Google Tensor G3 vs Qualcomm QCM6490 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G+ 5G

Google Tensor G3

The Tensor G3 marks the third generation of Google's own chipsets for smartphones and tablets based on Android. This SoC is used for the first time in the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro and Google sees the SoC as a high-end device.

The CPU of the Tensor G3 is composed of three clusters. The first houses a single powerful Cortex-X3 core, which can operate at up to 2.91 GHz, the second offers four performance cores (Cortex-A715) with up to 2.37 GHz and the third cluster has four efficiency cores (Cortex-A510) with up to 1.7 GHz. The clock speeds are therefore not particularly high, so that the pure CPU performance is more on the level of an upper-middle-class SoC. 

An ARM Mali-G715 is used as the graphics unit. Google is silent about the exact number of cores, but the benchmarks and the lack of ray tracing suggest a version with seven cores (G715MP7). 

The core of the Tensor SoCs is the Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), which is responsible for AI and ML tasks. Here, too, Google owes the public more precise information and only talks about the fact that 150 times more complex AI models can be calculated on the device. 

In addition, Google integrates its isolated security core subsystem, which again uses the Titan M2 co-processor and provides additional protection for its own data on a hardware basis. The G5300i modem is based on the Exynos 5300 and supports Wi-Fi 7.

The Tensor G3 is manufactured in the current 4nm process at Samsung.

Qualcomm QCM6490

The Qualcomm QCM6490 is an upper mid-range SoC and is based on the Snapdragon 778G, but this variant is an extended-life chipset. The QCM6490 is being used for the first time in the Android smartphone Fairphone 5, but has actually been designed for corporate use and IoT applications.

The Kyro 670 CPU consists of a total of eight cores, which are divided into three clusters. The first cluster consists of just one high-performance core (Kyro Gold Plus, Cortex-A78), which operates at up to 2.71 GHz. The second cluster contains three further Cortex-A78 cores (Kyro Gold), each clocking at up to 2.40 GHz. The remaining four power-saving cores (Kyro Silver, Cortex-A55) are located in the last cluster and operate at up to 1.96 GHz. For the graphics calculations, an Adreno 643 with 812 MHz is integrated.

The QCM6490 SoC has an integrated 5G modem that supports both 5G-Sub6 and 5G-mmWave. In theory, this enables data rates of up to 3.7 Gbit/s downlink and 2.5 Gbit/s upload. Wi-Fi 6E is also on board, which supports the 6 GHz band.

The SoC is manufactured using the 6 nm process.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G+ 5G

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G+ 5G (SDM778G Plus 5G Mobile Platform) is a fast mid-range ARM-based SoC largely found on Android tablets and smartphones. It integrates eight cores (octa-core) divided into two clusters. A fast performance cluster with four cores based on the ARM Cortex-A78 architecture with up to 2.5 GHz and a power efficiency cluster with four small ARM Cortex-A55 cores at up to 1.9 GHz. Depending on the workload only single clusters or all cores can run at different clock speeds. Compared to the older non-plus variant, the 778G+ offers 100 MHz higher clocked CPU cores.

Thanks to the new Cortex-A78 cores, the CPU performance increases by up to 40% compared to the old Snapdragon 768G according to Qualcomm. In our benchmarks, the 778G+ is able to reach the performance of the old high end chip Kirin 990. 

The integrated X53 5G modem supports up to 3.3 Gbps with sub 6Ghz. The FastConnect 6900 Wi-Fi modem supports the current Wi-Fi 6e standard with 6GHz.

The integrated Qualcomm Adreno 642L offers a 40% higher performance compared to the old Adreno 620 in the predecessor. This is partly thanks to the fast memory controller with LPDDR5-3200 support.

The integrated 6th gen AI engine called Hexagon 770 offers a 2x improvement and up to 12 TOPS of performance. The Spectra 570 ISP (image signal processor) supports up to three cameras. The satellite system supports all major standards like Beidou, Galileo, GLONASS and GPS.

The G specifies an optimized SoC for gaming and e.g. Qualcomm offers updates for the graphics driver.

The Snapdragon 778G Plus is manufactured in the modern 6 nm process at TSMC (vs the 5LPE of the 780G).