Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 was released last year, and we published an extensive comparison between the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and A15 Bionic to find whether Qualcomm can beat Apple in the silicon game. Now, Samsung recently released its in-house Exynos 2200 chipset that comes with the new AMD RDNA 2-powered Xclipse 920 GPU, and it has been making headlines with the release of the flagship Galaxy S22 series. So to find if we have got a winner in the Android world, we have today come up with a comparison between Exynos 2200 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. We have compared these two chipsets based on CPU, GPU, ISP, and other specifications to see if Samsung has dethroned Qualcomm in the chipset war. On that note, let’s pit the Exynos 2200 vs Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and find out the winner.
In this deep-dive comparison, we have discussed CPU architecture, the benchmark numbers of Exynos 2200 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, how the AMD Xclipse 920 GPU fares against the Adreno GPU, and more. Expand the table below and move to any relevant section you want.
- Exynos 2200 vs Snapdragon 8 Gen 1: SpecificationsExynos 2200 vs Snapdragon 8 Gen 1: CPUExynos 2200 vs Snapdragon 8 Gen 1: GPUExynos 2200 vs Snapdragon 8 Gen 1: Benchmark NumbersExynos 2200 vs Snapdragon 8 Gen 1: ISPExynos 2200 vs Snapdragon 8 Gen 1: AI and MLExynos 2200 vs Snapdragon 8 Gen 1: Modem and Wireless Connectivity
Exynos 2200 vs Snapdragon 8 Gen 1: Specifications
Before we dive into the comparison, take a look at the specifications of Exynos 2200 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.
Exynos 2200 vs Snapdragon 8 Gen 1: CPU
Beginning with the CPU design first, Exynos 2200 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 are identical in terms of CPU architecture, core selection, and the fabrication process. Exynos 2200 packs an octa-core processor built on Samsung’s own 4nm EUV process and takes advantage of ARM’s new ARMv9 architecture.
Talking about the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, it’s also manufactured by Samsung’s foundry on the same 4nm EUV process. It also adopts the new ARMv9 microarchitecture. The core selection is also on the same lines as the Exynos 2200: a single Cortex-X2 core clocked at 3.0GHz (slightly higher than Exynos 2200); three Cortex-A710 cores clocked at 2.5GHz, and four Cortex-A510 cores are at a frequency of 1.8GHz.
ARM had touted that Cortex-X2 will bring 16% performance improvement over the X1, and A710 and A510 have got 10% and 35% performance jumps respectively over their predecessors. Having said that, we have not seen an overall significant jump in performance in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, and it seems like Exynos 2200 will also boast the same level of performance.
As we have been noticing the trend, most of the exciting changes are now happening in the GPU segment. The Exynos 2200 packs the long-rumored AMD RDNA 2-powered Xclipse 920 GPU, which has made tons of noise, but let’s see if it can outperform the new Adreno GPU on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. Samsung has not disclosed much about its new GPU. But from the leaks so far, it seems like Samsung is using 3 workgroup processors (or 6 compute units) for its GPU.
The surprising part is that in the Geekbench OpenCL compute test, the website reports the Xclipse GPU has a maximum frequency of 555MHz, which is shockingly low. It could be a reporting error, but we have not heard anything from Samsung on the clock speed of the GPU to get the much-needed clarity. Samsung says its GPU can drive a 4K display at 120Hz and a QHD+ display at 144Hz, which is pretty good.
Moving to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, it comes with a new Adreno GPU with support for Snapdragon Elite Gaming. It can drive a QHD+ display at 144Hz and a 4K display at 60Hz. Here, Samsung’s Xclipse 920 GPU gets ahead of the Adreno GPU. Talking about some graphics-intensive tests, the Exynos 2200 scored 109FPS in the GFXBench Aztec Ruins (Normal) test, and Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 placed much higher with 143 FPS.
However, in the Geekbench OpenCL benchmark test, the Exynos 2200 scored 9143 points, whereas the Adreno GPU scored just 6050 points. In the Vulkan API test as well, the Xclipse 920 GPU (9143) outperformed Adreno GPU (7285).
