Three Asus ROG Phone 6 models put to test - which one is the fastest?

22 October 2022
We put ROG Phone 6, the ROG Phone 6D Ultimate and the vanilla ROG Phone 6D head to head to see which is the best-performing ROG Phone this year.

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Kangal, 30 Oct 2022There is actually a HUGE difference in efficiency between T... moreThere are A78 and A76 score from Samsung, in same graph.

    Kangal, 30 Oct 2022Sorry for the long reply. In all my tests, the QSD 865 d... moreIssue with Arm isnt just talking Qualcomm to Court, its rumor which circulate that they want to licence Oem separately, Currently Oem they licence via chipmakers, Qualcomm, Mediatek, Exynos etc pay Arm and Oem pay these chipmakers. By licencing directly Oem would look for alternative in long term.

    I agree on cortex X, its not bad core, at 3 to 5W its more efficient but currently phone cant handle that power, and when you throttle it to 2W or below it lose efficiency to A77 and A78.

      Hemedans, 30 Oct 2022Even if you use that graph you can see A76 is down there wh... moreThere is actually a HUGE difference in efficiency between TSMC and Samsung nodes. That's why I deleted my previous comment, to exclude the A76 from the Tensor 1 (Samsung). But on the bottom of that comment I said I could extrapolate their scores (roughly).

      It's not a fair comparison to pit a Samsung A76 against a TSMC A77, or vice versa.

        Hemedans, 30 Oct 2022For me sd 865 is huge upgrade over 855 atleast in efficienc... moreSorry for the long reply.

        In all my tests, the QSD 865 didn't present much of an upgrade over the QSD 855. Strangely, the QSD 870 in comparison to the QSD 855 seems to impress. I don't have access to all those review units anymore, so I cannot verify. Though I suspect the reason was the 5G Modem interfering. In the 2020 devices it was a mandatory external unit that wasn't optimised, and caused a lot of issues. The newer QSD 870 uses a slightly newer node, has a much better internal modem, and has updated kernel/drivers.

        ARM doesn't have much to do with the phone problems in 2020-2022. All that overheating stuff depends on the lithography, the cooling, and the system implementation. Apple has been doing very well with the A13-Bionic, and the only way Android could compete against those synthetic/theoretical benchmarks was their strategy. This thirsty and hot implementation came at the degradation of the User Experience, which isn't the case with Apple. And also I don't hate the Cortex-X1 family of cores. They simply aren't a good fit for small, thin, passively cooled phones. But on a larger tablet, laptop, or Mini PC they are great to have. And inside large Desktops, Servers, Supercomputers they're a necessity. ARM will make improvements to its (A7_) Medium cores, and roll these forward to its (X_) Big cores. But where they're really falling behind is in their (A5_) Small cores. See my previous comment with the comparison of Apple E-cores against ARM's A55. Also they don't have any "Huge cores" yet (Neoverse coming) or any new "tiny cores" (Cortex-A35 abandoned).

        I would hope in 2024 for TSMC-3nm and ARMv9 2nd-gen:
        – (0.01-0.10W), Cortex-A350, ~A53 speed)
        – (0.10-0.50W), Cortex-A530, ~A73 speed)
        – (0.50-1.50W), Cortex-A730, ~X1 speed)
        – (1.50-3.00W), Cortex-X4, ~Intel Core-i)

        Also, don't hold your breath for RISC-V. Qualcomm is only taking ARM to court because they were trying to cheat with the licenses and got caught. There's no chance that Qualcomm will abandon their cash-cow which is ARM-chips for Android-Phones. RISC-V is still vapourware at this moment. Their whitepaper concepts haven't materialised into prototypes or products, their claims being validated (yes I know, a few SBC are out there). Also they haven't progressed much on the software front. A decent starting point for RISC-V would be like: 16nm SMIC built silicon, 4+4 hybrid design, equivalent to A73+A53, and unofficial ports of Debian v11, RHLE v9, Arch v2021, AOSP v10. Remember that's just the Base Level. For them to be half-competitive they'd need: 8nm TSMC silicon, 6+6 hybrid design, equivalent to A78+A55, plus have Official OS from Ubuntu 22, Fedora 36, Manjaro 21.3, and Google's Android 12 with Play Services. Maybe even some Windows 10/11 Experimental builds from Microsoft. That's when it becomes more viable, but that's a lot of IFs and BUTs, and at the nearest time I estimate it would be 5-Years to get there. By which time ARM and Modern Software would have continued to improve.

