The new Samsung Galaxy S20 smartphones are powered by the Exynos 990 – the latest, greatest mobile platform developed by Samsung themselves.
But just how fast is the Samsung Exynos 990, compared to other mobile platforms? Let’s find out!
Samsung Exynos 990 : What You Need To Know
The Samsung Exynos 990 builds upon Samsung’s first mobile platform with an integrated 5G modem – the Exynos 980, but focuses on performance instead of 5G connectivity.
It boasts a range of significant improvements – new Samsung Mongoose 5 (Exynos M5) and ARM Cortex-A76 cores, and a new Arm Mali-G77 GPU.
Faster Processor + GPU
According to Samsung, its new custom Mongoose 5 (Exynos M5) cores are 20% faster than the Mongoose 4 (Exynos M4) cores used in the flagship-class Exynos 9825 used in the Galaxy Note 10 smartphones!
Its Arm Mali-G77 GPU uses the new Valhall architecture, and promises to offer a 20% boost in graphics performance or power efficiency.
Faster LPDDR5 Memory
The Exynos 990 will be the first Samsung mobile platform to use the new LPDDR5 memory, which offers a 31% higher clock speed – increased from 2093 MHz to 2750 MHz.
This allows it to deliver up to 5,500 Mbps or 687.5 MB/s in memory bandwidth. It should also allow for lower power consumption.
Faster NPU + DSP
Its AI capabilities also received a big boost with a new dual-core NPU and improved digital signal processor (DSP) that can process over 10 trillion operations (TOPS) per second!
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Samsung Exynos 990 Work Performance : PCMark
We tested the Exynos 990 using PCMark, which simulates work applications like web browsing, playing video, writing text and editing photos.
Work 2.0 | Exynos 990 | Snapdragon 855 | Exynos 9825 | Snapdragon 855+ | Exynos 9820 |
Device | Galaxy S20 Ultra | Xiaomi Mi 9 | Galaxy Note10+ | Black Shark 2 Pro | Galaxy S10+ |
Performance Score (Average) |
10678 | 9471 | 8981 | 8384 | 7846 |
Web Browsing | 9287 | 7792 | 8293 | 6768 | 8583 |
Video Editing | 6331 | 6038 | 9166 | 5948 | 5524 |
Writing | 11660 | 10919 | 9579 | 9226 | 9076 |
Photo Editing | 29560 | 20161 | 19376 | 17595 | 10710 |
Data Manipulation | 6849 | 7356 | 6155 | 6339 | 6450 |
Well, this is quite a nice surprise! Samsung Exynos has historically been rather poor at work performance.
The last-generation Exynos 9825 and Exynos 9820, for example, were significantly slower than their Qualcomm counterparts – the Snapdragon 855 and Snapdragon 855+.
But the new Exynos 990 was 36% faster than the Exynos 9820 (its predecessor), and 13% faster than the Snapdragon 855.
Samsung Exynos 990 Gaming Performance : 3DMark
For gaming, we first tested the Exynos 990 using 3DMark, with these results :
3DMark | Exynos 990 | Snapdragon 855+ | Snapdragon 855 | Exynos 9825 | Exynos 9820 |
Device | Galaxy S20 Ultra | Black Shark 2 Pro | Xiaomi Mi 9 | Galaxy Note10+ | Galaxy S10+ |
Sling Shot Extreme (OpenGL) | 6723 | 6258 | 5487 | 5037 | 4470 |
Sling Shot Extreme (Vulkan) | 5848 | 5386 | 4808 | 4794 | 4314 |
Sling Shot | 8075 | 8127 | 7241 | 4883 | 4343 |
Not bad at all! Samsung caught up with Qualcomm in gaming performance as well.
The new Exynos 990 was 7.5% faster than the Snapdragon 855+, that powered high-end gaming smartphones like the Black Shark 2 Pro, in Sling Shot Extreme, matching it in the easier Sling Shot benchmark.
Notably, the Exynos 990 was 50% faster than its predecessor, the Exynos 9820 that powered the Galaxy S10+.
Samsung Exynos 990 Gaming Performance : AnTuTu
We then tested the Exynos 990 using AnTuTu, yielding these results :
AnTuTu | Exynos 990 | Snapdragon 855+ | Snapdragon 855 | Exynos 9825 | Exynos 9820 |
Device | Galaxy S20 Ultra | Black Shark 2 Pro | Xiaomi Mi 9 | Galaxy Note10+ | Galaxy S10+ |
AnTuTu Score | 518159 | 434168 | 371473 | 348397 | 330549 |
CPU | 151510 | 126170 | 126011 | 101187 | 100272 |
GPU | 218164 | 188158 | 156318 | 156700 | 149930 |
Memory | 78457 | 65052 | 77763 | 72051 | 68188 |
UX | 70028 | 54788 | 11381 | 18459 | 12159 |
Will you look at that? The Samsung Exynos 990 was 19% faster than the Snapdragon 855+, and 57% faster than its predecessor, the Exynos 9820!
Samsung Exynos 990 Performance : How Fast Is It?
In summary, the new Samsung Exynos 990 represents a whole new level of performance.
Compared to its predecessor, the Exynos 9820, it was generally 36% faster in work performance, and 50%-60% faster in games.
Compared to the Snapdragon 855+, it was 13% faster in work performance, and 7%~19% faster in games.
In just one year, Samsung has made significant strides in improving the performance of their Exynos mobile platforms.
Too bad we do not have access to the Snapdragon 865… but at least we know that the Exynos 990 can deliver excellent work and gaming performance!
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