Snapdragon 820 benchmarked

In the first half of 2016, the first devices with the new high end SoC called Snapdragon 820 are supposed to appear. Qualcomm has now finished its developing devices and allowed us to run first benchmark tests on the high-end SoC.

Klaus Hinum, ✓ Stefanie Voigt, Published 12/24/2015

In a benchmarking event from Qualcomm we had the chance to test the next generation top model of the Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC. The Snapdragon 820 was incorporated into a development platform from Qualcomm. This oversized smartphone is meant for hardware and software developers and internal use. Final products with the Snapdragon 820 are expected for the first half of 2016. According to Qualcomm, the MDP/S (Mobile Development Platform Smartphone) is still in a relatively early state. Thus the benchmarks have to be taken with a pinch of salt. Moreover, the case is relatively thick and slimmer and smaller smartphones might reach a different performance due to thermal limitations.

Processor Cores

CPU-Z shows the four cores in a big.LITTLE combination and the clock speeds (idle and load) of the GPU and CPU.

Qualcomm uses four newly developed Kryo cores with full compatibility to the ARMv8 ISA instruction set as processor cores. These are divided into two clusters, which can be clocked differently. The performance cluster clocks at up to 2.15 GHz and the energy-saving cluster works at up to 1.6 GHz. This is similar to the big.LITTLE concept from ARM. Please refer to our benchmark page of the Snapdragon 820 MSM8996 SoC for further information about the processor cores.

In our benchmarks with the MDP, the new CPU delivers an excellent performance. The previous Snapdragon 810 (e.g. as v2 in the OnePlus 2) is outperformed in all tests. This has been made possible by powerful single-core performance, which is on par with an Apple A9's. In the multithreading tests, the A9 can be easily left behind due to the use of all four cores. However, the higher clocked A9x in the iPad Pro still performs significantly better in both scenarios. The fast Exynos 7420 Octa (e.g. in the Galaxy S6) performs better in several tests (Smartbench or 3DMark physics tests) but is slower in Geekbench.

The concept of the quad-core processor with two fast and two frugal cores seems successful in the benchmarks. The S820 does not even need to hide in tests which can use all cores to capacity. Furthermore, the high single-core performance should be highly advantageous in everyday tasks.

Browser Performance

The performance of the web tests always depends heavily on the used web browsers. Two browsers have been preinstalled on the MDP: A current Chrome 44 (not optimized for the Snapdragon 820 yet) and a build of Chromium optimized by Qualcomm. We ran web benchmarks with both of them and the differences were partly big. However, the top smartphones with Snapdragon 810 or Exynos 7420 can be outpaced in general. But, the iPhone 6s and iPad Pro with Safari perform significantly better, since browser, platform, and SoC are perfectly adjusted to each other.

Geekbench 3
64 Bit Single-Core Score (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MSM8996	2376 Points
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 MSM8994	1140 Points -52%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ Samsung Exynos 7420 Octa	1317 Points -45%
Apple iPad Pro 12.9 Apple A9X	3200 Points +35%
Apple iPhone 6S Plus Apple A9	2538 Points +7%
NVIDIA Shield TV Console Nvidia Tegra X1	1410 Points -41%
64 Bit Multi-Core Score (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MSM8996	5500 Points
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 MSM8994	4804 Points -13%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ Samsung Exynos 7420 Octa	4207 Points -24%
Apple iPad Pro 12.9 Apple A9X	5419 Points -1%
Apple iPhone 6S Plus Apple A9	4429 Points -19%
NVIDIA Shield TV Console Nvidia Tegra X1	4208 Points -23%

3DMark
1280x720 offscreen Ice Storm Unlimited Physics (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MSM8996	14358 Points
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 MSM8994	10985 Points -23%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Samsung Exynos 7420 Octa	17400 Points +21%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ Samsung Exynos 7420 Octa	16117 Points +12%
Apple iPad Pro 12.9 Apple A9X	15473 Points +8%
Apple iPhone 6S Plus Apple A9	12854 Points -10%
Tegra X1 Reference Platform Nvidia Tegra X1	23071 Points +61%
2560x1440 Sling Shot Extreme (ES 3.1) Physics (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MSM8996	1288 Points
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 MSM8994	1517 Points +18%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ Samsung Exynos 7420 Octa	1627 Points +26%
Apple iPad Pro 12.9 Apple A9X	1878 Points +46%
Apple iPhone 6S Plus Apple A9	1676 Points +30%