To ascertain the CPU performance improvement, let’s take a look at the benchmark numbers of Exynos 2200 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. In a leaked Geekbench listing, Exynos 2200 scores 1164 in the single-core test and 3576 in the multi-core test. In comparison, we tested the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC on the flagship Xiaomi 12 Pro, and the Geekbench score came around 1165 and 3664 in single-core and multi-core tests, respectively. But keep in mind that we encountered throttling issues on the Xiaomi 12 Pro.
From what we can gauge, it seems the CPU on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is marginally better than Exynos 2200. The Exynos 2200 might be underperforming because Samsung wants to avoid the throttling and thermal issues being seen on Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 phones. I think Samsung has lowered the clock speed to give a smooth performance without hurting the battery life.
In the AnTuTu 9 test that also takes the GPU into account, the Samsung Exynos 2200 scored 965,874, whereas the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 scored 969,966. And as I mentioned above, the Exynos 2200 goes up to 109FPS in the GFXBench Aztec Ruins (Normal) test, whereas the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 scores 143 FPS.
The Exynos 2200 packs a new ISP designed by Samsung. It can shoot still images up to 200MP in single-camera mode and shoot videos up to 108MP at 30FPS. In the dual-camera setup, it can capture 64MP still images and 32MP videos at 30FPS at the same time. Talking about its video shooting capability, the ISP on Exynos 2200 is capable of recording 8K videos at 30FPS and 4K videos at 120FPS with support for HDR10 and HDR10+.
On the other hand, the image processor on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 packs a newly-designed 18-bit ISP that comes with Snapdragon Sight support. Building on its triple-ISP architecture, the ISP can capture 3.2 Gigapixels in a second. It can also do up to 8K HDR video recording at 30FPS and simultaneously shoot 64MP images. Other than that, Snapdragon has brought a plethora of features such as the Bokeh engine, the ability to shoot 18-bit RAW footage, AI-based facial detection, and more.
Overall, I would say that both the ISPs are capable, and it will depend on OEMs to leverage all the technologies to offer a great camera experience. As for Samsung, we already know that it does a stellar job with cameras since it controls both the ISP and its software stack.
Exynos 2200 vs Snapdragon 8 Gen 1: AI and ML
Coming to AI and ML performance, the Exynos 2200 features a dedicated AI engine with dual-core NPU (Neural Processing Unit) and DSP (Digital Signal Processor). Samsung says that its AI performance is 2x better than its predecessor, the Exynos 2100. It further claimed that Exynos 2200 chipset brings “much higher precision with FP16 (16-bit floating point) support in addition to power-efficient INT8 (8-bit integer) and INT16“.
On Qualcomm’s front, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 comes with the latest 7th-gen AI Engine that can perform 27 trillion operations per second (TOPS). It also packs the 3rd-gen Sensing Hub for instant voice pickup, noise cancellation, etc. In terms of numbers, Qualcomm claims the 7th-gen AI Engine is 4x more powerful than the Snapdragon 888. For more details, read our in-depth comparison between the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and Snapdragon 888.
Finally, talking about the connectivity options available on both chipsets. The Exynos 2200 has an integrated 5G modem that can achieve up to 7.35Gbps download speeds and 3.67Gbps peak upload speeds. It supports both mmWave and sub-6GHz 5G bands with support for Carrier Aggregation. Samsung has also devised a new technology that allows the modem to boost speeds up to 10Gbps by utilizing both 4G and 5G bands. As for wireless connectivity, the Exynos 2200 is equipped with Wi-Fi 6, 6E, and Bluetooth 5.2.
Moving to the modem on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, it comes with the Snapdragon X65 5G integrated modem that offers download speeds up to 10Gbps. It also supports both premium mmWave and mid-tier sub-6GHz 5G bands. In addition, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 comes with the FastConnect Subsystem 6900 that brings Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6E, and Bluetooth 5.2 support in tow.
