Qualcomm Adreno 320 vs Qualcomm Adreno 510 vs Qualcomm Adreno 330

Qualcomm Adreno 320

The Qualcomm Adreno 320 is a GPU for smartphones and tablets that is integrated into Qualcomm SoCs. It was introduced in the end of 2012 and was primarily used for Android devices. The graphics card uses a technology called FlexRender. It can switch "intelligently" switch between TBR (TBR Tile Based Renderer) and the classic direct rendering. 

The Adreno 320 has Unified Shaders and supports OpenGL ES 3.0. The performance compared to the Adreno 200-series is supposed to be improved by the factor 3-4. 

The Adreno 320 is used in Snapdragon S4 SoCs like the AQP8064.

Qualcomm Adreno 510

The Qualcomm Adreno 510 is a mobile graphics card for mid-range smartphones and tablets (mostly Android based). It is included in the Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 and 652 SoCs and based on the Adreno 500 architecture (like the Adreno 520 in the S820, which should be fully compatible in software).

The GPU supports modern standards like Vulkan 1.0 (according to Wikipedia), OpenGL ES 3.1 + AE (3.2 in other sources), OpenCL 2.0 and DirectX 12 (FL 12.1 according to Wikipedia, 11.1 according to Qualcomm). Furthermore, the GPU supports Universal Bandwidth Compression (UBWC) to save memory bandwidth.

Compared the the faster Adreno 530, the 510 is currently produced in the older 28nm process (650 and 652) and should offer less ALUs. The clock speed is not disclosed.

Early benchmarks and performance ratings from Qualcomm position the GPU on a level with the old Adreno 330 (former high end GPU) in the Snapdragon 810. Therefore, it should be able to handle most Android games up to Full HD fluently.

Qualcomm Adreno 330

The Qualcomm Adreno 330 is a GPU for smartphones and tablets that is integrated into Qualcomm SoCs. It was introduced in the middle of 2013 and was primarily used for Android devices. The graphics card uses a technology called FlexRender. It can switch "intelligently" switch between TBR (TBR Tile Based Renderer) and the classic direct rendering. It supports OpenGL ES 3.0 and is mostly used in Android based smartphones and tablets.

The graphics clock rate of the Adreno 330 differs from the used SoC where it is built in. It ranges from 450 MHz in the Snapdragon 800 MSM8974, over 550 MHz in the MSM8974AB up to 578 MHz in the Snapdragon 801 MSM8974AC. In addition, there are some architectural changes compared to the former Adreno 320 (e.g. more shader cores).

As a high-end GPU (in 2013) for Android based SoCs, the Adreno 330 is able to cope with even demanding games and high resolution displays. As you can see in our tests benchmarks below, the performance is similar to the PowerVR G6430 in the Apple A7 SoC.

We tested a Snapdragon 800 MSM8974 with a 450 MHz clocked Adreno 330 in a Acer Liquid S2 (see our review). The games run in 1920x1080 on this phablet and are therefore quite demanding.

Real Racing 3 was running quite good on some tracks in "high" settings (set with RR3 Graphics App) and stuttering on other tracks with many cars visible. In medium settings it ran fluently all the time. However battery consumption (25% in 3 races with a total runtime of 45 min) and heat development (max 42°C = 108°F) were quite high.

Fifa 14 and Angry Birds Go were also well playable although there was some slight stuttering visible in both games (may be caused by the game itself). Angry Birds Go also felt like running most of the times in lower fps regions.

The older but still demanding GTA 3 was no problem for the Liquid S2 as were less demanding games like Subway Surf or Temple Run 2. Especially the later two ran in high fps regions.