Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 Performance Preview
by Anand Lal Shimpi on May 21, 2014 8:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Tablets
- Snapdragon
- Qualcomm
- Mobile
- SoCs
- Snapdragon 805
CPU Performance
As always we'll start out our performance investigation with a handful of CPU bound web browser based tests. In all cases we used Chrome on the MDP/T. Remember there's only an 8% increase in peak CPU frequency here, so I wouldn't expect a huge difference vs. Snapdragon 801.
Here the MDP/T scales pretty well, showing a 6% improvement in performance over the Snapdragon 801 based Galaxy S 5. In the case of the GS5 we are looking at a 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801 implementation, so the improvement makes sense. Both the Cortex A15 (TF701T/Shield) and Apple's Cyclone (in the iPad Air) are higher performing designs here. Since there's no fundamental change to Krait's IPC, the only gains we see here are from the higher clock speed.
Kraken appears to be at its limit when it comes to Krait 400/450, there's effectively no additional frequency scaling beyond 2.3GHz. We're either running into an architectural limitation or limits of the software/browser combination itself.
Similarly we don't see any real progress in the Google Octane test either. Snapdragon 805's CPU cores may run at a higher peak frequency but that's definitely not the story here.
Basemark OS II
Basemark OS II gives us a look at native application performance across a variety of metrics. There are tests that hit the CPU, GPU as well as storage subsystems here. The gains here are exclusively on the graphics side, which makes sense given what we've just seen. Snapdragon 805's biggest gains will be GPU facing.
Geekbench 3.0
Although I don't typically use Geekbench, I wanted to include some numbers here to highlight that the increase in memory bandwidth for S805 over S801 doesn't really benefit the CPU cores:
| Geekbench 3.0 | |||||
| Snapdragon 801 2.3GHz (HTC M8) | Snapdragon 805 2.7GHz (MDP/T) | % Increase for S805 | |||
| Overall (Single thread) | 1001 | 1049 | 4.8% | ||
| Overall (Multi-threaded) | 2622 | 2878 | 9.7% | ||
| Integer (Single thread) | 956 | 996 | 4.2% | ||
| Integer (Multi-threaded) | 2999 | 3037 | 1.3% | ||
| FP (Single thread) | 843 | 925 | 9.7% | ||
| FP (Multi-threaded) | 2636 | 3155 | 19.7% | ||
| Memory (Single thread) | 1411 | 1406 | 0% | ||
| Memory (Multi-threaded) | 1841 | 1949 | 6% | ||
I wouldn't read too much into the multithreaded FP results, I suspect we're mostly seeing differences in thermal dissipation of the two test units. A closer look at the memory bandwidth numbers confirms that while the 805 has more memory bandwidth, most of it is reserved for GPU use:
| Geekbench 3.0 - Memory Bandwidth | |||||
| Snapdragon 801 2.3GHz (HTC M8) | Snapdragon 805 2.7GHz (MDP/T) | % Increase for S805 | |||
| Stream Copy (Single thread) | 7.89 GB/s | 8.04 GB/s | 1.9% | ||
| Stream Copy (Multi-threaded) | 9.53 GB/s | 10.1 GB/s | 5.9% | ||
| Stream Scale (Single thread) | 5.36 GB/s | 5.06 GB/s | - | ||
| Stream Scale (Multi-threaded) | 7.31 GB/s | 7.63 GB/s | 4.3% | ||
| Stream Add (Single thread) | 5.27 GB/s | 5.2 GB/s | - | ||
| Stream Add (Multi-threaded) | 6.84 GB/s | 7.51 GB/s | 9.8% | ||
| Stream Triad (Single thread) | 5.64 GB/s | 5.85 GB/s | 3.7% | ||
| Stream Triad (Multi-threaded) | 7.65 GB/s | 7.89 GB/s | 3.1% | ||
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
149 Comments
View All Comments
leexgx - Monday, May 26, 2014 - link
the stock browser is normally not Chrome (unless its Pure Android device or Sony phone) its normally the webkit browser? (not checked what its called)i find chrome a power hog (i use Opera mini most of the time any way that infact is for most part worst then the stock android browser, but strips all scripts from the website so you get a static page no CPU use or lag at all)
akdj - Wednesday, May 21, 2014 - link
