Thursday 2 February 2023

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Beats Apple in Early Graphics Benchmark

Samsung has made the Galaxy S23 official, and it’s got the latest Qualcomm silicon inside. That’s nothing new for Samsung’s annual flagship phone launch, but things are slightly different this year. Samsung and Qualcomm cooperated to include a more powerful version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 than you’ll find in other phones. The first benchmarks are out, and Samsung’s device appears to outpace Apple’s latest iPhone in graphical benchmarks.

Ever since Apple switched to its custom A-series ARM chips, it has left Qualcomm and other mobile chipmakers in the dust. Generation after generation, Apple’s devices put up benchmarks 10-20% better than the competing Qualcomm chips. Last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 drew closer to Apple, and the Gen 2 is even faster. The Gen 2 in Samsung’s S23 family has an overclocked prime CPU core, going from 3.2GHz to 3.36GHz. More interestingly, Qualcomm and Samsung say the GPU has been enhanced but cite no specific numbers. Whatever they did, it’s working.

The first benchmark numbers for the S23 Ultra are circulating, and Samsung has surpassed Apple in one important area: graphics. Tom’s Guide has put the S23 Ultra up against the iPhone 14 Pro, finding that Samsung’s phone ekes out a win in the high-end 3DMark Wild Life benchmark. Although the iPhone with its A16 Bionic hits 74fps in the main test and 20fps in the extreme version, the S23 Ultra manages 79.3 and 20.9fps, respectively. This is a roughly 25% year-over-year improvement for Samsung.

Apple’s custom Everest and Sawtooth CPU cores still carry the day in other tests, topping the overclocked Snapdragon by about 10% in multicore mode and 25% in single-core. That’s impressive, considering the A16 has six CPU cores while the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 has eight. A transcoding test also went Apple’s way, with the iPhone besting Samsung by about 25%.

While raw performance can be an important metric to consider, it doesn’t always translate to a better experience. Apple designs the hardware and software, so its phones can do more with less. That said, Samsung’s improved graphical performance is a clear win. High-end games like Genshin Impact should be a little smoother on Samsung’s latest phone, even if iOS is still a little more efficient and fluid overall.

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