Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy in the Benchmark: Samsung’s S25 series has more CPU and GPU speeds 18 comments
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, S25 + and S25 (practical) contain a suitable chip, the Snapdragon 8 elite for the galaxy, which promises a higher level of performance compared to the standard version due to the increased speed of the clock for the CPU and GPU. In practice, the differences are marginal, as shown by the initial benchmarks.
150 MHz plus CPU and 100 MHz plus GPU clock for Samsung
Qualcomm is once again making a tailored version of its currently fastest chip available exclusively for the largest Android smartphone vendor. The “for the galaxy” appendix on the Snapdragon 8 elite represents the top-notch Oryon 2 cores clocked at 150 MHz higher, which therefore reach up to 4.47 GHz instead of 4.32 GHz. For the six performance cores, Qualcomm leaves the clock at the familiar 3.53 GHz, which all other buyers of the chip also receive.
Based on a Galaxy S25 Ultra Loaner donated by Samsung after the presentation, the editorial team was also able to determine that the cooperation resulted in a slightly faster GPU. During the presentation, neither Samsung nor Qualcomm made any concrete statements about what makes the “Galaxy” “for the Galaxy.” The Adreno 830 can go up to 1200 MHz in Samsung smartphones, while in other devices with a standard chip it is a maximum of 1100 MHz.
Memory is also crucial for performance
150MHz plus CPU and 100MHz plus GPU clock are a little plus on paper and a little plus in practice, as early benchmarks show. The performance of the Snapdragon 8 elite also depends on the DRAM standard that the manufacturer uses. When the new Qualcomm chip was presented last October, the editorial team was able to perform graphics tests on reference devices with LPDDR5X-9600 and LPDDR5X-10667. The faster standard delivered between 4 and 10 percent more performance in applications such as 3DMark.
Motherboard with Snapdragon 8 Elite Under Dram
It was not yet possible to determine on the site which standard DRAM Samsung uses in the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Qualcomm supports a maximum of LPDDR5X-10667, but manufacturers can theoretically also use a slower standard like LPDDR5X-8533.
Galaxy S25 Ultra IM Benchmark
Early CPU benchmarks in Geekbench 6.3, PCMark 3.0, and Jetsstream 2.1 reveal no significant performance increases. In Geekbench 6.3, the Galaxy S25 ultra narrowly passed the ASUS ROG Phone 9 (test) with the normal Snapdragon 8 elite, but the results are within the measurement tolerance range. PCMark is traditionally worse for Samsung devices, so Asus performs better here. In the Jetsstream 2.1 browser reference, the image returns in favor of Samsung. However, there can be no question of a clear advantage. However, you can clearly see this compared to the previous Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (for Galaxy).
In 3DMark, a performance advantage for the “Galaxy” can be seen in both the ray tracing (Solar Bay) and the Rasterizer benchmarks, but here too it is only a few percentage points, as expected. Samsung overtakes Asus and pushes the reference devices from Qualcomm, with their variant with LPDDR5X-10667 retaining the performance crown. It can be assumed that Samsung will not rely on this currently fastest standard for smartphones. In the GFXBench, the overclocked version is just behind the ROG Phone 9, and the Galaxy S25 Ultra wins the Geekbench 6.3 GPU test.
Cooperation for more than just clock speeds
Ultimately, it is neither a clear advantage to have the elite Snapdragon 8 for Galaxy, nor a disadvantage to have only the standard model of the ROG Phone 9, for example. Both variants are absolute high-end chips that, on the one hand, have significantly more graphics performance than Apple And on the other hand, provide almost the same single-core CPU and higher multi-core CPU performance. As the largest buyer of Qualcomm chips, Samsung can claim an exclusive design and announce slight advantages here and there, but nothing more. According to Samsung, however, the adapted chips offer more than slightly higher CPU and GPU clock speeds. During the presentation, for example, it was said that Samsung’s “Mobile Digital Natural Image Engine” (MDNIE) had also been integrated to control the displays more efficiently. Whether Qualcomm has really addressed the transistors for this or whether something like this can be solved using software remains to be seen.
Techtip received information about this item from Samsung during an event hosted by the manufacturer in San Jose, California. The costs of arrival, departure and four nights in the hotel were borne by the company. There was no influence on the part of the manufacturer or an obligation to report.
Topics: Benchmarks Artificial intelligence Qualcomm Samsung Samsung Galaxy unboxed January 2025 Snapdragon smartphones Source: Own, Samsung, Qualcomm
Sarah tracks innovations in smartphones, evaluating their performance, design, and key features.
