Snapdragon 888 vs Snapdragon 865: Chip Comparison. Long live the new performance monster

Snapdragon 888 vs Snapdragon 865: main differences

It has already become a tradition for Qualcomm to announce a new generation of flagship platform in early December, which is associated with something unusual, unattainable and cool. This year was no exception. The chipmaker has announced Snapdragon 888, which will be the mighty “heart” of flagships in 2021.

The performance gain of the new chip is well in line with expectations, and among the strengths of the new platform are artificial intelligence records and improved 5G support. The processor has received quite a few improvements and changes against the backdrop of the Snapdragon 865 in most areas. The video accelerator, the central processor, and the neural chip, as well as the 5G modem and signal coprocessors, were improved.

Compare Snapdragon 888 and Snapdragon 865

We propose to consider in more detail the question of how the breakthrough, most productive and economical Snapdragon 888 chip outperforms the Snapdragon 865.

The first thing to know about the Snapdragon 888 is that it is the first mobile platform built with a larger cache Cortex-A1 core. The architecture of the new processor has not changed compared to the Snapdragon 865, but there is a noticeable step forward in all aspects. Here they offered three medium cores - Cortex-A78. Whereas the predecessor made a bet, first of all, on the quartet of Cortex-A77 cores. The peak frequency of the cores was not "raised" to the skies, leaving it at the level of its predecessor - 2.84 GHz. But thanks to the installation of Cortex-X1, a power increase of 25% was achieved.

Another difference between Qualcomm's new creation and the Snapdragon 865 is the manufacturing process. In the case of Snapdragon 888, they offered an advanced 5-nanometer process technology. The transition to the norms of a finer technical process made it possible to achieve a 25% improvement in energy efficiency.

An important sign of our time is support for the new LPDDR5 RAM standard. This moment was not ignored in the new system on a chip. But this is the only RAM standard that Snapdragon 888 supports, while its predecessor allowed Snapdragon LPDDR4x and LPDDR5 to be installed in smartphones. But the reading speed of the Snapdragon 888 is higher, and faster memory will have a positive impact on device performance.

Graphics chip and 5G

It is promised that the graphics performance has become 35% faster thanks to the Adreno 660 video accelerator. It aims to achieve 144fps in games, and also supports updatable drivers. The real test results are 2-3 months away, but there is no reason to doubt that the gaming capabilities of the new platform will be at a high level. These are Adreno graphics and in Qualcomm flagships they have always been at their best.

The Snapdragon 888 bets on the omnivorousness of 5G, the implementation of a solution that integrates all bands, including mmWave. And all this was implemented in the Snapdragon X60, which has already become the third generation of the company's 5G modems and is a universal solution for any part of the world. And unlike the Snapdragon X55, it was integrated directly into the hardware platform.

Progress in shooting and photo / video processing

The company especially focused on the fact that the image processing speed in the Snapdragon 865 was 2 gigapixels per second. Whereas the signal processor Spectra 580 ISP in the Snapdragon 888 can process information from 3 cameras simultaneously with a resolution of up to 2.7 gigapixels per second. Smartphones with the new chip will allow burst shooting up to 120 frames per second in high resolution.

We did not forget to improve the quality of HDR 4R video recording in terms of detail, color reproduction and contrast. Another strong point of the Spectra 580 ISP is that smartphones will be able to take photos in HEIF format with a color depth of 10 bits to display more than 1 billion shades of colors.

Neural engine and new features for smartphones

Taking it a step further, the Hexagon 780 is an advanced standalone AI processor. To improve AI performance, the company has redesigned the Hexagon architecture to offer one universal core that handles all computing. In comparison, last year's Snapdragon 865 offers a neural chip performance of 15 TOPS (trillion operations per second), the Snapdragon 888 already has 26 TOPS. And then the chip from Qualcomm "made" the Apple A14 Bionic, which has this indicator - 16 TOPS. And the Hexagon 780 delivers three times more power per watt of power.

These are the main differences between Snapdragon 888 and Snapdragon 865, which make it clear that the new platform will take Android flagships to a higher level. But whether the user will be able to fully evaluate all the improvements “by eye” is an open question. Not all proposed solutions are appropriate, necessary and timely. There is a feeling that they gave “everything and a lot” in abundance. But that doesn't change the fact that Qualcomm has created the best chip in the Android world.