Qualcomm Adreno 618 vs Qualcomm Adreno 642L

Qualcomm Adreno 618

The Qualcomm Adreno 618 is a mobile graphics card for upper mid-range smartphones and tablets (mostly Android based). It is included in the Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 and 730G SoCs and based on the Adreno 600 architecture (like the Adreno 630, which should be fully compatible in software).

In our benchmarks, the Adreno 618 in the Snapdragon 730 was 14 to 30% faster than the Adreno 616 in the Snapdragon 710. The performance in the 730G should be additional 15% faster, due to higher clock rates.

The GPU supports modern standards like Vulkan 1.0 (according to Wikipedia), OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 2.0 and DirectX 11 (FL 11_1).

Qualcomm Adreno 642L

The Qualcomm Adreno 642L is a smartphone and tablet GPU that is integrated within the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G SoC. The chip will be available from mid 2021 and will be used mainly in upper mid-range Android devices.

According to Qualcomm, the Adreno 642L GPU offers a 40% improved performance over the Adreno 620 (compared to the specified +50% of the 642 in the SD 780G), its predecessor, which is integrated in the Snapdragon 768G SoC. This is also thanks to the fast LPDDR4X-4200 memory support of the SoC.

The Adreno 642L supports OpenCL 2.0 FP, OpenGL ES 3.2 and Vulkan 1.1.

The Snapdragon 778G and therefore also the 642L is manufactured in the modern 6nm UEV process at TSMC that should provide a good power efficiency.