Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus MSM8230 vs MediaTek MT8163 V/A 1.5 GHz vs Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro MSM8960T

Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus MSM8230

The Qualcomm MSM8230 (Snapdragon S4 Plus series) is a ARM based high-end smartphone SoC in 2012. It contains two Krait (ARMv7) CPU cores at up to 1.2 GHz, a Adreno 305 GPU, a single channel LPDDR2 memory controller and radio elements.  The chip is produced in 28nm LP (low power process) at TSMC. Compared to the MSM8930, the 8230 lacks LTE.

The Krait cores offer a slightly better performance as the standard Cortex-A9 cores and are compatible to the NEON SIMD extensions.

MediaTek MT8163 V/A 1.5 GHz

The MediaTek MT8163 V/A is an ARM based entry-level to mid-range SoC for (Android based) tablets. It offers four ARM Cortex-A53 processor cores (quad-core) that are clocked with up to 1.5 GHz. Furthermore, an ARM Mali-T720 MP2 graphics card clocked at 600 MHz, a DDR3x32 1600Mbps memory controller, Bluetooth 4.0, 802.11 b/g/n, GPS and FM are integrated in the SoC.

The similar named MediaTek MT8163 V/B is the slower clocked version, with a CPU clock o up to 1.3 GHz (-6%) and GPU of up to 520 MHz (-13%).

The performance is situated in the entry level of 2015 and often similar to the Kirin 910T (see benchmark below).

Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro MSM8960T

The Qualcomm MSM8960T (Snapdragon S4 Pro) is a fast ARM SoC, which is mainly used in smartphones. It integrates a Krait-based dual-core processor and an Adreno 320 graphics card. Furthermore it features an integrated LPDDR2 memory controller (dual channel, max. 500 MHz) as well as various radio standards including LTE. The chip is fabricated at TSMC in a 28nm LP process.

Unlike older Qualcomm SoCs, which are still based on slower Scorpion cores, the MSM8960T uses the modern Krait architecture. The Krait design is significantly faster than the Cortex-A5, Cortex-A7 and Cortex-A9 architecture from ARM and just behind the high-end Cortex-A15. The two cores are clocked at 1.7 GHz and offer a performance, which is even above some older quad-cores like Nvidia's Tegra 3 or the Samsung Exynos 4412.

The Adreno 320 graphics card is the same as found in the Snapdragon 600 and one of the fastest mobile GPUs in mid-2013. The GPU is clocked at 400 MHz and offers enough performance for demanding games and high resolution screens.

Since the MSM8960T only has two CPU cores, the power consumption should be somewhat below quad-cores like the Snapdragon 600. The chip can therefore be used in compact smartphones with a smaller battery.