Mediatek MT6750N vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 MSM8952 vs Mediatek MT6752

Mediatek MT6750N

The ARM-based Mediatek MT6750N SoC (System on a Chip) is a mid-range mobile processor for smartphones and tablets (mostly Android based). It integrates 8 ARM Cortex-A53 cores consisting of 4 high-performance cores clocked at up to 1.5 GHz plus 4 low-power cores clocked at up to 1 GHz each. Furthermore, the SoC integrates a Cat. 6 LTE radio and an ARM Mali-T860 MP2 GPU with 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. Compared to the older MT6750, the graphics card seems to be clocked higher.

The Cortex-A53 is the successor to the Cortex-A7 and introduces 64-Bit support (ARMv8-ISA). Its performance-per-Watt is significantly higher and is even slightly ahead of the old Cortex-A9. If utilizing all 8 of its cores, the Cortex-A53 can rival competing mobile processes in the high-end class range. However, no practical software has been specifically coded to use all 8 cores at such high performance levels.

In addition to the CPU and GPU cores, the SoC also contains a memory controller and the aforementioned Cat.6 LTE modem (FDD/TDD, DC-HSPA+, TD-SCDMA, CDMA2000, EDGE) with both 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth. The integrated video engine is able to record and playback 1080p videos at up to 30 FPS in hardware. Cameras are supported at up to 16 MP.

The MT6750 is still manufactured in 28nm and so power efficiency is not on par with modern 14/16nm chips.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 MSM8952

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 MSM8952 is a mid-range ARMv8-based SoC largely for Android tablets and smartphones announced in September 2015. In addition to 8 Cortex-A53 CPU cores at up to 1.5 / 1.2 (performance and power saving cluster) GHz, the SoC integrates an Adreno 405 GPU with a LPDDR3-1866 memory controller and supports Wi-Fi (802.11ac), Bluetooth 4.0, UMTS, and LTE. Compared to the older Snapdragon 615, the clock speeds are a bit lower (hits 1.7 GHz max).

CPU

The Cortex-A53 is the successor to the very popular Cortex-A7 design. In addition to the new 64-bit capable ARMv8 ISA, the cores offer a variety of other improvements such as better branch prediction. This leads to a significantly higher performance per clock, which is even above the older Cortex-A9.

The eight cores of the Snapdragon 617 are divided into two quad-core clusters, each optimized for a different operating point. While one cluster can clock up to 1.5 GHz to handle more demanding applications, the other cluster is limited to a maximum of 1.2 GHz for energy-saving purposes. All eight cores can be active at the same time, although most applications aren't parallelized to support 8 cores efficiently.

Overall, the Snapdragon 617 offers a performance similar to that of the older Snapdragon 600 (Krait architecture).

GPU

Another new feature is the integrated graphics unit named Adreno 405 (most likely around 550 MHz). The Adreno 400 series has been substantially redesigned and supports DirectX 11.2 (FL 11_1) including hardware tessellation, OpenGL ES 3.1, and OpenCL 1.2. Furthermore, the performance has been significantly improved, which is now similar to the Adreno 320 and PowerVR G6200.

Features

The Snapdragon 617 offers numerous wireless technologies such as Bluetooth 4.0 and WLAN 802.11a/b/g/n/ac as well as a Multi-SIM cellular modem supporting LTE cat. 4 (up to 150 Mbps), WCDMA, CDMA, EV-DO, TD-SCDMA and GSM/EDGE.

The SoC can encode and decode 1080p videos using dedicated hardware and stream content to displays with up to 2560 x 2048 pixels. A large number of video codecs including H.265 (playback only) will be supported. The camera ISP can handle sensors with up to 21 MP.

Power Consumption

The Snapdragon 617 is manufactured by TSMC in a 28 nm LP process. According to the specifications, we expect a medium or medium-high power consumption for use in medium-sized or larger smartphones and tablets.

Mediatek MT6752

The MediaTek MT6752 is a 64-bit ARM-based SoC launched in 2014 primarily for mid-range Android devices. The octa-core processor is manufactured in 28 nm and is based on the Cortex-A53 architecture. The cores clock at up to 1.7 GHz. It integrates an LTE modem and an ARM Mali-760 MP2 GPU at 700 MHz capable of decoding and encoding videos of up to 1080p30.

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 MT6732 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 Mali-T760 MP2  is an entry-level GPU clocked at up to 700 MHz. Most Android games will play at acceptable frame rates on medium resolutions and quality.

Features

The MT6752 SoC integrates a memory controller (1x 32-bit LPDDR3, 6.4 GB/s), multiple radios (WLAN, Bluetooth, GPS), and a cellular modem (GSM, UMTS, GPRS, HSPA+, HSUPA, TD-SCDMA, EVDO, and LTE Cat 4). Its integrated video engine allows for 1080p playback at 30 FPS (H.265). Cameras are supported up to 16 MP.