Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 Performance Preview
by Anand Lal Shimpi on May 21, 2014 8:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Tablets
- Snapdragon
- Qualcomm
- Mobile
- SoCs
- Snapdragon 805
CPU Performance
As always we'll start out our performance investigation with a handful of CPU bound web browser based tests. In all cases we used Chrome on the MDP/T. Remember there's only an 8% increase in peak CPU frequency here, so I wouldn't expect a huge difference vs. Snapdragon 801.
Here the MDP/T scales pretty well, showing a 6% improvement in performance over the Snapdragon 801 based Galaxy S 5. In the case of the GS5 we are looking at a 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801 implementation, so the improvement makes sense. Both the Cortex A15 (TF701T/Shield) and Apple's Cyclone (in the iPad Air) are higher performing designs here. Since there's no fundamental change to Krait's IPC, the only gains we see here are from the higher clock speed.
Kraken appears to be at its limit when it comes to Krait 400/450, there's effectively no additional frequency scaling beyond 2.3GHz. We're either running into an architectural limitation or limits of the software/browser combination itself.
Similarly we don't see any real progress in the Google Octane test either. Snapdragon 805's CPU cores may run at a higher peak frequency but that's definitely not the story here.
Basemark OS II
Basemark OS II gives us a look at native application performance across a variety of metrics. There are tests that hit the CPU, GPU as well as storage subsystems here. The gains here are exclusively on the graphics side, which makes sense given what we've just seen. Snapdragon 805's biggest gains will be GPU facing.
Geekbench 3.0
Although I don't typically use Geekbench, I wanted to include some numbers here to highlight that the increase in memory bandwidth for S805 over S801 doesn't really benefit the CPU cores:
| Geekbench 3.0 | |||||
| Snapdragon 801 2.3GHz (HTC M8) | Snapdragon 805 2.7GHz (MDP/T) | % Increase for S805 | |||
| Overall (Single thread) | 1001 | 1049 | 4.8% | ||
| Overall (Multi-threaded) | 2622 | 2878 | 9.7% | ||
| Integer (Single thread) | 956 | 996 | 4.2% | ||
| Integer (Multi-threaded) | 2999 | 3037 | 1.3% | ||
| FP (Single thread) | 843 | 925 | 9.7% | ||
| FP (Multi-threaded) | 2636 | 3155 | 19.7% | ||
| Memory (Single thread) | 1411 | 1406 | 0% | ||
| Memory (Multi-threaded) | 1841 | 1949 | 6% | ||
I wouldn't read too much into the multithreaded FP results, I suspect we're mostly seeing differences in thermal dissipation of the two test units. A closer look at the memory bandwidth numbers confirms that while the 805 has more memory bandwidth, most of it is reserved for GPU use:
| Geekbench 3.0 - Memory Bandwidth | |||||
| Snapdragon 801 2.3GHz (HTC M8) | Snapdragon 805 2.7GHz (MDP/T) | % Increase for S805 | |||
| Stream Copy (Single thread) | 7.89 GB/s | 8.04 GB/s | 1.9% | ||
| Stream Copy (Multi-threaded) | 9.53 GB/s | 10.1 GB/s | 5.9% | ||
| Stream Scale (Single thread) | 5.36 GB/s | 5.06 GB/s | - | ||
| Stream Scale (Multi-threaded) | 7.31 GB/s | 7.63 GB/s | 4.3% | ||
| Stream Add (Single thread) | 5.27 GB/s | 5.2 GB/s | - | ||
| Stream Add (Multi-threaded) | 6.84 GB/s | 7.51 GB/s | 9.8% | ||
| Stream Triad (Single thread) | 5.64 GB/s | 5.85 GB/s | 3.7% | ||
| Stream Triad (Multi-threaded) | 7.65 GB/s | 7.89 GB/s | 3.1% | ||
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akdj - Thursday, May 22, 2014 - link
"{"Here even NVIDIA's Shield with Tegra 4 cooled by a fan can't outperform the Adreno 420 GPU"}Anandtech needs to stop makings dumb NV statements. It's a YEAR old device and won't even be in this race, not to mention it's not getting a ton from the fan anyway which is really there for longevity and temps in the hands for hours.... Stop taking AMD checks to be their portal site, and you can get back to making unbiased reporting without the little BS NV digs."
