The Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 Performance Preview: Meet Kryo
by Ryan Smith & Andrei Frumusanu on December 10, 2015 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- SoCs
- Snapdragon
- Qualcomm
- Snapdragon 820
CPU Performance, Cont
Having taken a look at Snapdragon 820 and the Kryo CPU from an architectural perspective, let’s look at our higher level benchmarks. We’ll start as always with the web benchmarks.
There are two things we can immediately take away from these results. The first is that currently Google Chrome is incredibly unoptimized for Kryo, and this is something Qualcomm was also quick to mention. We won’t wax on about this as there’s nothing to say we haven’t said before, but Chrome could certainly stand to implement optimized JS engines sooner.
Otherwise if we look at Qualcomm’s native browser, things are greatly improved. Relative to both the Exynos 7420 (A57) powered Note 5 and the Snapdragon 810 (A57) powered Mi Note Pro, the MDP/S shows a significant lead. In fact it pretty much blows past those devices in Kraken. However while it easily takes the top spot for an Android device, even with Qualcomm’s native browser the 820 isn’t going to be able to catch up to the iPhone 6s Plus and its A9 SoC.
Basemark OS II 2.0 on the other hand is less consistent. The overall score again pegs the MDP/S as the best Android device, and by over 20%. However for reasons yet to be determined, the system score is still below the latest Samsung devices. Instead where the 820 shows a clear lead is with the storage (memory) score and the graphics score. In some cases it’s even beating the iPhone 6s Plus, though overall it will fall short.
Our final system benchmark, PCMark, once again puts the MDP/S in a good light overall, while the individual sub-tests are more widely varied. Likely owing to the same optimization issues that dogged Chrome performance, web browsing performance trails the A57 devices. Meanwhile video playback closely trails the Snapdragon 810 powered HTC One M9, and writing performance won’t quite surpass the Galaxy S6. Where the 820 MDP/S makes up for it is in the photo editing score, which is through the roof. Here Qualcomm’s development device holds a 34% performance lead over the next-fastest device, the 810/A57 based Mi Note Pro.
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V900 - Friday, December 11, 2015 - link
In quite a few examples also coming in behind the A8, which is two years older than this SOC will be when it hits the street, don't forget about that!In all fairness, Qualcomm's development devices, like the mdp820, are rarely tuned for performance, and many of the drivers may still have some rough edges around them.
But they're also nowhere near as demanding in terms of battery size and thickness as the production models that vendors will release sometime next year.
The MDP820 is 11 mm thick, and has a battery with over 3000mah, which means that It's hard NOT to provide ample cooling and plenty of battery life.
That may prove to be a lot harder in a cellphone with a sub 9mm case and a 2500 mah battery.
And let's not forget, that when Anandtech tested the 810MDP, there wasn't a trace of overheating to be found.
http://slatedroid.info/2015/02/anandtech’s-snapdragon-810-preview-no-overheating-issues-spotted/
StrangerGuy - Thursday, December 10, 2015 - link
If you ask me Qualcomm's main problem is not the chip but rather Android software is overwhelming built to run on lowest common denominator hardware.tuxRoller - Friday, December 11, 2015 - link
You do realize that what you're saying is that android has been built to be svelte? This is actually somewhat true given their android one initiative. In practice it would mean that far from being bloated (a really common criticism that folks like to throw at...pretty much any software they are having issues with), it is very carefully built to be used with low hardware requirements. IOW, it would be extraordinarily fast on high-end hardware.All of this is to say that you're mostly wrong.
V900 - Friday, December 11, 2015 - link
Ehm, no. Actually it would be you who is wrong.Being built to run on lowest common denominator hardware isn't necessarily the same as doing it well.
Just look at how fast and smooth WP 7/8/8.1 or iOS runs on phones with just 512 or even 256mb RAM, and compare it with the asthmatic performance you'd usually see from an Android handset with twice as much RAM.
Android has always been bloated and slow compared to its competition (aside from Symbian and BBOS), and part of the explanation is probably that it's developed with the lowest common denominator in mind, with the focus placed on delivering acceptable performance on a handful of SOCs instead of delivering outstanding performance on one or two SOCs.
tuxRoller - Friday, December 11, 2015 - link
You haven't explained why I'm wrong except to say I'm wrong.Aiming for acceptable performance in low end devices implies much better performance on much better hardware (all else being equal
.. which is the case here).
Also, keep in mind that i didn't agree with the premise that Android is built with the lcd in mind.
UtilityMax - Saturday, December 12, 2015 - link
iOS runs like crap on those devices with 256-521MB of RAM. I used used my iPhone 4 recently.UtilityMax - Saturday, December 12, 2015 - link
Your argument makes sense whatsoever. If Android is designed for low end "least common demonstrator" hardware, then it should run circles around the high end hardware?Anyways, I have heard your argument before, and I heard it many times when the apple fan boys explain why Apple gives you so little memory in its flagship phones. Well guess what, Android doesn't need much memory either. You can do just fine with 1 or 2GB of memory. But in this time, memory is getting dirty cheap so Android phone vendors often throw in a bit of memory as a bonus. On the other hand, Apple has always been an expert at charging the most money for the least hardware. Hence, the "apology" from apple and the apply fan boys that apple gives you so little memory because Apple can run just fine with only 1GB but android cannot. This argument is utterly and stupidly wrong.
Mondozai - Saturday, December 12, 2015 - link
Calling people fanboys on mobile tech discussions is our equivalent of Godwin's law. You are just showing the limits of your intellect.Fact is, Android is more bloated because it has far more targets to hit than iOS. But it's still miles ahead of where it used to be.
Constructor - Saturday, December 12, 2015 - link
Actually, Android devices need a lot more RAM to keep the permanent stuttering from garbage collection halfway under control (but still can't eliminate it because it is fundamentally inherent).iOS apps only need to push out other unusued apps initially (which can be noticeable but which is required on Android as well) but after they've gained enough RAM they can run completely stutter-free indefinitely since iOS uses deterministic memory management without garbage collection.
As a consequence iOS devices can deliver completely smooth gaming performance, for instance, even with a lot less RAM and without the associated battery power draw, something which Android is fundamentally incapable of due to the choice of garbage collection.
TheinsanegamerN - Sunday, December 13, 2015 - link
I have a lumia 635 with 512MB of ram. runs like @$$. Slow, laggy, slow loading times, crashing programs. Moto g with 1GB runs flawlessly by comparison.