Take a look at the performance of the Samsung Galaxy A73, and find out how well it performs against the competition!
Samsung Galaxy A73 : How Fast Is It?
The Samsung Galaxy A73 Ultra runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G – a premium mid-range mobile SoC announced on May 19, 2021.
Fabricated on the 6 nm process technology, the Snapdragon 778G boasts a powerful Adreno 642L GPU, as well as eight processor cores in a triple-tier architecture :
a Kryo 670 Prime core running at up to 2.4 GHz,
three sustained-performance Kryo 670 Gold cores running at up to 2.2 GHz, and
four energy-efficient Kryo 670 Silver cores running at 1.8 GHz
While the Snapdragon 778G isn’t a new mobile SoC, you will be surprised by how fast it is in the Galaxy A73…
Samsung Galaxy A73 : Work Performance
We first tested the Galaxy A73 using PCMark, which simulates work applications like web browsing, playing video, writing text and editing photos.
Work 3.0
Galaxy Z
Flip 3
Galaxy
S22 Ultra
Galaxy
A73
Note20
Ultra
Galaxy
A52
Mobile Platform
SD 888
SD 8
Gen 1
SD 778G
Exynos
990
SD
750G
Performance Score
13317
12860
12522
10523
7874
Web Browsing
11637
10442
11736
8865
7021
Video Editing
7762
7444
7082
6232
5693
Writing
15316
15471
14796
11112
7454
Photo Editing
25357
30177
26340
30789
15812
Data Manipulation
11938
9691
9502
6825
6424
Amazingly, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G is as fast as the top-of-the-line Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in work applications!
When it comes to basic stuff like web browsing, video and photo editing, the Galaxy A73 is as fast as the Galaxy S22 Ultra, and 19% faster than the Galaxy Note20 Ultra!
Samsung Galaxy A73 : Gaming Performance
For gaming, we tested the Galaxy A73 using 3DMark, with these results :
3DMark
Galaxy
S22 Ultra
Galaxy Z
Flip 3
Note20
Ultra
Galaxy
A73
Galaxy
Note10+
Device
SD 8
Gen 1
SD 888
Exynos
990
SD 778G
Exynos
9825
Sling Shot Unlimited
11094
9248
8026
6620
3327
Wild Life Unlimited
9106
3952
4504
2487
3288
Wild Life
Extreme
Unlimited
2220
1174
1387
689
528
For older / simpler 3D games, the Sling Shot benchmark showed that the Snapdragon 778G was only 17.5% slower than the Exynos 990, but 40% slower than the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.
But when it came to more strenuous games, flagship smartphones like Galaxy S22 Ultra and the Galaxy Z Flip 3 were 2X to 3X faster than the Galaxy A73.
Samsung Galaxy A73 : Overall Performance
We then tested the Galaxy A73 using AnTuTu, yielding these results :
AnTuTu
Galaxy
S22 Ultra
Galaxy
Z Flip 3
Galaxy A73
Note20
Ultra
Galaxy
A52
Device
SD 8 Gen 1
SD 888
SD 778G
Exynos
990
SD 750G
AnTuTu Score
889167
696767
523209
522735
341908
CPU
203090
206228
159238
146783
105098
GPU
402617
242573
159364
215205
88068
Memory
146002
133586
88705
89376
60642
UX
137458
114380
115902
71371
88100
The AnTuTu benchmark confirmed that the Samsung Galaxy A73 is really quite a powerful smartphone, matching the performance of the Galaxy Note20 Ultra.
Even though Galaxy A73 costs less than half that of the Galaxy S22 Ultra and the Galaxy Z Flip 3, it was only 41% and 25% slower.
The Snapdragon 778G also ran cool, increasing its temperature by just 1.2°C. The Galaxy S22 Ultra, in comparison, saw its temperature jumped by over 10°C in the same test!
Samsung Galaxy A73 : Performance Summary
The Galaxy A73 is the premium mid-range Samsung smartphone for 2022, and it does not disappoint.
Built around the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G, it offers excellent work performance, equivalent to the best flagship smartphones for basic tasks as well as photo and video editing.
Its gaming performance is not flagship-class, as the benchmarks show, but it was no slouch. It will readily handle most games just fine, even AAA games.
Samsung Galaxy A73 Colour + Availability!
Here in Malaysia, the Galaxy A73 smartphone is available in three colour options :
Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Apple just launched the M2 – their second-generation M-series system-on-a-chip (SoC) for Mac computers!
Let’s compare the new M2 against the last-generation M1 series SoCs!
Apple Silicon M1 vs. M2 Comparison
On 6 June 2022, Apple unveiled their second-generation M-series system-on-a-chip (SoC) for Mac computers – the Apple Silicon M2!
