Exynos 2100 vs Snapdragon 888: Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra sustained performance and throttling test

21 February 2021
We did some torture testing on the two variants, just to see which one holds-up better under sustained load.

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  • ?
  • Anonymous
  • GQU
  • 22 Feb 2021

SEUL8TR, 22 Feb 2021Samsung custom MOONGOSE cores destroyed slowdragon SOC , ev... moreEverything you said I'd opposite to reality,. Making me to think you are trying Goebbels tactic.

Last time Exynos was faster than SD was SD820 time period

Mongoose was always consuming too much power with less work output.

Exynos even with extra 0.25 Ghz clocks isn't faster than SD at 2.84 GHz.

    • ?
    • Anonymous
    • GQU
    • 22 Feb 2021

    SEUL8TR, 22 Feb 2021What's weird, Exynos is even bigger but can't mat... moreAccording to Anand tech, Samsung 5nm for SD888 is only on par with SD865 TSMC 7nm+ when they compared power effeciency of A55 cores.

      It's so hilarious watching people be so ungrateful for the slightest dip in performance. Meanwhile if I had an exynos processor instead of snapdragon, I wouldn't complain.

        • ?
        • Anonymous
        • mAE
        • 22 Feb 2021

        Europeans: paying more money for a Galaxy and getting less value than ppl in the usa!!

        One must be crazy to buy that phone in Europe!

          Anonymous, 22 Feb 2021Most people who buy this phone are not hardcore gamers who ... moreYour argument would've worked if it was an entry or midrange device that costs around $700-800. Sadly this is Samsung's most expensive flagship many of whose buyers get one to edit photos, use cameras extensively, play graphics intensive games etc, so they shouldn't expect such a large difference in the CPU/GPU throttling behaviour just because they live/don't live in US.

            • A
            • Alex
            • qC@
            • 22 Feb 2021

            "The score seems to be in Qualcomm's favor overall", "seems"? That's 50% advantage in retained performance, hard not to notice.

              • G
              • Giel
              • rKY
              • 22 Feb 2021

              Samsung op 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

              Samsung is has woken up

                Shanti Dope, 22 Feb 2021Nahh, even simple photo and video editing is going to stres... moreMaybe to show that " I own the latest model"?

                  • M
                  • MoraD
                  • pqG
                  • 22 Feb 2021

                  lone, 22 Feb 2021I'm okay with my SD 865 phone 🙏 these chipsets are not... morei agree
                  855&865 are masterpiece chips

                    • ?
                    • Anonymous
                    • JT5
                    • 22 Feb 2021

                    Anonymous, 22 Feb 2021You are correct in saying that gaming isn't the only t... more4K recording is way heavier task than games.
                    Play 5 min of any game and do 5min of 4K recording.
                    Phone gets way hotter while using camera.

                    Limitation almost all phones have is not because space used.
                    It is to avoid excess of heat that is gonna shut down cam app.


                      drape, 22 Feb 2021you are trying too hard to fool yourself. it is already pro... moreWhat's weird, Exynos is even bigger but can't match these two. No idea what Samsung put there."

                      This is probably due to TSMC having a *far* denser 5nm process node compared to Samsung's process 5nm node. Per the article below TSMC's 5nm node tops at 173 million transistors per mm^2 while Samsung's 5nm node reaches only 126.5 MTr/mm^2 (i.e. barely denser than TSMC's second gen 7nm+ node) due to much more, er, "conservative" design choices (Samsung basically just switched from DDB cells in 7nm to SDB cells; the article explains what that means).

                      What is often not clear is that the quoted transistor densities of each process node are always the *maximum* transistor densities, not the actual transistor densities used to fab a die. For instance Intel have three different 10nm node variants with three different densities, a low, mid and high density variant (ranging I believe from ~55 million to ~100 million transistors per mm^2). The last one is the only one that has been widely reported, the other two were intended for the tech savvy press and audience.