Reading. Comprehension. Even YOU, taking the time to quote and post the comment, specifically relating to an OBJECTIVE benchmark. nVidia isn't ON the market! Unless you buy THEIR pad....and that's extremely niche right Now..."gaming for hours?" Who does THAT on their phone? Even their tablet?? An hour, ok...I see that. But there's a FAN for a reason. Not to just keep your hands cool. You said it yourself. Longevity. Doesn't that DIRECTLY relate to 'cooling' the SoC? The guts? So it can 'live longer?' It wasn't a dig. It certainly wasn't an AMD stamp, WhateverTH that is. Certainly possible it was I that missed the innuendo there. It's a fact though, bro! nVidia, Intel, AMD...ALL late to the 'mobile game'. Intel has the resources to jump into the fray...head first. nVidia doesn't. They're being very careful while maintaining their, again...slowly but certainly 'niche' dedicated GPU activity. With Intel's iGPU performance envelope and TDP, along with its kinda close association with the CPU ;)...increasing demand for smaller, faster and more portable computing is going to destroy nVidia if the K1 projects isn't accepted by more mobile vendors and OEMs. There's a LOT of money in the R&D of these SOCs and to date, the nVidia 'Tegra' solution scared a LOT of OEMs using or considering using their silicon graphically. I think you owe Anand and his crew an apology. I'd be interested as to what your contribution to the world of technology is...it's got to be something incredible! I'm all ears!!! Seriously, for you to disrespect the author of the article as you did...you owe at least an apology. Then, feed the spider. Leave mom's basement. Get a job. Stop playing games all day. And don't 'pick a winner!' You'll NEVER win. It's called gambling. That's why the lights are on in Vegas. It's cool to be a fan of theirs but to post such a silky comment disrespecting one or the MOST respected and intelligent employee of or Anand himself is bad juju. Take it back. Get off the 'net for a couple of days. Get some sunshine. Good for ya!
phoenix_rizzen - Friday, May 23, 2014 - link
I've played games on my phone (LG G2) for over 4 hours at a time (Puzzle Quest 2 is damned addictive). Once for over 6 hours, although I had to plug it in near the end. :) Anytime I get a new, interesting RPG onto my phone, I'll go through bouts of playing it for 4-6 hours at a time.And my daughter has played games on our tablet (2012 Nexus 7) for multiple hours at a time, including some Netflix and local video watching. The battery on that thing tends to only last about 4 hours, though. :(
Just because YOU can't see a reason to play games on your phone for over an hour doesn't mean nobody does that.
Alexey291 - Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - link
Hear hear - i play my psp games emulated on the phone these days. the psp is too much of a pain to carry around (and too old tbh) but some of the old rpgs on it are ossum and yes i can play them for hours on end.kron123456789 - Thursday, May 22, 2014 - link
actually, it's 30fps in Manhattan Offscreen))http://gfxbench.com/device.jsp?benchmark=gfx30&...
sachouba - Thursday, May 22, 2014 - link
Having amazing scores at benchmarks is good, but Nvidia's Soc still aren't compatible with a lot of apps...kron123456789 - Thursday, May 22, 2014 - link
What apps, for example?tviceman - Thursday, May 22, 2014 - link
So Qualcomm will continue to have the better phone SoC in 805, while Nvidia will have the better tablet, set top, and chromebook SoC in TK1.ArthurG - Thursday, May 22, 2014 - link
without integrated modem in S805, I'm not sure it's better than TK1 for super phones. Let's wait for power consumption figures...testbug00 - Thursday, May 22, 2014 - link
How many phones used T4 (not T4i, which, is a good product!) again? One.Nvidia either cannot, or does not offer a compelling solution in phones.
I would say why, but, you would scream "that is not true" as the only evidence is in how OEMs have acted and design wins count.
fivefeet8 - Thursday, May 22, 2014 - link
Market comparisons aside as a taken, the K1 is quite different than the Tegra 4 as far as GPU hardware goes. It should have the chance to be used in Super Phones and mobile devices if only to put pressure on Qualcomm to fix their OpenGL drivers.