The Xiaomi Mi9 Review: Flagship Performance At a Mid-Range Price
by Andrei Frumusanu on September 13, 2019 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Mobile
- Smartphones
- Xiaomi
- Snapdragon 855
- Xiaomi Mi9
GPU Performance
GPU performance of the Mi9 will be dictated by how Xiaomi was able to implement the SoC in the physical hardware shell of the phone, and how well it’s able to dissipate the heat throughout the body of the phone. Other factors on the software side such as thermal throttling limits can also greatly impact the results, and as we’ve seen in the S855 we can see very much a wide range of results amongst the many Snapdragon 855 devices.
On the 3DMark Physics test which is a CPU stress test within a GPU thermally constrained power scenario, we see the Mi9 perform very well in the sustained long-term results. It’s not quite as good as the OnePlus 7 Pro or the RedMagic 3, but it beats all other Snapdragon 855 devices.
In the graphics test, the positioning shifts a bit amongst the devices, with the Mi9 falling back to the middle of the pack. Still it’s a good performance given that the Mi9 has one of the lower body masses amongst the phones, and thus not quite as good thermal dissipation abilities.
In GFXBench, we’re seeing again some very good results for the GPU performance of the Mi9, however it stands a bit out that the delta is greater in workloads like T-Rex. Here the large framerates put more stress on the CPU as well as memory of the phone, likely creating more heat and in turn forcing the Mi9 to throttle more.
Overall, the Mi9’s gaming performance was very good and competitive. It’s not the best but it’s also far from the worst amongst Snapdragon 855 devices. The odd thing here is that the Mi9 performs significantly better than Xiaomi’s own Black Shark 2 gaming-oriented phone whose sustained performance just completely collapses in our stress tests. We’ll be reviewing the Black Shark 2 separately in the next few weeks, but things aren’t looking well for that phone.
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Redmyth79 - Saturday, September 14, 2019 - link
Who you calling troll, stating facts.Korguz - Saturday, September 14, 2019 - link
then back up your "facts " with proof, seems even Andrei doubts these " facts " of yours :" I accept your challenge. You play the AnTuTu card, you lose. "
and from Ian as well : " AnTuTu is the laughing stock of benchmarks. The minute someone tries to justify their position with an AnTuTu score, you know not to take them seriously. "
Jon Tseng - Sunday, September 15, 2019 - link
Yeah I'm not sure this troll even read the article, so I think asking for facts likely a bit of a tough ask. At all conclusion is that perf seems fine vs other devices.One point - I've seen discussed elsewhere that the 9T pro has an inferior thermal solution that the 9T so perf may not be quite as good. Jonathan.
PeachNCream - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
"AnandTech has reviewed this product as part of a paid partnership with Qualcomm."Is someone at AT permitted to go into greater detail about the nature of the partnership? What obligations is AT under? What are Qualcomm's expectations?
Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
We'll be posting three more S855 device reviews in the next 2 weeks, other than that and the inclusion of the benchmark setup (AI), there is no effect on the content of the articles posted and I'm writing the reviews independently as I would have in a normal scenario.PeachNCream - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
Cool, thanks! That makes sense.yeeeeman - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
The big problem here is that it takes up your bandwidth to look on other more interesting devices like the exynos 9825. Qualcomm is requesting these reviews for press, nothing else. But here at AT we care more about tech, so I think that in the future it is best to refuse these kinda of requests and sponsorships and do your own reviewswebdoctors - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
?? but then who will pay them to keep the site running since everyone uses adblocker?A5 - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
I've read literally nothing that indicated that the Exynos 9825 holds anything of significant interest to AT readers over Exynos 9820. Why do you keep asking about it?Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
It's an interesting academic view on the 7EUV process node, but other than that yes it holds very little value currently.