                      Each Intel 10nm die has a mix of all three libraries, but each design is (obviously) *fixed* with a precise mix of the three. The desktop parts always have a higher percentage of low density cells because these need to clock higher, and vice versa for the mobile parts. Mobile phones are efficiency focused, so their SoCs have the highest percentage of the highest density variant of each process node that is possible (without hindering performance too much).

                      That is an additional reason their clocks top at ~3 GHz. Since the two SoCs of the article are both mobile SoCs of an almost identical design we can assume a roughly equivalent percentage of the highest density cells each process node maxes out at. Thus, if all else was being equal (including the same iGPU) Samsung's SoC would have a roughly ~27% larger die than TSMC's SoC. That must be the main reason Samsung kept the cache sizes of the X1 and the A55 cores low.


                      Mrwhosetheboss, lmao, you rely on him..

                        • ?
                        • Anonymous
                        • dPU
                        • 22 Feb 2021

                        drape, 22 Feb 2021you are trying too hard to fool yourself. it is already pro... moreThe same mrwhostheboss that showed battery life no one ever achieved on this phone, not even close?
                        One thing I have learned is that all the reviews are like political speeches. They talk a lot but in the end, never give you the whole truth or a strict opinion.

                          drape, 22 Feb 2021you are trying too hard to fool yourself. it is already pro... moreYou rely and watch trust mrwhosetheboss, lmfaoooo

                          Go read The verge, Android central, Android authority, Anandtech, Tomshardwre, they use professional tolls to configure ARM SOCS. Not an software or hardware engineer or anything, and you rely on mrwhosetheboss.
                          Shows your mentality and knowledge you're a novice.

                            • ?
                            • Anonymous
                            • GRN
                            • 22 Feb 2021

                            Anonymous, 22 Feb 2021Why is that?Difference between Samsung (on Exynos) and Sony (on Snapdragon) sensors

                              I could see from status bar of screenshots that Snapdragon 888 had do not disturb turned on wheareas exynos 2100 variant had do not disturb turned off. From my personal experience while testing on various devices while doing cpu throttling test from the same app for any new notifications the graph was getting dipped. Also cpu throttling test app themselves mention for better results ensure no background activity is running. This was a biased comparison. Please do one more time the cpu throttling test for 1hr with flight mode turned on in both devices

                                • d
                                • drape
                                • t7J
                                • 22 Feb 2021

                                SEUL8TR, 22 Feb 2021Samsung custom MOONGOSE cores destroyed slowdragon SOC , ev... moreyou are trying too hard to fool yourself. it is already proven that current exynos cant compete with the current snapdragon. Just search mrwhosetheboss. Even this article proves it. I am also a big samsung fan but im not a blind fanboy like you.

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                                  • Pradyumna M
                                  • DkS
                                  • 22 Feb 2021

                                  I could see from screenshots taken in status bar on top that Snapdragon variant had do not disturb turned on whereas Exynos Variant had do not disturb turned off. From my personal experience during cpu throttling test from that app for any new notification the graph gets dipped. First of all that cpu throttling app says for better result no activity must be running in background. With do not disturb turned off only for exynos variant this is a biased comparison.

                                    • ?
                                    • Anonymous
                                    • 70d
                                    • 22 Feb 2021

                                    cip24, 22 Feb 2021When you will do an in depth cameras comparation between th... moreWhy is that?

                                      Baxteen, 22 Feb 2021So interesting thing I noticed this weekend. my brother ha... moreHow do you know it was throttling? Just because it was hot you claim it was throttling, as if phones and electronic don't get hot. Lmao.

                                      My S21ULTRA reaches 55C , and it's not throttling, games show consistent 75fps.

                                      So go lying Troll.

                                        Samsung custom MOONGOSE cores destroyed slowdragon SOC , even by downgrading the frequency 15% lower too be on par with SLOWDRAGON too compensate.
                                        Lmfaooooooooo

                                        Samsung Exynos even in past now and tomorrow will blow Slowdragon out the water.