Mediatek MT6739 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 MSM8974AB vs Mediatek MT8165

Mediatek MT6739

The MediaTek MT6739 is a 64-bit ARM-based SoC launched in 2017 primarily for small budget Android devices. The quad-core processor is based on the Cortex-A53 architecture and clocks up to 1.5 GHz. It integrates an LTE modem (Cat. 4 DL / Cat 5 UL) and a PowerVR GE8100 at 570 MHz (the predecessors used ARM Mali GPUs). Furthermore, the SoC integrates a 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi adapter and a video de- and encoder in hardware.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 MSM8974AB

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 MSM8974AB is an ARM-based SoC for tablets and smartphones. It is built at TSMC in a 28nm HPM (High Performance Mobile) HKMG process, whereas the Snapdragon 600 was manufactured in 28nm LP. In addition to 4 CPU cores with a clock speed of up to 2.36 GHz, the chip also integrates an Adreno 330 GPU up to 578 MHz, an LPDDR3-1866 memory controller and various radio modules (UMTS/LTE, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS). The slightly higher CPU/GPU clocks and faster memory support are the key differences to the Snapdragon 800 MSM8974.

Processor 

The CPU portion is based on Qualcomm's Krait architecture, which is compatible with the ARMv7 ISA. Compared to the Snapdragon 600 (Krait 300), the new Krait 400 cores of the Snapdragon 800/801 have been tweaked just slightly with faster L2 cache. Thanks to a clock rate of up to 2.36 GHz and a high performance per MHz somewhere between an ARM Cortex-A9 and a Cortex-A15, the Snapdragon 801 offers very strong CPU performance. The S801 competes with the Nvidia Tegra 4, Samsung Exynos 5420 and Apple A7 and is therefore one of the fastest ARM SoCs on the market as of 2013.

Graphics

Another difference between the Snapdragon 600 and 800/801 is the graphics unit. While the S600 implements an Adreno 320 (400 to 450 MHz), the S800 /S801 feature the faster Adreno 330 (MSM8974AB: 578 MHz). Both GPUs offer the same amount of texture units (8 TMUs), but the Adreno 330 has 50 percent more shaders (probably 6x SIMD16 vs. 4x SIMD16 of the previous generation). In conjunction with the higher memory bandwidth, the performance is significantly better. As a result, the Adreno 330 is slightly faster than the Mali-T628 (Exynos 5420) and the PowerVR G6430 (Apple A7). Depending on the device and cooling, however, the performance may vary. The GPU supports OpenGL ES 3.0 as well as OpenCL 1.2.

Features 

Furthermore, the MSM8974AB supports many wireless technologies: Bluetooth 4.0, WLAN, IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2.4/5 GHz), GSM (GPRS, EDGE), W-CDMA/UMTS (HSDPA, HSUPA, HSPA+, cat.29 DC-HSPA+), MBMS, cat.4 LTE, CDMA2000 (1X RTT, 1 × EV-DO Rel.0/Rev.A/Rev.B, 1× EV-DO Rev.A MC, 1× Adv Rev.A/Rev.B) and TD-SCDMA. 

The MSM8974AB can encode and play UHD 4K videos in 3840x2160 at 30 FPS (120 Mbps H.264 High Profile) simultaneously via dedicated hardware. Moreover, it supports both USB 2.0 and 3.0 and cameras up to 55 megapixels and stereoscopic 3D.

Power Consumption

Thanks to the new 28nm HPM HKMG process, the energy efficiency has been improved significantly compared to its LP 28nm S600 predecessor. Depending on the field of application, the maximum power consumption should be about 3 W for smartphones or 4 W or greater for tablets. This should be similar to comparable ARM SoCs currently in the market. However, the MSM8974AB will likely to need a little more power than the slightly lower clocked MSM8974.

Mediatek MT8165

The MediaTek MT8165 is a 64-bit ARM-based SoC for Android devices launched in 2014. The quad-core processor is manufactured in 28 nm and based on the Cortex-A53 architecture. In addition to the CPU core, it integrates an ARM Mali-760 MP2 GPU and a LPDDR3 memory controller (32-bit, 800 MHz, 6.4 GB/s).

Processor

The Cortex-A53 is the successor to the popular Cortex-A7 design. In addition to the jump from 32-bit to 64-bit architecture (ARMv8 ISA) to address more than 4 GB of memory, the new design offers better branch prediction and higher performance-to-power ratio that rivals the Cortex-A9. The four cores of the MT8165 are clocked at up to 1.5 GHz and sits roughly in between the Qualcomm Snapdragon 610 (4x Cortex-A53 at 1.7 GHz) and Snapdragon 410 (4x Cortex-A53 at 1.2 to 1.4 GHz). The power-efficient processor is fit for common tasks like browsing and running light applications.

Graphics

The integrated dual-core Mali-T760 MP2 is a mid-range GPU clocked at up to 500 MHz. Most Android games will run at acceptable frame rates on medium resolutions and quality.