We benchmark the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2: solid CPU gains, impressive GPU upgrade

Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 final month and the primary telephones with it are beginning to come out. While the vivo X90 Pro+ was the first to be introduced, we don’t have a unit to check. But we do have an iQOO 11, and we spent fairly a while placing it by means of its paces.

Benchmarks of the brand new chip have been leaking for some time now; nonetheless, you’ll be able to by no means be certain if there isn’t something shady occurring with these. With the iQOO 11 available, we now have a market-ready gadget that we all know is on the extent.

Our unit has 16GB of RAM and 256GB storage, which provides the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 an awesome alternative to shine. And, boy, does it shine! Keep in thoughts that this can be a generational enchancment, much less so for those who embody the 8+ Gen 1 (which we did), and it nonetheless makes use of the TSMC N4 node. What Qualcomm has achieved is kind of spectacular.

Before continuing to the charts, permit us to introduce the chip in additional element. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 makes use of a mixture of ARM cores. The Cortex-X3 is the chief of the pack and primarily based on official information, it needs to be 25% quicker than the Cortex-X2 used within the Gen 1 chips. That is the rule of thumb for single-threaded efficiency.

Then there’s a combine of 4 mid-sized cores. Two are Cortex-A715, which needs to be 20% quicker than the older A710 core. The Gen 2 chip additionally has two of these A710 cores, so multi-threaded efficiency is more durable to estimate. This is predicated on information from ARM, Qualcomm says that the CPU is 35% quicker general (in comparison with the unique 8 Gen 1 CPU) and 40% extra environment friendly (which we’re not testing right this moment).

Here is a abstract of the chipsets we’re taking a look at right this moment:

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 additionally makes use of the brand new Adreno 740 GPU. Qualcomm is secretive in regards to the {hardware} specifics, however there should have been a significant change. One fascinating factor to notice is that the 740 runs at decrease clock speeds than the 730 within the Gen 1 chips. Even so, Qualcomm says that the brand new GPU is 25% quicker than its predecessor (and 45% extra environment friendly).

If something, Qualcomm was conservative with its GPU claims – we’re seeing a lot bigger velocity ups even over the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, which itself was a modest enchancment over the unique chip from the start of this yr (10% faster). The focus of the Plus chip was energy effectivity. And as soon as that was achieved, Qualcomm might flip its consideration to creating issues quicker.

We will begin with AnTuTu, which is a full system benchmark, to try to get a way of the general enchancment introduced on by Gen 2. This isn’t a completely apples to apples comparability, because the Gen 1 chips solely assist LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 storage. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, nonetheless, helps the quicker LPDDR5X DRAM and UFS 4.0 storage, and the iQOO 11 makes full use of them.

This is vital to remember – the chipset alone doesn’t decide real-life efficiency. By including assist for brand new, quicker reminiscence codecs, Qualcomm has enabled makers to construct quicker telephones.

Now, we are able to get a better take a look at how the person parts carry out. We begin with Geekbench 5, which measures each single and multi-threaded efficiency. Remember, the goal for single-core enchancment is 25% over the Cortex-X2 on the similar node and similar clock velocity (i.e. over the implementation seen within the 8+ Gen 1).

The chipset doesn’t fairly hit that mark, however we’re not going to scoff at an 18% enchancment over the 8+ Gen 1. The hole to the 8 Gen 1 chip is even wider, 26%, although that one might solely run its prime core at 3.0GHz, so no shock there. But the 8+ Gen 1 and eight Gen 2 cores are clocked the identical, so the speedup comes from the brand new structure.

Multi-threaded workloads present an identical enchancment of twenty-two% over the 8+ Gen 1; the hole to the unique Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is even wider with a 33% velocity up.

The CPU enhancements are strong, if maybe not groundbreaking. Qualcomm’s arms are tied right here because it makes use of tweaked Cortex CPU cores from ARM. Maybe issues might be totally different when the Nuvia workforce delivers a mobile CPU design, however that is the fact we now have for 2023.

The Adreno GPUs are all Qualcomm, although, they usually do surpass the +25% goal in a number of assessments. Before we get to that, we have to discuss decision and body charge. The iQOO 11 comes with a 1,440 x 3,200px show with as much as 120Hz refresh charge (it is an LTPO4 panel).

However, loads of telephones with Gen 1 chips use FHD+ class shows. To preserve the taking part in area stage, we tried two various things: one, set the iQOO 11 to FHD+ decision and two, take a look at offscreen outcomes (the place bodily decision doesn’t matter).

The first strategy has some points, particularly GFXBench Manhattan ES 3.0 hit the 120fps cap, so the GPU was really held again by the show. We didn’t run older GFXBench assessments as they’d have encountered the identical challenge.

This is an effective factor – if this was a recreation, you’d have gotten a steady 120fps playthrough. Just a few gadgets scored larger – gaming telephones like Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro and Red Magic 7, which have 165Hz screens. This implies that the averages listed below are deceptive since a number of outcomes are skewed by the show fps cap. Offscreen assessments sidestep this challenge, however there’s one other answer – use a extra demanding benchmark that gained’t hit the show fps cap.

Let’s persist with FHD+ mode for a bit longer since we all know there are many Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 telephones on the way in which with FHD+ shows. We’re solely taking a look at onscreen assessments right here.

The GFXBench Aztec assessments reveals round a 50% enchancment utilizing each the OpenGL ES backend and the newer Vulkan backend. The cellphone can nearly ship 90fps gameplay at this decision. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 makes excessive refresh charge/body charge gaming potential at FHD+, whereas the Gen 1 chips make you select between excessive decision and framerate. Naturally, benchmarks are extra demanding than actual video games, so we should always see a lot of titles playable at 90fps and even 120fps with the Gen 2.

Alright, now let’s take a look at uncooked GPU efficiency by switching over to offscreen assessments. These are standardized to a 16:9 side ratio (at both 1080p or 1440p) and keep away from bodily limitations just like the show’s refresh charge.

Starting with Aztec at 1440p, we once more see an enchancment in efficiency of round 50%. The hole between Vulkan and OpenGL ES is smaller than it was on the Gen 1 chips, however Vulkan nonetheless has a slight edge.

3DMark’s Wild Live (Vulkan, 1440p) reveals a smaller enchancment, round 30%. Still, Qualcomm was solely promising a 25% improve, so the Snapdragon beats expectations as soon as once more.

Moving over to 1080p assessments like Car Chase and Manhattan, the enhancements listed below are smaller. These are pretty outdated and will not be stressing the GPU sufficiently, so the benchmark is working into different bottlenecks.

Conclusion

The new Adreno 740 GPU contained in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is actually spectacular, and we haven’t even examined what it may possibly do with ray tracing. The new chipset will allow excessive body charge gaming in additional titles than is presently potential, and it’ll permit builders to allow higher-quality graphic settings on the similar time.

Something we didn’t take a look at right this moment is sustained efficiency – that’s one thing that varies from cellphone to cellphone. For the iQOO 11 specifically, our upcoming assessment could have info on that in addition to different fascinating efficiency metrics (like testing the UFS 4.0 storage).

There is one last item to handle, Qualcomm apparently has an upgraded model of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. This is just a rumor for now, Ice Universe claims that the Prime core runs at 3.36GHz (up from 3.2GHz) and that the GPU is at 719MHz (Up from 680MHz). Qualcomm has not formally confirmed the existence, however there are clues that recommend that the SM8550-AC is actual, so we finish this submit with a “to be continued”.