The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Performance Preview: Sizing Up Cortex-X2
by Dr. Ian Cutress on December 14, 2021 8:00 AM ESTConclusionary Remarks: Arm v9 for Android
When we move through significant revisions of Arm’s architecture, up to v8 and now v9, it’s important to note that the new features defined in the ISA do not always fundamentally improve performance – it’s up to the microarchitecture teams to build the cores to the ISA specifications, and the implementation teams to enable the core in silicon with frequency and power efficiency. Accomplishing that requires a good process node, design technology co-optimization, and then partners that can execute by building the best devices for that processor.
Qualcomm’s target with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is very clearly the 2022 Android Flagship smartphones. New cores, new graphics, enhanced machine learning capabilities, a step function in camera processing power, an integrated X65 modem, all built on Samsung’s 4nm process node technology. The flagship Android space is an area in which Qualcomm has been comfortable for a number of years, however the increased thermals of last generation’s Snapdragon S888 gave a number of analysts in the space a bit of a squeaky bum moment.
It’s hard to tell immediately in our small test if that still remains the case. Samsung’s 4nm node has improvements beyond the previous generation 5nm design, however Qualcomm’s presentational numbers were above and beyond those that Samsung provided, perhaps indicating that additional improvements both in architecture and implementation have led to those performance numbers.
Our testing shows +19% floating point performance on the X2 core, which is almost the +20% that Qualcomm quotes, but only +8% in integer, which is often the most quoted. We’re seeing power efficiency improvements for sure on the X2 core, with an overall efficiency improvement of 17%, but peak power has also increased, in part because some of our tests make use of the additional cache in the system. Our machine learning tests are +75% over the previous generation, although not the 4x numbers that Qualcomm states – we need to do more work here on power efficiency testing however. On the gaming side, our 'first run' numbers showcase some explosive gains in GPU throughput.
Although we’ve only done a few tests here, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the elephant in the room: MediaTek. In the last month MediaTek announced a return to the high-end with a flagship processor of its own, using the same 1+3+4 configuration with slightly higher frequencies, more cache, and built on TSMC’s N4 process. Implementation here will be the key metric I feel, so how MediaTek has been able to optimize for TSMC N4 vs Qualcomm on Samsung 4nm is going to be analyzed. I should point out here that a processor is more than just the CPU cores, as we’ll see Adreno vs Mali on graphics, the different machine learning approaches, but also how the two companies approach 5G and connectivity, which has been one of Qualcomm’s most prominent strengths to date.
We look forward to testing the Qualcomm S8g1 in more detail in the New Year, as well as how many of the main smartphone OEMs choose Qualcomm for their flagship devices.
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rtho782 - Friday, December 17, 2021 - link
Alex Katouzian is like budget Sylvester Stallone :Dbogamia - Monday, December 20, 2021 - link
Apparently, D9000 has been benchmarked by this Chinese YouTuber (https://youtu.be/1ves1M4Ai-I) and it outperformed the snapdragon 8 gen 1 in all the areas. The performance power watt gap is massive between these two chips. Even in GPU benchmarks, D9000 outperformed the snapdragon equivalent. This is going to be an interesting generation. I wonder what will be the excuses of OEMs to use Qualcomm in the affordable flagship segments .iphonebestgamephone - Monday, December 20, 2021 - link
It looks like things like genshin impact is still more optimized for adreno.ChrisGX - Thursday, December 23, 2021 - link
>>[the D9000] outperformed the snapdragon 8 gen 1 in all the areas<<Not, exactly. The vlogger makes clear that the Adreno GPU in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 offers slightly higher performance than the Mali G710 in the D9000 but that the small performance increment comes at a significant cost in power consumption terms. So, while the Mali GPU offers slightly lower performance it is definitely the more energy efficient GPU.
Kangal - Friday, December 24, 2021 - link
Interesting video. Here's the recap:GeekBench 5 (Single-core)
D9000: 1287 score, 3.5 Watts, 368 Efficiency
QC 8g1: 1200 score, 4.2 Watts, 286 Efficiency
QSD 888: 1135 score, 3.8 Watts, 299 Efficiency
GeekBench 5 (Multi-thread)
D9000: 4474 score, 9.8 Watts, 457 Efficiency
QC 8g1: 3810 score, 11.1 Watts, 343 Efficiency
QSD 888: 3753 score, 8.9 Watts, 422 Efficiency
GFXBench Aztec Ruins (High/1440p Offscreen)
D9000: 43 fps, 8.2 Watts, 5.24 Efficiency
QC 8g1: 47 fps, 11.2 Watts, 4.20 Efficiency
QSD 888: 30 fps, 9.0 Watts, 3.34 Efficiency
Genshin Impact (Quality Mode, Initial Performance)
D9000: 60 fps, 6.8 Watts, drops 1.1 Watts, 7 minutes then throttles
QC 8g1: 60 fps, 7.5 Watts, drops 1.2 Watts, 3 min then dips but maintains
QSD 888: 60 fps, 7.5 Watts, drops 1.6 Watts, 6 minutes then throttles
Genshin Impact (Quality Mode, after 15min throttling)
D9000: 48 fps, 5.7 Watts, 8.42 Efficiency, Resolution 1422x640
QC 8g1: 55 fps, 6.3 Watts, 8.73 Efficiency, Resolution 1422x640
QSD 888: 48 fps, 5.9 Watts, 8.14 Efficiency, Resolution 1600x720
ChrisGX - Tuesday, January 4, 2022 - link
Xiaobai's Tech Reviews ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TyEkQZvAEI ) - a Hong Kong based YouTuber - has come to similar conclusions to the tech vlogger (Geekerwan) that you cite. The benchmark testing conducted by both vloggers seems broader in scope and more careful than the usual fare on YouTube. In both cases the engineering test mules/prototype devices tested were equipped with the latest crop of premium ARM SoCs (that will appear in production Android devices in 2022). The similarity of benchmark results doesn't guarantee the correctness of those results or the completeness of the performance picture drawn, of course, but with independent sources getting very similar results it wouldn't be a shock if production devices follow the evident pattern.Golden Reviewer, a Singapore based tech reviewer/vlogger (posting reviews in English) if anything offers an even more critical account of the SD8 Gen 1 and an account of the D9000 that does indeed credit it as the better chip in most areas. Using a pre-production device in testing he singles out overheating as a serious problem for the SD8 Gen 1.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HO46vmsS61Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCYx3K4qjX4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTW6Z55bEfU
maik80 - Tuesday, January 18, 2022 - link
Fans of android have a mania to use AnTuTu, the owner has already been arrested for fraud in the tests, it has already been confirmed that he received to increase the result. In addition to giving points for the amount of ram memory. it's a jokeqnfw3174 - Thursday, March 31, 2022 - link
Is it finished to test A710/A510? Where can I find the result?yeeeeman - Monday, April 25, 2022 - link
Can we get a follow up on this?