Understanding Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810: Performance Preview
by Joshua Ho & Andrei Frumusanu on February 12, 2015 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- SoCs
- Qualcomm
- Mobile
- Gobi
- Snapdragon 810
Final Words
In light of everything, it seems that Snapdragon 810 was not as the rumors claimed. In my experience, I didn’t notice any of the development devices getting hotter than what I’d come to expect from a modern SoC. In most cases, it appears that CPU performance is about what we’d expect from a cluster of four Cortex A57s at 2 GHz, although there are a few anomalous results that could be a concern. If anything, it’s clear that the CPU isn’t really an area of weakness on the Snapdragon 810, especially with all of the work that Qualcomm has done for an energy aware scheduler to maximize the performance and efficiency of their big.LITTLE implementation.
Outside of the CPU, it’s evident that Qualcomm will retain their traditional lead in the modem and RF space, as OEMs will continue to adopt parts of RF360 along with Qualcomm modems and transceivers to ensure maximum performance on flagship smartphones and other high-end mobile devices. I don’t believe any other company will really be able to beat Qualcomm in this space, as they strongly emphasized just how well-validated their modems are and the extent to which they implement standards properly to work with operators around the world without issue.
While my time with the Snapdragon 810 hasn’t revealed any significant issues, the real concern here seems to be more along the lines of the GPU performance. While ALU performance and compute performance in general are significantly improved with the Adreno 430, the performance uplift doesn’t really seem to be as large as one might hope. Although Qualcomm is trying to sell the idea of a 4K tablet with the Snapdragon 810, it feels as if it’s too early to try and drive such high resolutions when the GPU can’t handle it. In order to see an appreciable increase in performance this year, it’s likely that OEMs will need to stay with 1080p or at most QHD display resolutions to really deliver improved graphics performance for gaming and other GPU intensive use cases.
As we’ve mentioned before, it seemed that Qualcomm stumbled a bit with the launch of Apple’s A7 SoC. While it seemed that Snapdragon 810 might have relatively little competitive advantage over other SoCs, in the past few months it’s become clear that Qualcomm has been leveraging their strengths to ensure that they remain a strong choice for SoCs this year. Although the GPU and memory subsystem appear to be a bit weak, overall 2015 remains promising for Android flagships, even if an OEM can’t design their own SoC.
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Laststop311 - Friday, February 20, 2015 - link
Also forgot to mention with the less heat generated from backlights not needing to be as strong this also gives more thermal room to the SoC so doesnt have tp throttle at all or in less situations.Antronman - Saturday, February 14, 2015 - link
It's all about the buzzwords.The last year or so, "4k" and "UHD" have been the buzzwords. If it's sub 3k, it isn't acceptable. 4k is decent. In two years people will be complaining about a lack of 8k panels.
Wwhat - Sunday, March 15, 2015 - link
People put them in VR headsets, and then resolution is never enough.open4g - Wednesday, March 18, 2015 - link
One factor driving 4K onto SmartPhones, Phablets and tablet small-screen devices will be miracast and entertainment stations. I don't think 4K will be what sets the majority of consumer expectations for mobile devices for another 3-4 years. By that time SoCs should be manufactured using smaller geometries that reduces power consumption for H.265 by 25%-50% compared to the first generation HEVC capable mobile chips. And there should be more available content.There are limits to human visual acuity on small screen devices that 4K buts up against. What will eventually be needed is partly anticipated by dual-camera GPU, particularly the encoding. This can enhance perceived resolution on small screens. Its a topic for another discussion.
Nandy - Saturday, February 14, 2015 - link
You'll need the highest resolution you can get if you use VR.leliel - Thursday, February 12, 2015 - link
On a five foot display? Yeah, it helps.Now if we're talking 5"... I've used 480x800 and 1080x1920 phones for an extended period and I suspect even current screens like the latter are borderline overkill. 720x1280 might have been the sweet spot for performance/battery. 4K is definitely a negative feature in my books.
SilthDraeth - Thursday, February 12, 2015 - link
If I could upvote you, instead of replying I would have. LOL the 5' vs 5" comment is priceless.Notmyusualid - Thursday, February 12, 2015 - link
Yes, for the love of the Lord - please switch to Disqus already!Allows us to edit / delete comments too...
And I believe, (mistakenly?), it is free too.
YUGogo - Friday, February 13, 2015 - link
I'd say 1080p will do just fine on a performance-battery ratio. I'm ok with 720p atm (I use a Blackberry Z30), but I can see its limitations compared to 1080p. While not everyone can, (the whole "retina display" thing), 20/20 vision isn't actually "perfect" and there are other measures to vision beyond that. The day AA is no longer needed is the ideal resolution. The one arc thing at 12" being maximum is false. It's not uncommon for humans to go as low a 0.3 degrees at 12" for that form of acuity. 2160p is "sufficient" for almost any human. But I'd be very happy with "just" 1080p for phones. I don't want to need a 4000mAh battery just to last the day.Uplink10 - Friday, February 13, 2015 - link
That is what they ususally do, phones (the ones from LG, Samsung, Motorola...) get better battery but they also get higher resolution and in the end you are a little better off instead of a lot. Droid Turbo has 3900 mAh battery but comes with 1440p display.