Samsung Exynos 9825 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 860

Samsung Exynos 9825

The Samsung Exynos 9 9825 is a mobile SoC for smartphones and tablets. It was announced in the Samsung Note 10 line in August 2019. The processor integrates three clusters of processor cores with different architectures. Two big Samsung custom M4 cores clock up to 2.73 GHz and deliver peak performance. Two additional ARM Cortex-A75 are also for performance tasks and clock at up to 2.4 GHz (up from 2.3 GHz in the 9820). Finally, four small and power efficient ARM-Cortex A55 cores clock at up to 1.9 GHz are in the third cluster. The different clusters can run simultaneously thanks to DinamIQ.

The integrated LTE modem supports LTE-Advanced Pro Cat.20 (8CA 2 Gbps download, 3CA 316 Mbps upload). The integrated graphics card is a ARM Mali G76MP12 with 12 cores. Thanks to higher clock rates, the G76 is now a bit faster compared to the Exynos 9820.

The performance of the CPU part is positioned in the high end segment for smartphone processors. Due to the slight changes in clock rates, it is very comparable to the older Eynos 9 9820. Maybe in longer load phases, the improved 7nm process helps to maintain clock speeds a bit better. The direct competitor Snapdragon 855 can be left behind in single-core benchmarks like Geekbench and operates on par in multi-core benchmarks.

The SoC is produced at Samsung in the new 7nm LPP (with EUV) process that should improve power efficiency compared to the Exynos 9820.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 860

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 (SM8150-AC) Mobile Platform is a high-end smartphone and tablet SoC that Qualcomm announced in 2021. Compared to the old Snapdragon 855 Plus, the 860 is very similar and adds support for 16 GB RAM and a few camera features.

The SoC integrates a fast ‘Prime Core’ that clocks up to 2.96 GHz (up from 2.84 GHz in the 855) and three further fast ARM Cortex-A76 performance cores, which can reach up to 2.42 GHz. These are complemented by four power-saving ARM Cortex-A55 cores that clock up to a maximum of 1.8 GHz.

The SoC also integrates the X24 LTE modem that Qualcomm promises will deliver up to 2 Gbit/s maximum download speed over LTE Cat.20 and up to 316 Mbit/s upload speeds. The Snapdragon 860 can be configured with the company’s new X50 5G modem too (as an external chip).

The integrated Wi-Fi modem, which is Wi-Fi 6-ready, has 8x8 Sounding and supports up to 802.11 ay Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi modem can utilise the 60 GHz mmWave band for up to 10 Gbit/s internet speeds.

The Hexagon 690 DSP incorporates a neural processing unit (NPU) with dedicated Tensor-cores that can execute up to 7 trillion operations per second in conjunction with the CPU and GPU. In short, the Snapdragon 860 should be three times faster than the Snapdragon 845 and two times faster than the Kirin 980 SoC.

The Snapdragon 860 also has a Spectra 380 ISP onboard, which was the world’s first part to incorporate a Computer Vision Engine (CV-ISP) that can perform depth calculations in videos at up to 60 FPS. The Snapdragon 860 should deliver real-time portrait modes or be able to detect objects with relatively low power consumption.

The built-in memory controller supports up to 16 GB LPDDR4x RAM (4 x 16-bit). As the SD855 and 855+, the 860 integrates an Adreno 640 graphics card.

Qualcomm will manufacturer the Snapdragon 860 at the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) using a 7 nm FinFET process.