PowerVR G6430 vs Qualcomm Adreno 650 vs Qualcomm Adreno 690

PowerVR G6430

The PowerVR G6430 from Imagination Technologies is a fast mobile graphics solution that is used in ARM SoCs like the Apple A7 (iPhone 5S). The chip is available since Q3/2013 and is one of the fastest solutions of its class at the time of the introduction.  

Architecture and Performance

The GPU is based on the series 6 (Rogue) and integrates four clusters with two TMUs each and a scalar Unified Shader architecture. The chip does offer more than twice of the performance compared to the SGX543MP3 from the Apple A6, while maintaining the same clocks. The exact clock is not yet confirmed unequivocally, but it should be north of 400 MHz (results in more than 100 GFLOPS). A comparison with other mobile graphics solutions shows that the G6430 is just slightly behind the tablet version of the Adreno 330 and it is therefore the fastest GPU of its class at the time of the introduction. Even very demanding mobile games can be played without problems (as of 2013). Among others, the GPU supports OpenGL 3.x/4.x, OpenGL ES 3.0 as well as DirectX 10.

Energy Consumption

The manufacturer designed the PowerVR G6430 as a comparatively "wide" chip to achieve a high performance and a high energy efficiency at the same time. As a result, SoCs with the G6430 can also be used in smaller smartphones like the iPhone 5S. However, it does occupy a comparatively large area on the chip in return.

Qualcomm Adreno 650

The Qualcomm Adreno 650 is a smartphone and tablet GPU that is integrated within the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865, 865+ and 870 SoCs. The chip will be available from early 2020 and will be used mainly in high-end Android devices. The base clock speed of the GPU is 250 MHz and the boost depends on the used SoC. For the 865 it is 587 MHz, the 865 Plus increased to 846 MHz and the 2021 870 reached 670 MHz.

According to Qualcomm, the Adreno 650 GPU offers a 25% improved performance over the Adreno 640, its predecessor, which is integrated into the Snapdragon 855 SoC. The enhanced performance is achieved by the Adreno 650 having 50% more compute units (ALUs) than the Adreno 640. Furthermore, the clock speed of the pixel shaders was also increased by 50%.

The performance in our first benchmarks of a reference system positions itself above the ARM Mali-G76 MP16 and e.g. in 3DMark Sling Shot Extreme even on the top spot. In GFXBench only the Apple A13 GPU is able to best the Adreno 650 (regarding smartphone GPUs).

As a novelty, the GPU driver can be updated in the Android Play Store. Furthermore, some features are running under the Elite Gaming brand (e.g., 144 Hz display support, desktop forward rendering). 

The Adreno 650 supports Vulkan 1.1, DirectX 12, OpenGL ES 3.2, and OpenCL 2.0 FP. Furthermore, games and videos can use HDR10+ and Dolby Vision (with a supported display). The 650 supports 2 displays with up to 4K 60 Hz / QHD+ 144 Hz.

Qualcomm Adreno 690

The Qualcomm Adreno 690 is an integrated graphics card in the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 SoC for Windows laptops. According to Qualcomm, the 690 is up to 60% faster than the previous generation. In our tests with the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s, the Adreno 690 was only on par with a low en Intel UHD Graphics iGPU and not well suited for 3D games.

The chip is manufactured in 5nm at Samsung (5LPE) and suited for fanless laptops.