The Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 edge Review
by Joshua Ho on April 17, 2015 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Samsung
- Mobile
- Galaxy S6
- Galaxy S6 Edge
System Performance Cont'd: GPU Performance
As previously mentioned, the Galaxy S6 uses a Mali T760MP8 clocked at 772 MHz, which should provide a healthy improvement in GPU performance over the Exynos 5433. To test this, we run through our standard suite of game-style GPU benchmarks. However, there are still some CPU benchmarks present within these tests such as the 3DMark physics test. In general though, a strong GPU is needed to perform well in these tests. For those interested in an architectural deep-dive of the Mali T760, I would refer to Ryan’s article on the Midgard architecture for more information.
The Galaxy S6 starts out fairly strong in 3DMark. Overall performance is boosted by a chart-topping physics score, while pure graphics performance trails a bit. In this case the S6 is roughly on par with the iPhone 6 Plus, but would have to close quite a gap to catch up to the HTC One (M9).
BaseMark X finds the S6 the runaway winner. The phone is well ahead in both the Dunes and Hangar test, beating the next-best phones (primarily Adreno 420/430 based) by 25% or more depending on the test. The increase over the S5 is especially remarkable; Samsung has more than doubled their performance in this benchmark in barely a year.
GFXBench 3.0 is another strong showing for the S6. In both offscreen tests it's 15% or more ahead of the next closest phone, which is once again the HTC One (M9). Meanwhile compared once more to the S5, Samsung's performance has more than doubled. Consequently even the onscreen tests show significant gains, as the GPU performance gain more than outstrips the additional performance required to drive the higher resolution 1440p AMOLED display of the S6.
Overall, as we can see the performance of the S6 is in line for what is expected from its Mali T760MP8 configuration. Interestingly though the phone's performance exceeds the scaling we'd expect from adding two shader cores and increasing frequency to 772 MHz, as compared to the Exynos 5433-powered Note 4 Exynos. This suggests that the Exynos 5433's GPU was bandwidth-limited to some extent, in addition to any possible thermal throttling that would occur over the course of a GFXBench run. But I suspect we'll have to save the deep dive for a future article as I can't take the review unit apart to find out.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
306 Comments
View All Comments
ianmills - Friday, April 17, 2015 - link
So having an sd card in metal body is impossible then?will54 - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
Not sure if you are serious or joking since sarcasm is so hard to catch on the net, but my One M8 has an sd slot nevermind that most if not all phones have a sim slot .juxt417 - Wednesday, April 22, 2015 - link
No but an SD card loading 4k pictures and video without lag is.akdj - Sunday, May 31, 2015 - link
Someone should let Nikon, Canon, Sony ...even RED uses CF cards -- I believe? Silly jux, you can very easily capture these bitrates to any class ten MicroSD card. I was capturing 4k on my Note 3 a year ago on a card half the speed of the one in my Note 4.FlushedBubblyJock - Friday, April 24, 2015 - link
that's the insane claim - the metal body precludes the sd card - just bow your head, scramble your brains for them, pretend you're stupid as a rock, and stfu, please, the overlords desire that their lies be swallowed and enjoyed, preferably on your knees in full worshipful regale, knave, believe, you want to believe don't you ?akdj - Sunday, May 31, 2015 - link
What the hell is a smartphone 'power user'? Are you one of the dbags I see walking around, texting and not paying attention to society or your surrounding?Surious, I'm curious what it is that makes YOU a power user of ...a smartphone?
(To lay it out there, I own a phone with MicroSD/battery replaceability as well as one without and I can honestly say the ability to use my mSD card with each iteration of Android has diminished significantly ...and having to 'split' apps between system and external storage makes for a HIGE PITA when it comes to backing up a phone with or without and then restoring a new Android model, again ...with or without ...maybe I'm a 'power user' and wasn't aware)
Genuine and honest curiousity from a fellow SD user --- & current Note 4 & S6 owner for nearly a month now ---
Fallen Kell - Friday, April 17, 2015 - link
Samsung lost my sale. I had been holding off until the S6 came out, but no SD card slot = no purchase from me. Now I am looking for another phone, and in the meantime keeping the one I have until I get a high end phone with SD card slot (possibly HTC releases the E9+ in NA with all the complaints they have had for not doing so, and especially given the fact that Samsung has obviously dropped the ball on the S6 opening the door for a high end HTC that has all the bells and whistles to take over the market).JeffFlanagan - Friday, April 17, 2015 - link
They'll lose a few customers, but I was willing to give up the SD slot. The S6 is beautiful, and much more responsive than the HTC One (M8) that I traded in. LTE reception is also much better, so I can stream video and music, so 64GB is plenty of storage.bogda - Friday, April 17, 2015 - link
Do you know that 32GB MicroSD costs 13$ on Amazon? And you are willing to pay 100$ for upgrade from 32 to 64? Funny.name99 - Friday, April 17, 2015 - link
And that 32GB SD card performs at the level of the flash that we have in this phone?No?
So then why is its price relevant?