AndEBench
Java (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MSM8996	1945 Iter./s
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 MSM8994	1486 Iter./s -24%
Native (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MSM8996	19884 Iter./s
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 MSM8994	19441 Iter./s -2%

ANDEBench PRO
Platform (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MSM8996	177 Points
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 MSM8994	272.9 Points +54%
Tegra X1 Reference Platform Nvidia Tegra X1	271 Points +53%
CoreMark-PRO/HPC (Base) (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MSM8996	4120 Points
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 MSM8994	3264 Points -21%
Tegra X1 Reference Platform Nvidia Tegra X1	3643 Points -12%

BaseMark OS II - System (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MSM8996	3600 Points
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 MSM8994	2536 Points -30%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ Samsung Exynos 7420 Octa	3321 Points -8%
Apple iPad Pro 12.9 Apple A9X	6230 Points +73%
Apple iPhone 6S Plus Apple A9	3925 Points +9%

Vellamo 3.x
Metal (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MSM8996	3402 Points
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 MSM8994	2526 Points -26%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ Samsung Exynos 7420 Octa	2686 Points -21%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet LTE P1761 Nvidia Tegra K1	1916 Points -44%
Multicore Beta (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MSM8996	3438 Points
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 MSM8994	2272 Points -34%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ Samsung Exynos 7420 Octa	2951 Points -14%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet LTE P1761 Nvidia Tegra K1	2456 Points -29%

Smartbench 2012 - Productivity Index (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MSM8996	10896 points
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 MSM8994	10472 points -4%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Samsung Exynos 7420 Octa	13612 points +25%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ Samsung Exynos 7420 Octa	16793 points +54%

Browsermark | Mozilla Kraken 1.1 | Octane V2 | BaseMark OS II | Vellamo 3.x

Browsermark - 2.1 (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MSM8996	2729 points
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 MSM8994	2111 points -23%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ Samsung Exynos 7420 Octa	1884 points -31%
Apple iPad Pro 12.9 Apple A9X	5268 points +93%
Apple iPhone 6S Plus Apple A9	0 points -100%

Mozilla Kraken 1.1 - Total (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MSM8996	6310 ms *
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MSM8996	2460 ms * +61%
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 MSM8994	6585 ms * -4%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ Samsung Exynos 7420 Octa	5067 ms * +20%
Apple iPad Pro 12.9 Apple A9X	1499 ms * +76%
Apple iPhone 6S Plus Apple A9	1743 ms * +72%

Octane V2 - Total Score (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MSM8996	10559 Points
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MSM8996	8395 Points -20%
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 MSM8994	6955 Points -34%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Samsung Exynos 7420 Octa	9253 Points -12%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ Samsung Exynos 7420 Octa	7724 Points -27%
Apple iPad Pro 12.9 Apple A9X	19852 Points +88%
Apple iPhone 6S Plus Apple A9	15967 Points +51%

BaseMark OS II - Web (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MSM8996	985 Points
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 MSM8994	923 Points -6%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ Samsung Exynos 7420 Octa	993 Points +1%
Apple iPad Pro 12.9 Apple A9X	1091 Points +11%
Apple iPhone 6S Plus Apple A9	1199 Points +22%

Vellamo 3.x - Browser (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MSM8996	5954 Points
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MSM8996	5142 Points -14%
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 MSM8994	4526 Points -24%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ Samsung Exynos 7420 Octa	4742 Points -20%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet LTE P1761 Nvidia Tegra K1	5513 Points -7%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet LTE P1761 Nvidia Tegra K1	3027 Points -49%

* ... smaller is better

Graphics Performance

Only a few details of the new Adreno 530 are known. Qualcomm boasts improved performance and efficiency. All modern instruction sets for smartphones (like OpenGL ES 3.1 + AEP in Marshmallow) are supported. Please refer to our GPU page about the Qualcomm Adreno 530 for all details and current benchmarks of all test devices.

In our benchmarks, our reference system from Qualcomm shows interesting results: New and demanding benchmarks can use the Adreno 530 to capacity and achieve excellent results. However, the advantage is a bit lower in older graphics tests.

