Samsung Galaxy S 4 Review - Part 1
by Brian Klug on April 24, 2013 12:01 AM ESTGPU Performance
Both CPU and GPU clocks are higher on Samsung's version of the Snapdragon 600 (APQ8064AB). While the Snapdragon 600 used in HTC's One (APQ8064T) features a max GPU frequency of 400MHz, in the Galaxy S 4 the max frequency moves up to 450MHz. The increase in max frequency alone is modest (~12.5%), but the gains in GLBenchmark are far more pronounced for whatever reason.
As always, we'll start with low level analysis beginning with GLBenchmark's fill rate test:
Interestingly enough, fill rate is actually lower than on the HTC One. With so many variables at work here it's difficult to say exactly why this is, but the lowest hanging fruit is to blame it on memory bandwidth differences. Without getting inside the Galaxy S 4 (or more extensive poking around) it's unclear what speed Samsung is running its memory at, which could explain the differences here. We tried tossing the Galaxy S 4 in the freezer and re-running the test but performance didn't improve substantially. Note that GLB's fill rate benchmark is the only one that did not show the Galaxy S 4 ahead of HTC's One in raw performance.
The low level triangle tests all show significant performance gains over the only other Snapdragon 600 based phone we have (HTC One). Again, I'm not really sure what's going on here with APQ8064AB but the gains here are greater than what clock speed alone can be responsible for. Samsung could be running at higher GPU frequencies more aggressively than HTC or it could have software advantages (a newer Adreno driver perhaps?) or there could be more to this APQ8064AB mystery than we realize.
Egypt HD delivers a fairly sane number however. The Galaxy S 4 manages to outperform the HTC One by around 17% here. Again it's unclear why we're seeing greater performance than clock scaling alone would provide but the net is that the Galaxy S 4 does deliver better GPU performance than other Snapdragon 600 based devices today.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
335 Comments
View All Comments
sigmatau - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
Better screen on the HTC One. You can't see shit in sunlight on OLED screens. And the speakers are a huge difference.Thud2 - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
I have an HTC ONE and it's amazing in all respects. Beautiful, fast, great camera, great screen, I've seen all day battery use so far, great phone, I have no complaints, all the complaints I've seen online seem like ninja Samsung reps or fanboys, but one recommendation. GET A COVER!!! I was one of the ones who said "No, it's to nice to cover up!" No joke, the first person I handed it to dropped it handing it back to me, on a concrete bar! IT IS A SLICK PHONE and not metaphorically! It is SMOOTH! To the point of being hard to hold. I love the look, but sadly it needs a cover. Luckily it's so small that it's still smaller than other phones even with a cover.shaolin95 - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
Is a phone not a hockey puck!Enough with the stupidity.
Alvar - Monday, April 29, 2013 - link
6 Reasons to get the Samsung Galaxy S4medi02 - Monday, April 29, 2013 - link
What about notebooks, pretty please. Do all high ends now have to be metal body?How come aluminum (soft metal) is somehow inherently superior to all kinds of plastik in the world?
shaolin95 - Monday, May 27, 2013 - link
Such a lame comment....you see most users do not use the phone as a hockey puck! So stop it with the BS arguments.kurama_k - Monday, July 29, 2013 - link
Easy replace the back cover with thishttp://www.amazon.com/GINOVO-Brushed-Aluminum-repl...
bromegaman - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
"with the power button about four thirds up the right side, volume rocker four thirds up the left side.""four thirds"? Seriously?
Brian Klug - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
Ugh, reminds me of the 5/4 people are bad at fractions joke, except it's me making the mistake. Fixed!-Brian
JimRamK - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
Maybe you were thinking of the Camera sensor?