Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus MSM8930 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro MSM8960T

Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus MSM8930

The Qualcomm MSM8930 (Snapdragon S4 Plus series) is an 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 LTE radio elements.  The chip is produced in 28nm LP (low power process) at TSMC. Compared to the MSM8960, the 8930 is lower clocked, offers only a single channel memory controller, but has a faster GPU.

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

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.