Built on an improved 5 nm process technology, the Apple M2 has 20 billion transistors – 25% more transistors than the M1.
All those transistors allow the Apple M2 to deliver better performance than the last-generation M1 :
Faster Performance cores with a larger cache
18% faster CPU performance
35% more powerful GPU at max. power
40% faster Neural Engine
50% more memory bandwidth
up to 24 GB of unified memory
a new image signal processor (ISP) for better image noise reduction
The new M2 no doubt offers a significant boost in performance and capabilities over the M1.
On top of that, it partially addressed the limited Unified Memory capacity offered by the M1, by offering a 24 MB option.
The new M2 will debut in the 2022 MacBook Air, and the updated 13-inch MacBook Pro 2022 laptops.
To give you a better idea of how they compare, here is our direct comparison b between the Apple M1 and the Apple M2 :
Specifications
M1
M2
Difference
Fab Tech
5nm (N5)
5 nm (N5P)
–
Transistor
Count
16 billion
20 billion
+25%
Die Size
120 mm²
NA
–
CPU Cores
(Performance)
4 x Firestorm
@ 3.2 GHz
4 x Avalanche cores
@ NA GHz
–
CPU Cores
(Efficiency)
4 x Icestorm cores
@ 2.06 GHz
4 Blizzard cores
@ NA GHz
–
L2 Cache
P-core : 12 MB
E-core : 4 MB
P-core : 16 MB
E-core : 4 MB
P-core : +33%
SLC
16 MB
32 MB
+100%
GPU Cores
7 / 8 cores
1278 MHz
8 / 10 cores
NA MHz
+1 / +2 cores
Neural Engine
16 cores
(11 TOPS)
16 cores
(15.8 TOPS)
+44%
Memory Options
8 GB / 16 GB
8 GB / 16 GB / 24 GB
–
Memory Type
LPDDR4X
LPDDR5
–
Memory Speed
2133 MHz
3200 MHz
+50%
Memory Bus
128-bit
128-bit
–
Memory
Bandwidth
68.2 GB/s
102.4 GB/s
50%
Apple Silicon M1 Series vs. M2 Comparison
While the M2 may offer significant improvements over the M1, Apple has been careful in not letting it cannibalise sales of the higher-performing M1 Pro, M1 Max and M1 Ultra chips.
Even without testing the new M2, its specifications show that it slots in between the M1 and the M1 Pro.
M2 has 8 cores like M1, with 2-4 fewer Performance cores than the M1 Pro.
Its Performance cores have L2 cache size of 16 MB, right between M1 (8 MB) and M1 Pro (24 MB).
Its 8-10 GPU core count is right between M1 (7-8 cores) and M1 Pro (14-16 cores).
Its maximum Unified Memory option is 24 GB, right between M1 (16 GB) and M1 Pro (32 GB).
It retains the M1’s narrower 128-bit memory bus, but uses the M1 Pro’s faster LPDDR5 memory.
To show you what I mean, here is a table I created comparing the key specifications of the M1 series against the new M2 :
Specifications
M1
M1 Pro
M1 Max
M1 Ultra
M2
Fab Tech
5nm (N5)
5 nm (N5P)
Transistor Count
16 billion
33.7 billion
57 billion
114 billion
20 billion
Die Size
120 mm²
245 mm²
432 mm²
864 mm²
NA
CPU Cores
(Performance)
4 cores
(Firestorm)
3.2 GHz
6 / 8 cores
(Firestorm)
3.23 GHz
8 cores
(Firestorm)
3.23 GHz
16 cores
(Firestorm)
3.23 GHz
4 cores
(Avalanche)
NA GHz
CPU Cores
(Efficiency)
4 cores
(Icestorm)
2.06 GHz
2 cores
(Icestorm)
2.06 GHz
2 cores
(Icestorm)
2.06 GHz
4 cores
(Icestorm)
2.06 GHz
4 cores
(Blizzard)
NA GHz
L2 Cache
P-core : 12 MB
E-core : 4 MB
P-core : 24 MB
E-core : 4 MB
P-core : 48 MB
E-core : 8 MB
P-core : 16 MB
E-core : 4 MB
SLC
16 MB
32 MB
64 MB
128 MB
32 MB
GPU Cores
7 / 8 cores
1278 MHz
14 / 16 cores
1296 MHz
24 / 32 cores
1296 MHz
48 / 64 cores
1296 MHz
8 / 10 cores
NA MHz
Neural Engine
16 cores
32 cores
16 cores
Memory Options
8 / 16 GB
16 / 32 GB
32 / 64 GB
64 / 128 GB
8 / 16 / 24 GB
Memory Type
LPDDR4X
LPDDR5
Memory Speed
2133 MHz
3200 MHz
Memory Bus
128-bit
256-bit
512-bit
1024-bit
128-bit
Memory
Bandwidth
68.2 GB/s
204.8 GB/s
409.6 GB/s
819.2 GB/s
102.4 GB/s
Please Support My Work!
Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp
Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Take a look at the performance of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, and find out how well this ultra-premium tablet performs!
Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Flagship Class Performance!
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra runs on the most powerful mobile SoC available for Android devices – the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.
Fabricated on the latest 4nm Samsung process technology, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 boasts a powerful Adreno 730 GPU as well as eight processor cores in a triple-tier architecture :
a Cortex-X2 prime core running at up to 3 GHz,
three sustained-performance Cortex-A710 cores running at up to 2.5 GHz, and
four energy-efficient Cortex-A510 cores running at 1.8 GHz.
On paper, this is about as powerful as it gets in 2022, but let’s take a look at how it actually performs!
Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Work Performance
We first tested the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra using PCMark, which simulates work applications like web browsing, playing video, writing text and editing photos.
Work 3.0
Galaxy
Z Flip 3
Galaxy
S22 Ultra
Galaxy Tab
S8 Ultra
Galaxy
Tab S7+
Galaxy Tab
S7 FE
Mobile Platform
SD 888
SD 8 Gen 1
SD 8
Gen 1
SD 865+
SD
778G
Performance Score
13317
12860
12351
12348
9747
Web Browsing
11637
10442
9696
11864
7355
Video Editing
7762
7444
6194
7664
6028
Writing
15316
15471
14411
12659
10512
Photo Editing
25357
30177
31774
26230
22188
Data Manipulation
11938
9691
10449
9511
8505
Surprisingly, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Get 1 was slightly slower than the Snapdragon 888 used by the Galaxy Z Flip 3, but the difference was just 7%, which means you won’t actually notice the difference.
For certainly, it will easily handle anything you throw at it, whether it’s just posting your latest Instagram pictures or editing a 4K video.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Gaming Performance
For gaming, we tested the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra using 3DMark, with these results :
3DMark
Galaxy
Tab
S8 Ultra
Galaxy
S22 Ultra
Galaxy
Z Flip 3
Galaxy
Tab S7+
Galaxy
Tab S7 FE
Device
SD 8
Gen 1
SD 8 Gen 1
SD 888
SD 865+
SD 778G
Sling Shot Unlimited
10728
11094
9248
8793
6688
Wild Life Unlimited
9838
9106
3952
–
–
Wild Life
Extreme
Unlimited
2221
2220
1174
–
–
Look at that! The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 was a head above the competition when it comes to gaming!
It was 16% to 150% faster than the Snapdragon 888, and 22% faster than the Snadragon 865+!
For certain, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 will crush any game you throw at it.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Overall Performance
We then tested the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra using AnTuTu, yielding these results :
AnTuTu
Galaxy Tab
S8 Ultra
Galaxy
S22 Ultra
Galaxy
Z Flip 3
Galaxy
Tab S7+
Galaxy
Tab S7 FE
Device
SD 8 Gen 1
SD 8 Gen 1
SD 888
SD 865+
SD 778G
AnTuTu Score
950630
889167
696767
577726
508008
CPU
213689
203090
206228
161243
157465
GPU
417669
402617
242573
230859
155115
Memory
161903
146002
133586
98269
79972
UX
157369
137458
114380
87355
115456
The AnTuTu benchmark confirmed that the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra is a veritable beast of a performer, beating even the very fast Galaxy Z Flip 3 by 36%.
Its GPU performance was, in particular, spectacular, delivering 72% better performance than the Galaxy Z Flip 3, and 81% better performance than the Galaxy Tab S7+!
Interestingly, it was 7% faster than the Galaxy S22 Ultra, which uses the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor. This is likely due to better cooling – its temperature only increased by 0.3°C, whereas the S22 Ultra’s temperature spiked by over 10°C!
Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Performance Summary
The Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra was meant to be the ultimate Samsung tablet for 2022, and it does not disappoint.
Built around the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 – the fastest mobile SoC that exists for Android devices – it offers a tremendous boost in GPU performance, which should make gamers and mobile content creators happy.
The benchmark results amply demonstrates, you can count on the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra to easily handle anything and everything you throw at it.
Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp
Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra has an Adaptive mode that dynamically refreshes between 1 Hz and 120 Hz for better battery life.
The 120 Hz refresh rate option in the Galaxy A73 is fixed at 120 Hz. This guarantees you an ultra-smooth 120 Hz refresh rate all the time, at the expense of battery life.