Apart from the slightly disappointing results in the relatively undemanding 3DMark Ice Storm, the graphics card can outperform the Adreno 430 in the S810, the Mali-T760MP8 in the Exynos, and the PowerVR GT7600 in the new iPhones. Only the huge graphics chip in the Apple A9X (iPad Pro), and Tegra X1 (however, we still do not have results of the new Pixel C) are faster.

GFXBench - 1920x1080 Car Chase Offscreen (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Adreno 530, 820 MSM8996	18 fps
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	11 fps -39%
Apple iPad Pro 12.9 Apple A9X / PowerVR Series 7XT, A9X	32.4 fps +80%

GFXBench 3.1 - 1920x1080 Manhattan ES 3.1 Offscreen (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Adreno 530, 820 MSM8996	31 fps
Sony Xperia Z5 Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	16 fps -48%
ZTE Axon Elite Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	18 fps -42%
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	19 fps -39%
Apple iPad Pro 12.9 Apple A9X / PowerVR Series 7XT, A9X	83 fps +168%
Apple iPhone 6S Plus Apple A9 / PowerVR GT7600, A9	28 fps -10%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet LTE P1761 NVIDIA Tegra K1 Kepler GPU, K1	23 fps -26%

GFXBench 3.0 - 1920x1080 1080p Manhattan Offscreen (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Adreno 530, 820 MSM8996	48 fps
Sony Xperia Z5 Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	24 fps -50%
ZTE Axon Elite Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	25 fps -48%
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	23 fps -52%
Samsung Galaxy S6 ARM Mali-T760 MP8, Exynos 7420	23 fps -52%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ ARM Mali-T760 MP8, Exynos 7420	18 fps -62%
Apple iPad Pro 12.9 Apple A9X / PowerVR Series 7XT, A9X	80.1 fps +67%
Apple iPhone 6S Plus Apple A9 / PowerVR GT7600, A9	38.4 fps -20%
Tegra X1 Reference Platform NVIDIA Tegra X1 Maxwell GPU, X1	65.8 fps +37%
NVIDIA Shield TV Console NVIDIA Tegra X1 Maxwell GPU, X1	44 fps -8%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet LTE P1761 NVIDIA Tegra K1 Kepler GPU, K1	32 fps -33%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet P1761W NVIDIA Tegra K1 Kepler GPU, K1	31.2 fps -35%

GFXBench (DX / GLBenchmark) 2.7 - 1920x1080 T-Rex Offscreen (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Adreno 530, 820 MSM8996	91 fps
Sony Xperia Z5 Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	49 fps -46%
ZTE Axon Elite Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	51 fps -44%
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	48 fps -47%
Samsung Galaxy S6 ARM Mali-T760 MP8, Exynos 7420	54 fps -41%
Apple iPad Pro 12.9 Apple A9X / PowerVR Series 7XT, A9X	163.2 fps +79%
Apple iPhone 6S Plus Apple A9 / PowerVR GT7600, A9	78.9 fps -13%
Tegra X1 Reference Platform NVIDIA Tegra X1 Maxwell GPU, X1	124.2 fps +36%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet LTE P1761 NVIDIA Tegra K1 Kepler GPU, K1	65 fps -29%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet P1761W NVIDIA Tegra K1 Kepler GPU, K1	66 fps -27%

Lightmark - 1920x1080 1080p (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Adreno 530, 820 MSM8996	22.7 fps
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	15.68 fps -31%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ ARM Mali-T760 MP8, Exynos 7420	11.18 fps -51%
Tegra X1 Reference Platform NVIDIA Tegra X1 Maxwell GPU, X1	34.74 fps +53%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet LTE P1761 NVIDIA Tegra K1 Kepler GPU, K1	21.6 fps -5%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet P1761W NVIDIA Tegra K1 Kepler GPU, K1	24.6 fps +8%

