GPU Performance

When we covered the new generation SoCs in our chip-coverage of the Snapdragon 888 and Exynos 2100, GPU performance was an extremely contentious topic there as the new 2021 silicon generation showcased some extremely hot peak power consumption numbers in excess of 8W. These kind of power figures really aren’t sustainable in any phone, and the Snapdragon S21 Ultra really didn’t do well in terms of its throttling, ending up with performance that’s really no better than its predecessor generation in most cases.

I alluded in that piece that the Mi 11 would be a more aggressive device in terms of its thermals, as Xiaomi allows its phones to reach higher peak skin temperatures whereas Samsung seems to have a 42°C maximum target.

Indeed, the new Mi 11 will in routinely reach peak skin temperatures of 50-51°C, but it’s at that stage where we hit an enormous problem with the device: it errors out with an overheating warning.

This is by far not the first time we’ve encountered this issue. I remember the Snapdragon Galaxy S9 encountering it as well as many other Samsung Snapdragon phones, and I’ve seen it happen to many Xiaomi devices as well.

Generally speaking, when this occurs it’s a sign there’s something absolutely wrong with the device and its thermal management. In the past, there’s been indications that these are “optimisations” that are trying to cheat benchmarks, particularly for devices that are targeted at the Chinese market.

In the case of the Mi 11 – I don’t really have any kind of evidence that this behaviour is targeted solely at benchmarks, as I cannot see the device behaving differently with anonymised workloads. Let’s go briefly over the results before I comment more on the real-world device performance:

Basemark GPU 1.2 - Medium 1440p - Off-Screen / Blit GFXBench Aztec Ruins - High - Vulkan/Metal - Off-screen GFXBench Aztec Ruins - Normal - Vulkan/Metal - Off-screen GFXBench Manhattan 3.1 Off-screen GFXBench T-Rex 2.7 Off-screen

As you see, the Mi 11 is able to top the charts in almost every benchmark. Again, the problem with those scores is that they’re not actually truly indefinite “sustained” scores, as the device at some point will simply give off that overheating warning.

Ignore the Benchmarks Here

It’s a very special scenario we’re encountering here where the actual benchmarks absolutely do not line up with the actual performance of the device in real games. Although the Mi 11 will go about and sustain 7-8W in the benchmarks, heating up to silly temperatures, but posting great performance figures, it really doesn’t behave that way in games.

In Genshin Impact, which is one of the most demanding games out there right now, the Mi 11 will start off with great performance and will showcase power consumption of >7W. However after prolonged plays, the device will actually throttle, and power consumption will reduce to the 5W range, and surprisingly, the phone won’t heat up beyond the 44°C range. I’ve seen the GPU operate in the 400MHz range here, which is half of its peak performance, and obviously enough the game also falls down well below the 60fps mark which it might achieve when it’s cool. This indicates, that in real games, the thermal management seems to be working well.

This discrepancy between benchmarks and real games is extremely frustrating for me here as I cannot pin down why exactly it happens. Are the vendors cheating through whitelisting only real games in the thermal management? Whatever the real answer is, the end result of the Mi 11 in gaming is that it’s not drastically different than past Snapdragon 865 devices, or at least only marginally better. This is a case of where I suggest to just ignore the above benchmark numbers – although I’m still publishing them until I see definitive proof of possible malicious behaviour.

System Performance Display Measurement
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  • asmian - Thursday, March 11, 2021 - link

    Your opinion is worthless, since it's a gross generalisation that takes no account of the many and varied reasons people voted, preferring to smear everyone who voted the way you despise with right-wing or neo-Nazi tendencies by clever wording. You do like the sound of your own smugness, don't you.
  • Fulljack - Thursday, March 11, 2021 - link

    hello american. we hereby stated that asia, europe, and africa market are part of the global market.

    sincerely, the rest of the world
  • Giro - Wednesday, March 10, 2021 - link

    Hello Andre, thx!
    For loudness and clarity, what do you think of this phone ?
  • Andrei Frumusanu - Wednesday, March 10, 2021 - link

    It's amongst the best in the market for speakers. I think Samsung had clearer mids, but this has much better lows.
  • Psyside - Wednesday, March 10, 2021 - link

    Its so frustrating to see that you still haven't received any updates on the S21U, i was so pumped to see how they stack up :/
  • ZolaIII - Wednesday, March 10, 2021 - link

    Did you try with for instance BrightRidge to see what happens with GPU and eventually get to the bottom of it?
  • FunBunny2 - Wednesday, March 10, 2021 - link

    I am among those who can't figure out why anyone would, or physically can, listen to stereo music on a phone. Or are you talking about ear buds? Does one hold the phone up to your nose? Or leave on your lap? Phone sound, under any condition I can imagine, is as close to anechoic as one can find outside a wedged foam room.
  • ZolaIII - Wednesday, March 10, 2021 - link

    Well I owne Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e and sound from speakers is almost as good as my Denon stereo but that's a tablet with more room for speakers.
  • kaspar737 - Wednesday, March 10, 2021 - link

    400MHz GPU frequency in a real world workload? I wonder what the 865 ran at?
  • Nshade1 - Wednesday, March 10, 2021 - link

    Interesting behavior of the GPU. Using so much power and heat for little benefit. We now have some more demanding games on mobile. Does it make sense to check the average frames in same more demanding games in addition to the synthetic benchmarks?

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