Samsung Exynos 2200 with AMD GPU arrives to take on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC – Smartprix

Samsung has surreptitiously unveiled the Exynos 2200 processor. This is presumably the chip that would be powering the Galaxy S22 phones in several markets this year. It is produced on a 4nm architecture and an in-house EUV (extreme ultraviolet lithography) manufacturing process. It incorporates an octa-core CPU based on Armv9 cores consisting of a tri-cluster setup. However, the biggest headlining feature of this SoC is its GPU. It is christened Xclipse and is based on AMD’s RDNA 2 architecture. Besides, it also comes with highlight upgrades in terms of NPU, ISP, its 200MP camera support, etc. We shall get into the weeds shortly. And while doing so, we will also draw a comparison with its lead competitor — Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset.

So, we will take a look at the on-paper differences between the two chips and see who wins this duel of flagship mobile processors.

Samsung Exynos 2200 Specs

As already mentioned, the Exynos 2200 is fabbed on a 4nm Samsung EUV process and comprises of 1x Cortex-X2 “flagship core,” 3x Cortex-A710 performance cores, and 4x Cortex-A510 efficiency cores. Although Samsung hasn’t revealed the clock speeds, the rumored frequencies are such — X2 @ 2.8GHz, A710 @ 2.52GHz, and A510 @ 1.82GHz.

This is accompanied by the all-new Xclipse 920 GPU which marks the combination of ‘X’ that represents Exynos, and the word ‘eclipse’.

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But that quirky name aside, the exciting aspect is that it is made by Samsung in partnership with AMD. And this Xclipse GPU is based on AMD’s RDNA 2 architecture. Earlier, Samsung used to employ Arm’s Mali GPUs.

Anyways, the highlight is that this new GPU brings hardware-accelerated Ray Tracing and variable rate shading (VRS) capabilities to smartphones. The former should ideally bring improved and immersive graphics with realistic lighting effects. Meanwhile, the latter aims to allow game developers finer control with graphics and frame rates in a game as required. The GPU also comes with controllers like advanced multi-IP governor (AMIGO) that enable better power and memory efficiency. 

“AMD RDNA 2 graphics architecture extends power-efficient, advanced graphics solutions to PCs, laptops, consoles, automobiles and now to mobile phones. Samsung’s Xclipse GPU is the first result of multiple planned generations of AMD RDNA graphics in Exynos SoCs,” said David Wang, Senior Vice President of Radeon Technologies Group at AMD. “We can’t wait for mobile phone customers to experience the great gaming experiences based on our technology collaboration.”

Samsung extols Xclipse as a hybrid graphic processor pegged between consoles and mobile solutions.

ALSO READ: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen1 vs MediaTek Dimensity 9000

But Exynos 2200 is not just about the APU, but also an upgraded NPU (with 2x gains over the predecessor) and ISP (with support for 200MP, 8K@30fps video recording), 4K @120 Hz or QHD+ @144 Hz displays, LPDDR5 RAM, and UFS 3.1 storage.

And here’s how it compares against Qualcomm’s crown jewel:

Exynos 2200 vs Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 comparison

Samsung hasn’t disclosed the clock speeds and cache details amongst other things. So, we have to work with the details we have with us now. Also, to gauge the real-world performance claims and results, we have to wait till phones with the Exynos 2200 chip land. The company says the chip has entered mass production. And we expect the forthcoming Galaxy S22 series to ship with this chipset in markets like India. Until then, ciao!

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