Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra benchmarks - Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy examined

04 February 2023

This year it finally happened the new Galaxy S series runs a single SoC across the globe. No more Exynos versions, there's only Snapdragon. But that doesn't mean the new Galaxy S23 series doesn't stand out from the crowd. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 running under the hood in all S23 phones is actually "Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy".

That's because the CPU and GPU are both overclocked and offer slightly higher performance than the other phones with the same chipset on the market. But how much of a difference does it make?

The SD 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy sports the same CPU configuration with 1x Cortex-X3, 2x Cortex-A715, 2x Cortex-A710 and 3x Cortex-A510 cores, but the main Cortex-X3 core is clocked at 3.36 GHz instead of 3.2GHz. The same goes for the GPU - the Adreno 740 here is running at 719 MHz instead of the usual 680 MHz.

But without further ado, let's dive into the early benchmarks. Notably, we've selected only phones with 1440p displays, where possible, so we can have more comparable results in the onscreen graphics tests.

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

The results from the Geekbench 5 CPU test may come as a surprise for some but there's a perfectly good explanation why the Galaxy S23 Ultra takes the lead over the nubia Red Magic 8 Pro in the single-core test and falls behind the latter in the multi-core scenario. For one, the Cortex-X3 inside the S23 Ultra is clocked higher and secondly, the big Cortex-X3 core isn't utilized in the multi-core test. And that's why the Red Magic 8 Pro may have a slight advantage over the Galaxy due to its beefy cooling system that allows the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 to run at a higher gear. Still, the difference is rather small.

AnTuTu 9

Higher is better

While in AnTuTu the Galaxy S23 Ultra falls behind the Red Magic 8 Pro you should keep in mind the latter is a gaming phone with a 1080p+ screen requiring less graphics power. After all, the AnTuTu 9 is a compound test.

On the other hand the new Snapdragon is considerably faster than the older Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip and even the A16 Bionic inside the iPhone 14 Pro Max.

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (onscreen)

Higher is better

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)

Higher is better

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

3DMark Wild Life Extreme (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

When it comes to GPU-intensive tasks, the Galaxy version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is a clear winner. In almost all offscreen tests, the Galaxy S23 Ultra took the lead over the rest and fell short only in the onscreen tests when challenged by phones of lower resolution.

All in all, the new Galaxy S23 series offers a substantial upgrade over its predecessors, no matter the version. But European and Indian consumers will likely benefit the most, as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy blows last year's Exynos 2200 SoC out of the water.

To put things into perspective, the Galaxy S23 Ultra is 30-35% faster than the Galaxy S22 Ultra in the CPU tests and around 30% faster in the combined AnTuTu 9 benchmark. Across the GFX Bench and 3DMark GPU tests, the Galaxy S23 Ultra showed a whopping 2x performance increase at times, but in most scenarios, it's an 80-90% improvement.

In addition to the already excellent synthetic performance, the Galaxy S23 series also boasts improved cooling capabilities, which was an issue with for some users in the past. But you might have to wait for our full review of the trio to come out to find out how well the new cooling performs in practice.