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Qualcomm Adreno 420

Qualcomm Adreno 420

The Qualcomm Adreno 420 is an integrated graphics card for (mostly Android based) smartphones and tablets. It was introduced in the middle of 2014 and is integrated in the Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 SoC. The graphics card uses a technology called FlexRender. It can switch "intelligently" between TBR (TBR Tile Based Renderer) and the classic direct rendering. It supports OpenGL ES 3.1 and DirectX 11.2 Feature Level 11_1 (compared to ES 3.0 and DirectX 9_3 of the Adreno 330).

The graphics clock rate of the Adreno 420 differs from the used SoC and where it is built in. At launch it ranges from 500 to 600 MHz in the Snapdragon 805 APQ8084.

According to Qualcomm, the power consumption in comparison to the Snapdragon 800 has been reduced by up to 20% running GFXBench 2.7 T-Rex, while delivering up to 40% more performance. First benchmarks show even bigger gains; however, the performance will decrease over time to prevent too high temperatures (especially in smartphones). This is common amongst many other ARM SoCs. Nevertheless, the Adreno 420 beats the Mali-T628 MP6 (Samsung Exynos 5420/5430) as well as the PowerVR G6430 (Apple A7) and is one of the fastest mobile GPUs in mid-2014, but still significantly slower than the Nvidia Tegra K1 or the PowerVR GX6650 in Apple's A8X SoC (both mainly tablet GPUs).

Adreno 400 Series

Adreno 430 compare 192 @ 0.65 GHz
Adreno 420 128 @ 0.6 GHz
Adreno 418 compare 128 @ 0.6 GHz
Adreno 405 compare 48 @ 0.55 GHz
Pipelines128 - unified
Core Speed600 (Boost) MHz
Shared Memoryyes
APIDirectX 11, OpenGL ES 3.1
technology28 nm
FeaturesOpenCL 1.2
Date of Announcement23.06.2014
Link to Manufacturer Pagewww.qualcomm.com
CPU in Adreno 420GPU Base SpeedGPU Boost / Turbo
Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 APQ80844 x 2700 MHz600 MHz? MHz

Benchmarks

3DMark - 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited Graphics
min: 19019     avg: 21258     median: 20733 (2%)     max: 25480 Points
GFXBench (DX / GLBenchmark) 2.7
GFXBench T-Rex HD Offscreen C24Z16 +
Basemark X 1.0 - Basemark X 1.0 Off-Screen
min: 21.1     avg: 21.1     median: 21.1 (99%)     max: 21.26 fps
Basemark X 1.1 - Basemark X 1.1 High Quality
min: 17868     avg: 18483     median: 18680 (42%)     max: 18900 Points
Basemark X 1.1 - Basemark X 1.1 Medium Quality
min: 29551     avg: 31186     median: 31806 (71%)     max: 32200 Points
PassMark PerformanceTest Mobile V1 - PerformanceTest Mobile V1 2D Graphics Tests
min: 2283     avg: 3091     median: 3436 (3%)     max: 3554 Points
PassMark PerformanceTest Mobile V1 - PerformanceTest Mobile V1 3D Graphics Tests
min: 1129     avg: 1732     median: 1979 (3%)     max: 2088 Points
- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card
* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance

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Notebook reviews with Qualcomm Adreno 420 graphics card

Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 (2014) Tablet Review

Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 (2014) Tablet Review

Fire and Origami. Once again, the fourth generation of the Fire HDX 8.9 is a tablet with great multimedia capabilities. However, the software limitations are st...
Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 APQ8084 | Qualcomm Adreno 420 | 8.90" | 375 g
Samsung Galaxy Note Edge Smartphone Review

Samsung Galaxy Note Edge Smartphone Review

Lateral thinking. Are there still any real innovations in smartphones? Samsung surprises the consumer with the Samsung Galaxy Edge and its curved screen that ar...
Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 APQ8084 | Qualcomm Adreno 420 | 5.60" | 174 g
Google Nexus 6 (Motorola XT1100-M0E10) Smartphone Review

Google Nexus 6 (Motorola XT1100-M0E10) Smartphone Review

You have grown! The Google Nexus 6 is manufactured by Motorola and follows Google's philosophy in terms of size at (almost) 6 inches. Our review reveals whethe...
Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 APQ8084 | Qualcomm Adreno 420 | 6.00" | 184 g
Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (SM-N910F) Smartphone Review

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (SM-N910F) Smartphone Review

Dazzler. The concept of the Galaxy Note, a high-end smartphone with a digitizer, is still unique and well implemented by Samsung. But the device cannot utilize ...
Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 APQ8084 | Qualcomm Adreno 420 | 5.70" | 176 g

Motorola Droid Turbo: Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 APQ8084, 5.20", 0.2 kg
  External Review » Motorola Droid Turbo

Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 inch 2014: Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 APQ8084, 8.90", 0.4 kg
  External Review » Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 inch 2014

Google Nexus 6: Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 APQ8084, 6.00", 0.2 kg
  External Review » Google Nexus 6

Samsung Galaxy Note Edge: Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 APQ8084, 5.60", 0.2 kg
  External Review » Samsung Galaxy Note Edge

Samsung Galaxy Note 4: Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 APQ8084, 5.70", 0.2 kg
  External Review » Samsung Galaxy Note 4

Samsung Galaxy S5 LTE-A Prime: Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 APQ8084, 5.10", 0.1 kg
  External Review » Samsung Galaxy S5 LTE-A Prime

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Class 3

UHD Graphics 32EUs
UHD Graphics 750

Class 4

Class 5

Class 6

* Approximate position of the graphics adapter