3DMark
2560x1440 Sling Shot Extreme (ES 3.1) Graphics (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Adreno 530, 820 MSM8996	2773 Points
Sony Xperia Z5 Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	1103 Points -60%
ZTE Axon Elite Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	1104 Points -60%
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	846 Points -69%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ ARM Mali-T760 MP8, Exynos 7420	1176 Points -58%
Apple iPad Pro 12.9 Apple A9X / PowerVR Series 7XT, A9X	5384 Points +94%
Apple iPhone 6S Plus Apple A9 / PowerVR GT7600, A9	2601 Points -6%
2560x1440 Sling Shot OpenGL ES 3.0 Graphics (sort by value)
Sony Xperia Z5 Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	2246 Points
ZTE Axon Elite Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	2230 Points
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	1854 Points
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ ARM Mali-T760 MP8, Exynos 7420	1606 Points
Apple iPad Pro 12.9 Apple A9X / PowerVR Series 7XT, A9X	7525 Points
Apple iPhone 6S Plus Apple A9 / PowerVR GT7600, A9	4557 Points
1280x720 offscreen Ice Storm Unlimited Graphics Score (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Adreno 530, 820 MSM8996	30585 Points
Sony Xperia Z5 Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	37738 Points +23%
ZTE Axon Elite Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	36765 Points +20%
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	31858 Points +4%
Samsung Galaxy S6 ARM Mali-T760 MP8, Exynos 7420	28192 Points -8%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ ARM Mali-T760 MP8, Exynos 7420	27549 Points -10%
Apple iPad Pro 12.9 Apple A9X / PowerVR Series 7XT, A9X	51124 Points +67%
Apple iPhone 6S Plus Apple A9 / PowerVR GT7600, A9	41615 Points +36%
Tegra X1 Reference Platform NVIDIA Tegra X1 Maxwell GPU, X1	57697 Points +89%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet P1761W NVIDIA Tegra K1 Kepler GPU, K1	39590 Points +29%

ANDEBench PRO - 3D (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Adreno 530, 820 MSM8996	55 fps
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	31.64 fps -42%
Tegra X1 Reference Platform NVIDIA Tegra X1 Maxwell GPU, X1	60 fps +9%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet P1761W NVIDIA Tegra K1 Kepler GPU, K1	53 fps -4%

BaseMark OS II - Graphics (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Adreno 530, 820 MSM8996	4710 Points
Sony Xperia Z5 Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	3095 Points -34%
ZTE Axon Elite Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	3331 Points -29%
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	2631 Points -44%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ ARM Mali-T760 MP8, Exynos 7420	2457 Points -48%
Apple iPad Pro 12.9 Apple A9X / PowerVR Series 7XT, A9X	8422 Points +79%
Apple iPhone 6S Plus Apple A9 / PowerVR GT7600, A9	4299 Points -9%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet P1761W NVIDIA Tegra K1 Kepler GPU, K1	8065 Points +71%

Basemark X 1.1
High Quality (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Adreno 530, 820 MSM8996	35000 Points
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	21533 Points -38%
Samsung Galaxy S6 ARM Mali-T760 MP8, Exynos 7420	26140 Points -25%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ ARM Mali-T760 MP8, Exynos 7420	9252 Points -74%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet P1761W NVIDIA Tegra K1 Kepler GPU, K1	28746 Points -18%
Medium Quality (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Adreno 530, 820 MSM8996	41500 Points
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	33287 Points -20%
Samsung Galaxy S6 ARM Mali-T760 MP8, Exynos 7420	36146 Points -13%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ ARM Mali-T760 MP8, Exynos 7420	31743 Points -24%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet P1761W NVIDIA Tegra K1 Kepler GPU, K1	36584 Points -12%

Smartbench 2012 - Gaming Index (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Adreno 530, 820 MSM8996	4410 points
Sony Xperia Z5 Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	4268 points -3%
ZTE Axon Elite Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	4476 points +1%
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	4325 points -2%
Samsung Galaxy S6 ARM Mali-T760 MP8, Exynos 7420	4489 points +2%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ ARM Mali-T760 MP8, Exynos 7420	4566 points +4%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet P1761W NVIDIA Tegra K1 Kepler GPU, K1	4552 points +3%

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Memory Performance

The MDP from Qualcomm with the Snapdragon 820 also does not show weaknesses in the memory and flash performances. It can, for example, draw level with the iPad Pro in the BaseMark OS II memory test.