          Kangal, 30 Oct 2022Use this graph instead: https://images.anandtech.com/doci/... moreEven if you use that graph you can see A76 is down there while using more power than 865 mid, i know there is Samsung And Tsmc difference, but even that is not enough to bridge that difference.

          Also you have A78 from Same foundry Samsung being more efficient than A76

            Hemedans, 24 Oct 2022Thats Arm slide, Anandtech independent test X1 use 3.1W in... moreUse this graph instead:
            https://images.anandtech.com/doci/17102/SPECfp2017.png

            It's newer, and you should be focusing on the Floating Point test. And look at the Watts for the energy used, not the Joules metric as that is flawed. I've already pointed this out to the Anandtech Team but unfortunately Andrei has left. I'll list all the cores tested for SPEC-2017, from Most Efficient to Least Efficient:

            6.05 = 2.54 / 0.42 - Efficiency 5 (Apple A14)
            5.83 = 3.03 / 0.52 - Efficiency 6 (Apple A15)
            3.23 = 0.71 / 0.22 - Cortex A55 (D-1200):
            2.99 = 4.31 / 1.44 - Cortex A77 (QSD 865)
            2.86 = 3.80 / 1.33 - Cortex A78 (D-1200):
            2.13 = 10.15 / 4.77 - Power 6 (Apple A15)
            2.08 = 5.76 / 2.77 - Cortex A77+ (QSD 870):
            1.90 = 8.95 / 4.72 - Power 5 (Apple A14)
            1.60 = 4.71 / 2.94 - Cortex A78+ (D-1200)

            *these are all TSMC-built, I found a pretty big discrepancy when comparing them to the Samsung-built silicons.

            I can extrapolate other cores like the; X2, X1, and M5 by comparing the efficiency difference between Samsung and TSMC. I can also extrapolate other cores like the; A76, P4, P3, E4, E3 by comparing the scaling between SPEC-2006 and SPEC-2017. But I cannot accurately extrapolate the scores and efficiency for both; such as the M4, M3, A75, A73, A53 cores.

              Kangal, 30 Oct 2022Sorry for the late reply. Yeah, I chose that slide on purp... moreFor me sd 865 is huge upgrade over 855 atleast in efficiency, lot of reviews from Anandtech and others proved this. Prime core in sd 865 use only 1.84W and middle core only use 1.39W.

              Also if Qualcomm made cortex A78 only Flagship soc, it could surpass both 865 and 855, as of now you can see sd 778G has better cpu compare to 855 while using less power.

              I agree in sd 888 and newer soc they are so bad, and Arm isnt even interested to fix them, with new legal battles probably we will start seeing Risc V soc or Custom cores which dont use Arm cores.

                Hemedans, 24 Oct 2022Thats Arm slide, Anandtech independent test X1 use 3.1W in... moreSorry for the late reply.
                Yeah, I chose that slide on purpose. To show the efficiency curve of the X2 was made so that reaches further for more performance, but arguably the X1 is more efficient in the lower clocks. This is kind of self-evident when you compare the Cortex-A78 to the Cortex-A710, since that's what their X-variants are based on.

                But I digress.
                We've hit a plateau since early 2019 and the QSD 855. All other chipsets are either less efficient, or they're barely faster. The so-called impressive performance of the QSD 888+ is actually a big let down, because it's using up so much energy to get there, and then it throttles. HARD. The QC 8g1 is worse. The only legitimate upgrades are the MTK D9000+ and QC 8g1+, even then you'll want to limit the voltage, and frankly I'm not that impressed. We've stagnated through 3-Years only to barely catch up to Apple's previous level.

                  • ?
                  • Anonymous
                  • y6V
                  • 29 Oct 2022

                  Former Rogphone user, 24 Oct 2022Most Rog fans/reviewers are only a fan of the awesome Rog l... moreHmmm I did hear there were some problem ROG 3's out there. I have one, and still very much working flawlessly even after 2+ years -- and this with excessive mobile gaming to boot while it is connected to a wall socket, everyday. I guess I just got lucky then.

