Exynos Processor with AMD GPU Outperforms iPhone 12 Pro Max in Graphic Performance

Samsung has received a lot of criticism for its Exynos processors. The company has a reputation for manufacturing the same smartphone models with different processors for different markets. The Samsung flagship smartphones available in the US and UK markets come with Qualcomm Snapdragon processors, whereas the phones in countries like India come with the Exynos processor.

Why Does it Matter?

Samsung would have received any criticism if it managed to ensure identical performance. However, that is not the case. The variants with Snapdragon chipsets run faster and cooler. This makes the Exynos variant look slower. The Exynos variant also produces more heat. This is Samsung's attempt at entering the mobile processor market. On testing the two variants side by side, it was found that the Snapdragon processor can deliver up to 10x more performance than Exynos. This pattern has continued and even though Samsung has tried to make the difference negligible, it still exists.

Samsung had announced earlier this year that it would soon bring a flagship Exynos processor with AMD’s Radeon GPU that can surpass the latest Apple chipset. Nothing other than this was revealed about the performance of the processor.

Does Exynos Beat A14 Bionic?

According to reports by a tech tipster, IceUniverse, Samsung is currently testing an Exynos chipset with the AMD Radeon GPU and Cortex-A77 CPU cores. According to the 3D Mark screenshots posted by the user, the Exynos processor with the AMD GPU seems to have scored 8,134 points in the Wild Life test with an average frame rate of 50fps. In comparison, the iPhone 12 Pro Max’s A14 Bionic chipset usually scores around 7,442 points with an average frame rate of 40fps.

This is a very early test and there are multiple other factors that need to be considered. Exynos processors are known for running hotter than Snapdragon and even the Apple chipsets. The thermal performance will be something to look out for. However, it is still good to see an Android chipset catching up to Apple. Moreover, the final chipset (Exynos 2200) could offer even better graphics performance as it will most probably use ARM’s latest Cortex-X2 and Cortex-A710 CPU cores that are much faster than the Cortex-A77 cores used in this test.

What About the M1 Chipset?

Even though an Android processor is getting close to beating Apple in graphic performance, it is important to note that the AMD GPU is still not as powerful as Apple’s M1 5nm chipset that is used in the iPad Pro (2021), MacBook Air (2020), and the MacBook Pro (Late 2020). The M1 chipset is designed for bigger devices with more room for cooling and heat dissipation. It scores somewhere around 17,000 points in 3DMark’s Wild Life graphics performance test making it twice as fast as the AMDs mobile GPU.

These are the initial leaks, however, it will be interesting to see the processor put to test with the launch of Samsung's new S22 series.