Samsung Exynos 2200 with RDNA 2 GPU on the test bench

The editors have had test devices of the Samsung Galaxy S22+ and Galaxy S22 Ultra as of today. Even before the usual series of tests begins, the benchmarks give a first impression of the performance of the new Exynos 2200 with RDNA 2 GPU. One thing is already certain: the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 GPU is much faster.

The European Galaxy S22 family has the Exynos 2200, while countries like the US will get the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. The article in the January presentation provides all the details about the Exynos 2200. Below is a brief summary of the features. characteristics.

Ray tracing and VRS for smartphones

In addition to custom designs for game consoles such as PlayStation 5 (test) or Xbox Series X|S, AMD is now also present in smartphones with the RDNA 2 architecture. However, the new graphics unit cannot call itself Radeon, but which was dubbed “Samsung Xclipse 920 GPU”. The GPU brings familiar desktop features, including hardware accelerated ray tracing and variable rate shading (VRS). Samsung was unable to show examples of concrete applications for the smartphone presentation, either for ray tracing or for VRS: the associated applications are simply still missing. The benchmarks used do not yet offer special tests for these new GPU features. According to Samsung, the GPU performance should be 17 percent higher on average compared to the Exynos 2100’s Mali-G78 MP14.

Xclipse 920 GPU with RDNA 2 in Benchmark

In the first benchmark, GFXBench Aztec Ruins at 1440p off-screen resolution with the Vulkan API, the Xclipse 920 on the Galaxy S22 Ultra achieves exactly Samsung’s advertised 17 percent advantage over the Exynos 2100 with Mali-G78 MP14. The Galaxy S22+, which is identical in terms of SoC, does not come very close to this value and ends up with a 14 percent advantage. Depending on the benchmark, the two new smartphones exchange positions with slight differences.

Adreno 730 offers significantly higher performance

However, the focus should be less on the Exynos 2100 and more on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, which is 44 percent ahead of the Samsung SoC with 49 instead of 34 FPS. Editors were able to test the latest Snapdragon chip late last year in a Qualcomm reference design, which is structurally nearly identical to a regular smartphone and runs on normal SoC specs.

The Exynos 2200 passes the same benchmark with a reduced 1080p off-screen resolution and reduced details with a 25 to 26 percent greater advantage compared to the predecessor. However, Qualcomm once again demonstrates the strengths of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 under Vulkan and scores a new score with a 44 percent lead over Samsung.

OpenGL ES is a bit better suited to the Exynos 2200

OpenGL ES 3.1 is slightly better for the Xclipse 920 GPU and slightly worse for Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, with Qualcomm “only” scoring 33 percent better in GFXBench Car Chase. The new SoC beats the Exynos 2100 with a difference of 13 percent. However, in GFXBench Manhattan using the same API, 43 percent are again on the credit side of Qualcomm.

3DMark also reveals big differences

In 3DMark, the Exynos 2200 draws a very similar picture and always appears a clear distance behind the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, which is used in the US models of the Galaxy S22 family. But there is an exception. It affects OpenGL ES 3.0, which was not used for testing in GFXBench. The above API suits the Exynos 2200 very well, so the Xclipse 920 GPU takes the lead for the first time. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is just behind, 4 percent behind.

GPU benchmarks under continuous load

The editors also looked at behavior under continuous load with two of the three performance presets that can be selected in the battery settings in 3DMark Wild Life. The default value is “Optimized” and “balance speed and battery as well as cooling efficiency“. With “high” there is a preset for a “faster data processing when some apps are running slowly“. According to Samsung, this mode consumes more battery power and results in “possibly overheating“. According to Samsung’s description, the “Maximum” mode is “best for short-term use with process-intensive applications“willing and”drains battery quickly and tends to generate heat“.

However, as Samsung points out in the same menu, this setting has no effect on gaming. Consequently, there were hardly any deviations in the 20 runs of 3DMark Wild Life. The performance of both smartphones gradually declines, but levels off at around 62 percent of the original performance from around the 13th run. The Exynos 2200 sits ahead of the Exynos 2100 but behind Google Tensor, well behind the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, and behind the two latest Apple SoCs from the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 families.

CPU with standard ARM cores works as expected

The new GPU is accompanied by a new ARM CPU that uses standard cores from the British developer after Samsung shut down the custom forge in Texas. While the predecessor Exynos 2100 still used Cortex-X1, A78, and A55, Cortex-X2 with one core, Cortex-A710 with three cores, and Cortex-A510 with four cores are now used. Samsung uses pretty much the same ARMv9 core layout as in Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. Samsung trademarks the new ARM cores at 2.8 GHz (X2), 2.5 GHz (A710) and 1.8 GHz (A510) and claims a 5 percent increase in performance compared to the Exynos 2100.

Geekbench gives the Exynos 2200 a 7 to 8 percent advantage in terms of single-core performance and up to 9 percent in multi-core performance, with the Galaxy S22+ only being worth 3 percent better in the test. multi-core. Samsung clocks in the new cores slower than Qualcomm in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, so the gap can be easily explained, even though the components are nearly identical.

PCMark 3.0 runs a series of real-world tests that perform web browsing, photo and video editing, text writing, and data analysis of a variety of file formats using standard Android APIs. In this benchmark, the Exynos 2200 achieves a small 3 percent lead over the Exynos 2100 in the Galaxy S21 Ultra (test). However, the measured value of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 once again speaks plain language with a 14 percent lead.

The browser benchmark in JetStream 2 has yet to be registered with reservations, because in both Chrome and Samsung’s own browser app, the Galaxy S22+ and S22 Ultra lag behind the Galaxy S21 Ultra. More optimizations and firmware updates are probably required here. ComputerBase tested both Galaxy S22 models with build number SP1A.210812.016.S908BXXU1AVA7.

preliminary conclusion

“That still needs to be optimized.“, is also the preliminary conclusion on the performance of the Exynos 2200 in selected benchmarks. AMD’s first RDNA 2 GPU for smartphones is not yet a competitor for Snapdragon 8 Gen 1’s Adreno 730. However, it is doubtful that new versions of firmware and drivers may increase GPU performance by 40 percent, which would be necessary to catch up with Qualcomm The gap with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 would be considered in isolation and not particularly pleasant alone in relation to the SoC, but what is particularly annoying this time is that Samsung is clearly presenting the Galaxy S22 family in certain markets such as the US with a GPU offers a more powerful chip It is not the first time that European customers They lose out with the Exynos 2200.

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