ANDEBench PRO | BaseMark OS II | AndroBench 3-5

ANDEBench PRO
Memory Latency (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Adreno 530, 820 MSM8996	3940 KOps/s
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	2152 KOps/s -45%
Tegra X1 Reference Platform NVIDIA Tegra X1 Maxwell GPU, X1	6527 KOps/s +66%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet P1761W NVIDIA Tegra K1 Kepler GPU, K1	7268 KOps/s +84%
Memory Bandwidth (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Adreno 530, 820 MSM8996	16520 MB/s
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	8520 MB/s -48%
Tegra X1 Reference Platform NVIDIA Tegra X1 Maxwell GPU, X1	9080 MB/s -45%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet P1761W NVIDIA Tegra K1 Kepler GPU, K1	6150 MB/s -63%

BaseMark OS II - Memory (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Adreno 530, 820 MSM8996	2035 Points
Sony Xperia Z5 Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	865 Points -57%
ZTE Axon Elite Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	937 Points -54%
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	1297 Points -36%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ ARM Mali-T760 MP8, Exynos 7420	1298 Points -36%
Apple iPad Pro 12.9 Apple A9X / PowerVR Series 7XT, A9X	2027 Points 0%
Apple iPhone 6S Plus Apple A9 / PowerVR GT7600, A9	1124 Points -45%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet P1761W NVIDIA Tegra K1 Kepler GPU, K1	596 Points -71%

AndroBench 3-5
Sequential Write 256KB (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Adreno 530, 820 MSM8996	142 MB/s
Sony Xperia Z5 Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	115.5 MB/s -19%
ZTE Axon Elite Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	116.8 MB/s -18%
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	125.5 MB/s -12%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ ARM Mali-T760 MP8, Exynos 7420	151.1 MB/s +6%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet LTE P1761 NVIDIA Tegra K1 Kepler GPU, K1	44 (40^min - 46^max) MB/s -69%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet P1761W NVIDIA Tegra K1 Kepler GPU, K1	15.5 MB/s -89%
Sequential Read 256KB (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Adreno 530, 820 MSM8996	439 MB/s
Sony Xperia Z5 Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	219.8 MB/s -50%
ZTE Axon Elite Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	209.9 MB/s -52%
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	234.2 MB/s -47%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ ARM Mali-T760 MP8, Exynos 7420	383 MB/s -13%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet LTE P1761 NVIDIA Tegra K1 Kepler GPU, K1	105 (105^min - 113^max) MB/s -76%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet P1761W NVIDIA Tegra K1 Kepler GPU, K1	83 MB/s -81%
Random Write 4KB (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Adreno 530, 820 MSM8996	12.9 MB/s
Sony Xperia Z5 Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	11.46 MB/s -11%
ZTE Axon Elite Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	13.27 MB/s +3%
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	13.94 MB/s +8%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ ARM Mali-T760 MP8, Exynos 7420	20.95 MB/s +62%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet LTE P1761 NVIDIA Tegra K1 Kepler GPU, K1	2.5 (1.9^min - 2.6^max) MB/s -81%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet P1761W NVIDIA Tegra K1 Kepler GPU, K1	0.9 MB/s -93%
Random Read 4KB (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP Qualcomm Adreno 530, 820 MSM8996	101 MB/s
Sony Xperia Z5 Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	3.59 MB/s -96%
ZTE Axon Elite Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	19.51 MB/s -81%
OnePlus 2 Qualcomm Adreno 430, 810 MSM8994	21.87 MB/s -78%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ ARM Mali-T760 MP8, Exynos 7420	89.9 MB/s -11%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet LTE P1761 NVIDIA Tegra K1 Kepler GPU, K1	12.5 (12^min - 13^max) MB/s -88%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet P1761W NVIDIA Tegra K1 Kepler GPU, K1	11 MB/s -89%

ANDEBench PRO | BaseMark OS II | AndroBench 3-5

System Performance

In system performance, the Snapdragon 820 can also outperform the S810. The performance should be sufficient for a top spot in the new Antutu v6 with 131,000 points. According to Antutu.com, the A9 in the smartphones is currently leading with 123,600 points. However, the A9x in the big iPad Pro is even significantly faster in our tests. The Exynos 7420 and the Snapdragon 810 are also far behind with about 80,000 points.

