Qualcomm just released the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset last week which promises to increase CPU and GPU performance by 20% and 30%, respectively. Now the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 initial benchmark results have emerged, do they match Qualcomm's claims?
The benchmark results were uploaded by the Hot Hardware page which managed to get a prototype device running Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. This device is also equipped with 8GB LPDD5 RAM and 512GB UFS 3.1 internal memory.
They tested the performance of the phone by running a number of benchmark applications. In some tests, Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 looks superior to the Apple A15 Bionic used by the iPhone 13.
Starting from the GPU test, Hot Hardware uses the off-screen GFXBench T-Rex platform which shows the performance of mobile phones with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 can display 450 fps. This figure is slightly different from the iPhone 13 Pro with a frame rate of 451 fps, as quoted from Android Authority, Thursday (9/12/2021).
Next they used GFXBench Manhattan off-screen ES 3.0. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 benchmark results using this platform are impressive, even beating the iPhone 13 Pro and topping the list.
Hot Hardware also runs some CPU-related benchmarks using the AnTuTu, PCMark, and Geekbench platforms. From testing using AnTuTu 8, Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 managed to top the list with a score of 1,031,302, far outperforming Smartphones for Snapdragon Insiders that use Snapdragon 888.
But when tested using PCMark for Android, Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 still lost to Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders and Asus ROG Phone 5 which both use Snapdragon 888.
Tests using Geekbench 5 show that the phone with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is the Android phone with the highest performance. But this phone is still far behind when compared to the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max.
In fact, this phone loses to the iPhone 11 Pro, which was a phone released two years ago, in single-core performance. But Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 still wins in multi-core scores.
It should be noted that this Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 prototype phone may not reflect real-world performance. So while waiting for the first phone with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 to launch, it's best not to swallow this information at face value.