                    • ?
                    • Anonymous
                    • nI8
                    • 27 Oct 2022

                    Anonymous, 23 Oct 2022Hows thatAuto correct error - read as WASTE

                      • ?
                      • Anonymous
                      • IJK
                      • 27 Oct 2022

                      you have to suffer, 25 Oct 2022developers optimize their games often for qualcomm chips. s... moreEspecially if it's not really a difference in price. And drops more performance and probably at a loss of battery

                        Anonymous, 23 Oct 2022Hows thatdevelopers optimize their games often for qualcomm chips. so there is no point that 6D exists.

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                          • JustSomeRandomGuy
                          • EwD
                          • 24 Oct 2022

                          Former Rogphone user, 24 Oct 2022Most Rog fans/reviewers are only a fan of the awesome Rog l... morebeen using the ROG Phone 2 for over 3 years now and it's still rocking very good except for the degraded battery life. I plan to either give it a new battery or get a new ROG Phone, hopefully the 6

                          hoepfully, the much more efficient SD 8+ Gen 1 can remove any motherboard issues this time

                            Kangal, 24 Oct 2022Yeah, it didn't make much sense to me, but they CAN be... moreThats Arm slide, Anandtech independent test X1 use 3.1W in sd 888 and X2 in Geekerwan test it use around 4 to 4.5W depend if it Tsmc or Samsung node.

                            https://images.anandtech.com/doci/16983/SPECint-energy_575px.png

                            Its possible to Use cortex A78 only, amd TDP wont reach even 10W with prime core and lower clocked cores.

                              Hemedans, 23 Oct 20228 cortex X1 will make tdp over 30watts, they wont be able t... moreYeah, it didn't make much sense to me, but they CAN be true.
                              The Cortex-X1 is a bit more efficient than the X2 and X3, and reaches lower voltages.
                              https://images.anandtech.com/doci/16693/CPU_26.png

                              So the rumours are certainly possible in a Small Tablet format, and stabilising around 10W. ....BUT I thought it was a 3GHz chip!
                              You can't hit those frequencies with a Cortex-A515. You can hit 3GHz without requiring much energy, as long as you build with TSMC-5nm node, and then use a low-cache Cortex-A78. It's still a challenge to do with 8-cores in such a small form factor and TDP but not impossible. I'm sure Apple could do it with their "Sawtooth" cores and probably easily.

                              Any Cortex-X cores will have many transistors and large cache, all of which requires more voltage. So it's far-fetched to achieve it on anything besides the better/best TSMC nodes. All the leaks or rumours have been consistent that this is built on the inferior 5nm-Samsung lithography. So perhaps it's not that the rumours are wrong, but that misinformation is coming directly from Qualcomm/Razer.

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                                • Former Rogphone user
                                • y6V
                                • 24 Oct 2022

                                Most Rog fans/reviewers are only a fan of the awesome Rog laptop/Desktop gaming series. With my experience with Rogphone 3 and 5 Pro which I had before, both became dead only after 6mos-1year of casual gaming due to overheating issues. There motherboard became grounded due to being burnt. Will never go back to these overpriced jokephones.

                                Its a better choice to go with either BlackShark or Redmagic gaming phones. I have a BlackShark 5Pro now and I'm happy and satisfied with it especially the physical triggers!

                                  • M
                                  • Monster
                                  • 0uJ
                                  • 24 Oct 2022

                                  Where portable ARM laptop, with better cooling.

                                    • M
                                    • Monster
                                    • 0uJ
                                    • 24 Oct 2022

                                    And where small computer with large heatsink and wired power supply for this CPU?

                                      • ?
                                      • Anonymous
                                      • PWD
                                      • 23 Oct 2022

                                      Anonymous, 23 Oct 2022search on weibo. Chinese reports 😅

                                        Kangal, 23 Oct 2022Not sure I trust that. If it's just a QSD 888+ but wi... more8 cortex X1 will make tdp over 30watts, they wont be able to cool it, also geekbench score are around 3 ot 3.5k so it is sd 888 equivalent,

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