Xclipse 920 vs Adreno 730: Coasting AMD RDNA 2-powered GPU for the Exynos 2200 thrashes the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1's graphics processor in new benchmarks

There has been plenty of discussion about the Exynos 2200 and its AMD RDNA 2-based GPU, the Xclipse 920. Some of it has been positive and some of it has been negative; however, with news that Exynos-powered Samsung Galaxy S22 phones will be coming to international markets, the great performance by the chip on Geekbench in OpenCL and Vulkan will be seen as positives for those worried that they might get the “worst flagship processor” in their brand-new S22 devices. While the CPU part has not set the world on fire just yet, the GPU part has new results to help it stand head and shoulders beyond (most of) the competition.

The Exynos 2200 was spotted on Geekbench in a Samsung SM-S908B, which should be the international variant of the Galaxy S22 Ultra. There are three Vulkan scores for the chip and one OpenCL score, with the Xclipse 920 performing the bulk of the work in these benchmarks. Remarkably, the AMD co-designed GPU seems to be coasting in the OpenCL test, as the measured frequency is just 555 MHz for a part that apparently can manage up to 1.30 GHz. The score of 9,143 points is +50.7% higher than the best score so far listed for the OnePlus NE2210 (6,050 points), which is the OnePlus 10 Pro with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and Adreno 730.

The Vulkan test results are also promising for the Exynos 2200 with Xclipse 920. At the time of writing, there were three records on Geekbench leaving an average score of 8,556 points. Browsing through the results for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC in the OnePlus 10 Pro leaves an idea of what the Adreno 730 can manage in Vulkan: The highest score is 7,285 points. This puts the Samsung Xclipse 920 a more palatable (for the competition) +17.4% ahead. But this is highest vs. average; if the highest Vulkan score for both devices are set together, then the lead for the Exynos 2200 grows to +23.9%.

It's important to remember these are synthetic benchmark results, with the Exynos 2200 apparently not even at full stretch here. Real-life and gaming tests will likely throw up differing results; however, the fact can’t be taken away that the Samsung Exynos 2200 and specifically its Xclipse 920 GPU look very tasty in this particular comparison. It might just come down to which smartphone can offer the best thermal management when it comes to deciding which chip really is currently the best (and worst) flagship processor.

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