Which flagship processor will dominate in 2021? Today we’re taking a look at a direct comparison of two rivals: Exynos 1080 vs Snapdragon 888. But last year’s Snapdragon 865 will also play a role, as it powers many flagship smartphones and is therefore the ideal example for comparing two generations.
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Samsung Exynos 1080 vs. Snapdragon 888: Technical Specifications
For flagship Android devices, only three chipsets built with the latest 5 nm technology are currently available. These are Huawei’s Kirin 9000, Samsung’s Exynos 1080 and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888. In today’s article, we’ll compare the latter two.
| Processor | Exynos 1080 | Snapdragon 888 |
|---|---|---|
| Size | 5 nm | 5 nm |
| CPU | 1 x ARM Cortex-A78 (2,84 GHz) 3x ARM Cortex-A78 (2,6 GHz) 4x ARM Cortex A-55 (2,0 GHz) |
1 x ARM Cortex-X1 (2,84 GHz) 3 x ARM Cortex-A78 (2,40 GHz) 4 x ARM Cortex-A55 (1,8 GHz) |
| GPU | Mali-G78 MP10 | Adreno 660 |
| ISP | – | Spectra™ 580 |
| AI | – | Hexagon 780 |
| Modem | – | Snapdragon X60 5G |
| Connectivity | W-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2 | Wi-Fi 6E, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2 |
CPU
The new Samsung Exynos 1080 chip brings a significant step forward in performance compared with its much-criticized predecessor, the Exynos 980. It offers eight cores, four Cortex-A78 cores and four Cortex-A55 cores.
The Exynos not only has a higher A78 core clock, but it also has one extra A78 core compared with Qualcomm’s chip. Samsung also gives its A55 cores a higher clock speed.
However, the Snapdragon 888 has the edge thanks to its primary core, the Cortex-X1, clocked at 2.84 GHz. According to available information, the Cortex-X1 delivers up to 30% better performance than the Cortex-A77, while the Cortex-A78 is 20% faster than the A77.
From this, we can infer that the Cortex-X1 primary core offers about 10% better performance than the Cortex-A78. Real-world comparison, however, can only be revealed by performance tests, such as those from AnTuTu.
AnTuTu performance tests
AnTuTu has already tested the Vivo X60 Pro smartphone, which uses the Exynos 1080 processor. This smartphone scored 634,373 points, which is not the highest score recorded in AnTuTu for this chip. Still, it’s a fairly reliable result from a commercially available smartphone.
According to the published results, the Vivo X60 Pro beats almost all devices powered by Qualcomm’s older flagship Snapdragon 865 processor.
In the photo above, you can see a comparison of the Vivo X60 Pro and Vivo NEX 3S 5G smartphones (Exynos 1080 vs. Snapdragon 865). Despite the higher score of the X60 Pro model, in the CPU test it scores slightly lower than the NEX 3S 5G model.
The result of this comparison is that although the Exynos 1080 does not beat the Snapdragon 865 in terms of CPU, it definitely cannot compete with the new Snapdragon 888. The latter has the score known from the Mi 11 smartphone (the CPU scores 196,334 points), which leaves a gap of about 15,000 points.
GPU
Despite all the doubts, the CPU test was fairly close, but the difference is already noticeable in the graphics accelerator (GPU). In this case, we’re comparing not only Mali-G78 MP10 (Exynos 1080) vs. Adreno 650 (Snapdragon 865), but also Adreno 660 (Snapdragon 888).
From available sources, we know that compared with last year’s Snapdragon 865 processor, the new Exynos 1080 is also ahead in terms of GPU. But what about the new Snapdragon 888 with the Adreno 660 graphics chip?
Qualcomm published a video where the graphics unit of its new processor achieved up to 319,439 points in performance tests. For comparison, we’ll use data from a commercially available smartphone (Xiaomi Mi 11), whose GPU results stopped at 306,548 points.
Nevertheless, we have to say that the Mali-G78 MP10 graphics unit, which is part of the Exynos 1080 chip, clearly lags behind and only scored 239,408 points in performance tests. As for the Kirin 9000, however, it’s already just a narrow lead over the Snapdragon 888 processor. The reason may be the number of cores: the Kirin has up to 24, while the Exynos has “only” 10.
Artificial intelligence
The South Korean manufacturer Samsung claims that the new Exynos 1080 comes with a powerful neural processing unit (NPU), but it doesn’t specify any performance increase compared to the previous information.
We don’t have a direct AI comparison of the new pair of processors available yet. However, the likely challenger to the Snapdragon 888 will be the next generation of the Exynos processor.
Final verdict: Samsung Exynos 1080 vs. Snapdragon 888
In short: and underlined, the winner of this comparison is the Snapdragon 888. It beats the Exynos 1080 not only in terms of CPU, but especially in terms of GPU.
That said, it can’t be said that the Exynos 1080 is a bad chipset. Compared to its predecessor, it brings several major improvements, and its GPU performance even beats last year’s Snapdragon 865—definitely good news.
Do you like a battle between two flagship processors? Would you consider buying one of the new flagship devices? You can share your thoughts and opinions with us below in the discussion under the article. Follow our Facebook and the portal China Planet to learn more.
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