Wednesday, July 6, 2016 - link
No, it's not just you. That's one of the reasons I like custom ROMs, as most of them just include the OS, the apps needed to make it work as a phone, and to connect to the Play Store. Everything else is up to you. It's quite telling that most of the custom ROMs are around 250 MB, while the TouchWiz version of Android is 2 GB!!Sony and Motorola were on a nice path where the default OS install was quite small, and everything else was pre-installed from the Play Store, meaning you could uninstall them normally if you didn't want the app, and you could update the apps via the Play Store without upgrading the whole OS. HTC kind of started down that road, but never went very far.
Impulses - Thursday, July 7, 2016 - link
I'd buy a GPe S7 in an instant, even at $700. As it is now, I'd rather have the HTC 10 but I'm waiting to see what the next Nexus models bring.Ratman6161 - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
No phone is worth $600 to $700. Personally I've never paid more than $100 for a phone...yup still on the two year contract treadmill. But I got my note 5 for $50 because of it.michael2k - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
If you're on the 2 year contract then you're absolutely paying $700 or so for your phone.I switched to the Next plan because after I pay off my phone my monthly bill drops by $30/m. Over the 24 months we are paying then is $720 spent on our phone.
With the 2 year contract, the difference is that your monthly payment doesn't go down after 24 payments.
fanofanand - Wednesday, July 6, 2016 - link
Stop lifting the curtain, the man behind it does not want to be seen.Geranium - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
@Anandtech,Why you guys are putting Android and iOS benchmark in same table. Aren't they are two different platforms and running on different runtime and APIs?
michael2k - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
Does it bother you that Apple created their own OS, CPU, and GPU API that makes it difficult for others to compete?The Garden Variety - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
BIAS ALERT. I have flagged michael2k's post for clear Apple bias. Can someone supply me with some anecdotes I can dispatch against his verisimilitudes?retrospooty - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
I can add that he has been here a long, long time, and is a well known Apple defender. It's one thing to like a company or their products, but totally another do do nothing but defend them year in and year out. m2k is the latter of those 2.michael2k - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
Are you saying I'm wrong and the A9 SoC isn't one of the more powerful parts out there? Or are your biases showing?