Tuesday, February 15th 2022
Samsung RDNA2-based Exynos 2200 GPU Performance Significantly Worse than Snapdragon 8 Gen1, Both Power Galaxy S22 Ultra
The Exynos 2200 SoC powering the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra in some regions such as the EU, posts some less-than-stellar graphics performance numbers, for all the hype around its AMD-sourced RDNA2 graphics solution, according to an investigative report by Erdi Özüağ, aka "FX57." Samsung brands this RDNA2-based GPU as the Samsung Xclipse 920. Further, Özüağ's testing found that the Exynos 2200 is considerably slower than the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 powering the S22 Ultra in certain other regions, including the US and India. He has access to both kinds of the S22 Ultra.
In the UL Benchmarks 3DMark Wildlife test, the Exynos 2200 posted a score of 6684 points, compared to 9548 points by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (a difference of 42 percent). What's even more interesting, is that the Exynos 2200 is barely 7 percent faster than the previous-gen Exynos 2100 (Arm Mali GPU) powering the S21 Ultra, which scored 6256 points. The story repeats with the GFXBench "Manhattan" off-screen render benchmark. Here, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is 30 percent faster than the Exynos 2200, which performs on-par with the Exynos 2100. Find a plethora of other results in the complete review comparing the two flavors of the S22 Ultra.
Özüağ predicts that Samsung could be working on a major software update that could improve or normalize performance between the two phone types. and that the Exynos 2200 is in need of significant software-level optimization. Özüağ also offers valuable insights into a possible cause the RDNA2-based Xclipse 920 is underwhelming. The iGPU could be starved for engine clocks, or we think possibly even memory bandwidth. Engine clocks play a decisive role in the performance of RDNA2-based discrete GPUs. AMD also spent significant engineering capital on lubricating the memory sub-system with the on-die Infinity Cache memory that operates at bandwidths typically 3-4 times that of the GDDR6 memory. The extremely tight power budget and Samsung 4 nm node could be impacting the iGPU's ability to sustain high engine clocks. We'll keep track on this story, as it marks AMD's second rodeo with smartphone graphics since the ATI Imageon days (over 14 years ago).
Source:
Erdi Özüağ (YouTube)
In the UL Benchmarks 3DMark Wildlife test, the Exynos 2200 posted a score of 6684 points, compared to 9548 points by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (a difference of 42 percent). What's even more interesting, is that the Exynos 2200 is barely 7 percent faster than the previous-gen Exynos 2100 (Arm Mali GPU) powering the S21 Ultra, which scored 6256 points. The story repeats with the GFXBench "Manhattan" off-screen render benchmark. Here, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is 30 percent faster than the Exynos 2200, which performs on-par with the Exynos 2100. Find a plethora of other results in the complete review comparing the two flavors of the S22 Ultra.
84 Comments on Samsung RDNA2-based Exynos 2200 GPU Performance Significantly Worse than Snapdragon 8 Gen1, Both Power Galaxy S22 Ultra
Having said that, I feel performance improvements with Apple SOCs are slowing down. Between A14 and 15, the performance jump isn't great, mostly contributed by the GPU, and barely any improvement in the CPU side of things. In any case, I don't find mobile phones are that slow to begin with. Even with say a SN 865, I don't feel like the system is crawling. So I feel we may have hit a point where CPU gains are less important, and more like a nice to have in my opinion.
No wonder Nvidia are throwing billions at TSMC for access to 5nm.
Fortunately only EU region is saddled this time I guess. AFAIK previously Exynos regions are also getting Snapdragon this time around.
From the first picture I can see different scaling governor.
That alone could influence significantly the performance.
Joking aside, this lends some credence to existing reports that RDNA2 cannot be clocked as needed within the given power budget. Proper testing needed, of course, but all leaks seem to be going the same way.
www.anandtech.com/show/17004/apples-iphone-13-series-screen-power-battery-life-report-long-lasting-devices
“Today’s investigation into the battery life results of the new iPhone 13 series confirms what many others have already mentioned already – it’s a significant upgrade over the iPhone 12 generation, with vast increases across the board. Apple’s new more efficient displays, larger batteries, as well as notably more efficient A15 chip represent a holy trifecta of hardware characteristic improvements that is extremely positive to the longevity of the new phones. There’s little more left to be said.”
Bold emphasis mine. The best smartphone is the elegant combination of performance and battery life which requires fine control over the manufacturing of every piece of hardware and software.
With the new Exynos you have three players (AMD, Samsung and Google) trying to work together to make this happen. While not 100% for certain, separate collaborators might not be able to deliver that level of fine control.
personally I find iOS to be finnicky to use, whenever I would try to hit next episode on netflix in bottom right corner on mini ipad it would sometimes mess up and make me go into episodes all over, it was really annoying, never had a single issue with next episode on android. so i mean android it is for me. cause im lazy and don't care and just want netflix in background at work
www.pcmag.com/news/exclusive-samsungs-galaxy-s22-is-a-low-signal-beastNot really, it's hard to expect too much from a new implementation like this, compared to Qualcomm who have improved and optimized it for years. Nobody expects it to be equal from day one, except those who believe everything videocardz/wccftech posts, and all the sites that copies every rumor from them (cough). (Not aiming at you personally)
"Whoah! It's gots the RDNA2s, it's must be the fastester!!!"
Ok, I understand this is the first effort of AMD in the low low low power space, BUT what is the point of launching a GPU which is not even faster than the last gen and tout it so much? Oh, AMD, RDNA, blablabla, Ray tracing. We've come to get used to driver issues on amd gpus on desktop, seems like the same is happening on mobile, a few games have graphical errors. so not only you get a barely good gpu, you also get shitty drivers, the never ending story of amd.
Scalability and efficiency are almost mutually-exclusive because if you're NOT scaling up, then the compromises you have to make to enable scalability prevent you from min-maxing for a compact/zero-waste design that works well at the lowest end of the spectrum.