Snapdragon V-Series gaming test: How much performance do you lose?
Qualcomm uses the same CPU and AI architecture in the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 V-Series as in the regular flagship chipset but scales back the GPU. The Adreno 840 features only two GPU slices instead of three. The Galaxy S26 Ultra, meanwhile, is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, which runs at slightly higher clock speeds. The comparison therefore reflects more than just the reduced GPU configuration.
In PUBG Mobile, both smartphones initially perform almost identically. With the Smooth preset, the Poco F9 Pro averages 116.7 fps, while the Galaxy S26 Ultra achieves 118.4 fps. The difference is just 1.4%. Frame rates are also nearly identical at HD settings, averaging 88 and 89.1 fps, respectively. A significant gap only emerges with the Ultra HD preset. While the Samsung averages 59.7 fps, effectively maintaining the 60 fps limit, the Poco manages just 39.9 fps. This represents a performance deficit of around 33%. However, the Poco's frame rates remain largely stable.
In Genshin Impact, the difference disappears again at the highest graphics settings with 120 fps mode enabled. The Poco averages 59.8 fps, while the Galaxy S26 Ultra achieves 59.5 fps. Both smartphones appear to be limited to 60 fps in this scenario.
Our measurements show that having one-third fewer GPU slices does not automatically translate into one-third less gaming performance. As long as frame rate limits come into play, the S26 Ultra's more powerful GPU (available here on Amazon) makes little difference. Under heavier graphics workloads, however, the performance gap becomes substantial, although the higher clock speeds of the Galaxy variant may also contribute to the results.
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