I'm not sure where you got your S5...I've got an S5 and Note 3. BOTH are MUCH quicker with Chrome, Dolphin, Mercury...or any numerous third party browsers than the crappy Samsung 'stock' "Internet" browser. It's CRAP! If there's a link you could share with the stock Sammy browser 'beating' the latest iOS device benchmarks on the A7/IT platform. Sorry, but as a LONG time TouchWiz owner and user it's definitely the FIRST omitted 'default' option. Then. Keyboard;)Don't worry. Sounds like you seem to think someone is going to buy their phone based off a Sunspider test only? That doesn't make any sense. While the iOS platforms with the A7 are certainly holding their own eight months after release, the tests I eras were definitely not dominated by the iOS silicon right now. I own the iPhone 5s and Air and can honestly say regardless of benchmark results or numbers, tests and objective reviews, the iOS devices generation compared to the same generation of TouchWiz FLATTEN the latter when it comes to browsing speed, UI fluidity and overall general 'speed'. My wife has the iPhone 5 and the Samsung S5. Me the 5s and Note3. It's irrelevant which browser you use, iOS is definitely the quicker populating browser (I actually prefer iCab IR Mercury to Safari...regardless of Apples' decision to not allow access to Nitro, they're JUST as quick). While I LOVE my Note for the actual browsing 'experience' in comparison to the iPhone, the intrigue for me is the larger display and the ability to use the stylus for sketching rigging points for clients, credit cards and my old eyes. I love em both but there's NO WAY without a link you're gonna convince me that POS stock Sammy browser beats ANYTHING! Lol. Android. iOS. I'm a fan of both. BUT some things are better on one or the other's OS, UI and overall compatibility with whatever tools you're using.
Sorry. Others have beat me to it. Took to long. Android is MASSIVE ...And while Samsung makes up a large percentage of 'sales' they're not all flagships. Tons of 2.xx devices still on the market and pay by month kiosks, other countries, etc. not all Sammy's have the same TouchWiz browser nor do ANY of the other OEMs. Chrome, by default...it's Google (Android's) true 'stock' browser and it's a helluva lot faster than the crap that comes with TW. I've found Dolphin and Merc to be my faves, simply because Chrome still doesn't allow text resizing
J
sachouba - Thursday, May 22, 2014 - link
My Samsung Galaxy S5 has a score of 391ms at Sunspider using the stock browser from Samsung and ART Runtime. This stock browser used to be crap, but the new version of it coming with the Galaxy S5 has been really improved. I used to use Chrome instead of it, but now Samsung's stock browser is far faster.Kidster3001 - Thursday, May 22, 2014 - link
Browser benchmarks are in no way a good benchmark of CPU performance, even with the same browser on different devices. Browser benchmarks test many things. Raw CPU performance is not one of them.Flunk - Thursday, May 22, 2014 - link
I think you might not know what your'e talking about. The Samsung Android browser just uses the old Android Opensource project stack. It's not very standards compliant and pretty slow. A lot of web applications don't ever support it anymore.darkich - Friday, May 23, 2014 - link
Exactly.Galaxy S5 with STOCK (Samsung) browser scores way better than on Chrome.
A record-setting 370ms on Sunspider!
Note 3 gets around 500ms.
Uselless and very biased job, Anand
rubene66 - Wednesday, May 21, 2014 - link
Snapdragon always slow web browsing tegra k1 will be bettertipoo - Wednesday, May 21, 2014 - link
Is the RAM package on package, or is it right in the die as the first image implies?tipoo - Wednesday, May 21, 2014 - link
I'm guessing if that is an actual die shot, it's just the interface to the RAM, as the RAM would have to be bigger.mavere - Wednesday, May 21, 2014 - link
So no 20nm Snapdragons until 2015?Is anyone besides Apple expected to have a 20nm mobile SoC on the market this year?