ARM Mali-T860 MP2 vs Qualcomm Adreno 540

ARM Mali-T860 MP2

The ARM Mali-T860 MP2 is a mobile graphics solution that can be found in ARM SoCs like the Mediatek Helio P10. The chip is available since Q1/2015 and supports OpenGL ES 3.1, OpenCL 1.2 and DirectX 11.1. The Mali-T860 can be built with 1 to 16 clusters, where the MP2 version features 2 clusters/cores.

The MP2 version is used e.g. in the Mediatek Helio P10 at 700 MHz and performs similar to a Adreno 405 or Mali-T628 with a low core count (e.g. MP2 or MP4). Therfore, only low demanding gaming are suited for the GPU.

In the Helio P10 the GPU is manufactured in 28nm at TSMC.

Qualcomm Adreno 540

The Qualcomm Adreno 540 is an integrated graphics card in the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC for smartphones. It was introduced in early 2017 and can be found in high-end Android smartphones. 

The integrated GPU is based on the optimized architecture of the Adreno 530, but features clearly improved clock speeds (710 versus 624 MHz according to Anandtech) and better thermal stability. This is also thanks to the new 10 nm process the Snapdragon 835 is produced in. In the reference smartphone from Qualcomm, the Adreno 540 is able to beat or perform at a similar level as the fastest smartphone graphics cards on the market (e.g. the ARM Mali-T880MP12, ARM Mali-G71MP8 or Apple A10 GPU). Therefore, it should be perfectly suited for demanding 3D gaming and also mobile VR and 4K displays.