The return of Exynos chips to Samsung flagships is now certain, as the company has already announced the Exynos 2400. We also recently saw the global version of the Galaxy S24+ in a benchmark listing with the new Samsung processor. However, rumors are that the Galaxy S24 Ultra will not use this chip. The Korean firm plans to ship it with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 globally. We may now have proof that it’s happening.
The Galaxy S24 Ultra’s global version has appeared with the Snapdragon chip
Shortly after the US version (SM-S928U), the global version of the Galaxy S24 Ultra (SM-S928B) popped up on the popular benchmarking platform Geekbench. The listings show that the phone uses the same Snapdragon processor in both regions. It’s an overclocked version of Qualcomm’s next-gen Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Since we have already spotted the Plus model’s global version with the Exynos 2400, this confirms the Ultra’s Snapdragon exclusivity.
This isn’t the only takeaway from this benchmark entry, though. The scores achieved by the two models of the Galaxy S24 Ultra warrant a discussion too. The US version scored 2,234 in single-core tests and 6,807 in multi-core tests on Geekbench v6. The global version, on the other hand, only achieved scores of 2,059 and 4,056, respectively. These scores are lower than those achieved by the Exynos 2400-powered Galaxy S24+ (2,067 and 6,520).
If anything, this tells us that early benchmark scores aren’t an accurate measure of a phone’s performance. We are talking about pre-release models or prototypes here, probably running unoptimized software. The US version of the Galaxy S24 Ultra was listed with just 8GB of RAM, which isn’t expected on the retail unit. Things could change drastically when the same benchmark tests are run on the retail units of the Galaxy S24 trio.
This also means that it would be too early to write the Exynos 2400 off. We saw it performing worse than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in a few CPU and GPU benchmark tests. However, in the latest Geekbench run, the new Snapdragon chip scored less than the Exynos. We will have to wait until close to the official launch of the Galaxy S24 series for a clearer picture, perhaps until after the launch. The phones are expected to break cover in January.
The Samsung-exclusive Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 has a faster CPU
These benchmark runs may not give us an accurate measure of the new flagship chips’ CPU performance, but we have confirmation about their clock speeds. Like last year, Samsung is using an exclusive version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 with its ARM Cortex-X4 prime CPU core clocked at 3.30GHz. The chip also features three Cortex-A720 cores clocked at 3.15GHz, two more Cortex-A720 cores at 2.96GHz, and two Cortex-A520 cores at 2.27GHz.
The Exynos 2400, on the other hand, is a deca-core chipset (ten CPU cores) with featuring the same ARM CPUs. It has one prime core operating at 3.21GHz, two mid cores clocked at 2.90GHz and three at 2.59GHz, and four efficiency cores at 1.96GHz. As you can see, the Snapdragon chip has a faster CPU, while the Exynos has two additional efficiency cores. It will be interesting to see who wins this chip battle. Samsung would be hoping it’s a tie or a close battle so it doesn’t have to face criticism for shipping Galaxy S24 phones with dissimilar processors.
2023-10-14 15:07:18