The Quadrant shows a similar ranking with the S810 and the Exynos ranking in at the bottom, too. In the BaseMark OS II total score again only the A9x performs better. It is surprising that the Tegra X1 or even the K1 are in front in AndeBench, but overall the benchmarks show an outstanding performance of the Snapdragon 820.

Smartbench 2012 - Productivity Index (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP 820 MSM8996, Adreno 530	10896 points
OnePlus 2 810 MSM8994, Adreno 430	10472 points -4%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Exynos 7420, Mali-T760 MP8	13612 points +25%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ Exynos 7420, Mali-T760 MP8	16793 points +54%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet P1761W K1, GeForce ULP K1 (Tegra K1 Kepler GPU)	8890 points -18%

Quadrant Standard Edition 2.0 - --- (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP 820 MSM8996, Adreno 530	37627 points
OnePlus 2 810 MSM8994, Adreno 430	31148 points -17%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ Exynos 7420, Mali-T760 MP8	34729 points -8%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet P1761W K1, GeForce ULP K1 (Tegra K1 Kepler GPU)	21000 points -44%

ANDEBench PRO - Device Score (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP 820 MSM8996, Adreno 530	10649 Points
OnePlus 2 810 MSM8994, Adreno 430	9260 Points -13%
Tegra X1 Reference Platform X1, Tegra X1 Maxwell GPU	12347 Points +16%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet P1761W K1, GeForce ULP K1 (Tegra K1 Kepler GPU)	11211 Points +5%

AnTuTu v6 - Total Score (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP 820 MSM8996, Adreno 530	131327 Points
OnePlus 2 810 MSM8994, Adreno 430	65936 Points -50%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Exynos 7420, Mali-T760 MP8	77963 Points -41%
Apple iPad Pro 12.9 A9X, A9X / PowerVR GT7xxx	184346 Points +40%
Apple iPhone 6S Plus A9, A9 / PowerVR GT7600	133626 Points +2%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet LTE P1761 K1, GeForce ULP K1 (Tegra K1 Kepler GPU)	87000 Points -34%

BaseMark OS II
System (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP 820 MSM8996, Adreno 530	3600 Points
OnePlus 2 810 MSM8994, Adreno 430	2536 Points -30%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ Exynos 7420, Mali-T760 MP8	3321 Points -8%
Apple iPad Pro 12.9 A9X, A9X / PowerVR GT7xxx	6230 Points +73%
Apple iPhone 6S Plus A9, A9 / PowerVR GT7600	3925 Points +9%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet P1761W K1, GeForce ULP K1 (Tegra K1 Kepler GPU)	1012 Points -72%
Overall (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP 820 MSM8996, Adreno 530	2410 Points
OnePlus 2 810 MSM8994, Adreno 430	1681 Points -30%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ Exynos 7420, Mali-T760 MP8	1801 Points -25%
Apple iPad Pro 12.9 A9X, A9X / PowerVR GT7xxx	3282 Points +36%
Apple iPhone 6S Plus A9, A9 / PowerVR GT7600	2206 Points -8%
NVIDIA Shield Tablet P1761W K1, GeForce ULP K1 (Tegra K1 Kepler GPU)	1431 Points -41%

PCMark for Android - Work performance score (sort by value)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP 820 MSM8996, Adreno 530	6590 Points
OnePlus 2 810 MSM8994, Adreno 430	4282 Points -35%
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ Exynos 7420, Mali-T760 MP8	5130 Points -22%

Verdict

The first impressions of the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 are positive. In the Mobile Development Platform (MDP) from Qualcomm, which is comparable to a small tablet, we did not observe heating or throttling problems in our tests. The benchmarks are throughout excellent despite the early development state. The old Snapdragon 810 can be significantly left behind and the current reference in the Android segment, Samsung's Exynos 7420 Octa, performs mostly worse than the S820. In the ARM world, only the A9X, which is used in the big iPad Pro, is still better than the Snapdragon 820.

It will get exciting in the first half of 2016, when the first final devices with the Snapdragon 820 will appear. At that time, it will be seen whether the S820 may be called the fastest Android SoC. If there are no major throttling issues, it will certainly be one of the best Android SoCs.

We recommend checking out our benchmark pages of the Snapdragon 820 and the Adreno 530, which are regularly updated and include the newest benchmarks.