In the next section, we will look at how the two refresh rate options affect the Galaxy A73 smartphone’s battery life.
The Samsung Galaxy A73 comes with a large 5,000 mAh battery, which is the same size as the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s battery!
To test its battery life, we turned off Automatic Brightness, and set its display brightness to 50%.
Why 50%? That is actually slightly higher than the average indoor brightness level of 40% during the day, and is what we usually use in all our mobile battery life tests.
It is important to fix the brightness level, to make sure the screen brightness does not change as the ambient brightness changes.
We then ran the PCMark Work 3.0 battery life test until its battery capacity dropped to 20% several times, and this was the best result we obtained with 60 Hz and 120 Hz refresh rates :
Look at that! The Samsung Galaxy A73 has a long battery life of 10.75 hours with High refresh rate enabled, and lasts 13 hours with the Standard refresh rate!
That means it has the same battery life as the Galaxy S22 Ultra with the 120 Hz refresh rate, but one hour shorter battery life at 60 Hz.
That’s the advantage of the S22 Ultra’s more efficient 4nm processor, but then again – the S22 Ultra costs a lot more than the A73!
Standard Refresh Rate (60 Hz)
The Samsung Galaxy A73 delivers the best battery life with the Standard refresh rate of 60 Hz, offering just over 13 hours of non-stop use.
The Galaxy A73 consumed 13% less power than the S21 Ultra, but 9% more power than the S22 Ultra.
Work 3.0
S22 Ultra
(60 Hz)
A73 (60 Hz)
S21 Ultra
(60 Hz)
Display Size
6.8-inch
6.7-inch
6.8-inch
Battery Capacity
5,000 mAh
5,000 mAh
5,000 mAh
Battery Life
14 hrs 15 mins
13 hrs 4 mins
11 hrs 22 mins
Utilisation
per min.
4.68 mAh
5.10 mAh
5.87 mAh
High Refresh Rate (120 Hz)
Switching on the High refresh rate of 120 Hz cut its battery life by 18% – almost 2.5 hours!
But Galaxy A73 has pretty much the same battery life as the S22 Ultra, and last year’s S21 Ultra.
Work 3.0
A73 (120 Hz)
S22 Ultra
(120 Hz)
S21 Ultra
(120 Hz)
Display Size
6.7-inch
6.8-inch
6.8-inch
Battery Capacity
5,000 mAh
5,000 mAh
5,000 mAh
Battery Life
10 hrs 42 mins
10 hrs 38 mins
10 hrs 26 mins
Utilisation
per min.
6.23 mAh
6.27 mAh
6.39 mAh
Samsung Galaxy A73 : Battery Recharging Speed!
The Samsung Galaxy A73 supports up to 25 watts of wired fast charging, but unfortunately, does not come with the charger in-the-box.
So we relied on the standard 15 watt Samsung fast charger than shipped with their previous smartphones and tablets – something we believe most users will end up doing.
Recharging Speed
S21 Ultra
S22 Ultra
A73
Battery Capacity
5,000 mAh
5,000 mAh
5,000 mAh
Charger Output
25 watts
15 watts
15 watts
Battery Life
64 minutes
64.5 minutes
85 minutes
Recharging Speed
(per minute)
62.5 mAh
62.0 mAh
47.0 mAh
Despite having the same capacity battery as the Galaxy S22 Ultra, and using the same recycled 15 watt charger, the Galaxy A73 recharged about 25% slower.
That shows that even though their batteries have the same capacities, they are built differently, allowing for faster charging on the Galaxy S22 Ultra.
That said – the Galaxy A73 was no slouch, taking less than 1.5 hours to fully recharge from 20% to 100%.
Samsung Galaxy A73 Colour + Availability!
Here in Malaysia, the Galaxy A73 smartphone is available in three colour options :
Awesome White
Awesome Mint
Awesome Gray
It will be offered in only one variant, at this price point :
Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp
Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
The Galaxy S22 Ultra has an Adaptive mode that dynamically refreshes between 1 Hz and 120 Hz for better battery life.
The 120 Hz refresh rate option in the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra is fixed at 120 Hz. This guarantees you an ultra-smooth 120 Hz refresh rate all the time, at the expense of battery life.
In the next section, we will look at how the two refresh rate options affect the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra’s battery life.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Battery Life Comparison!
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra comes with a massive 11,200 mAh battery, which is more than the size of the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s battery!
To test its battery life, we turned off Automatic Brightness, and set its display brightness to 50%.
Why 50%? That is actually slightly higher than the average indoor brightness level of 40% during the day, and is what we usually use in all our mobile battery life tests.
It is important to fix the brightness level, to make sure the screen brightness does not change as the ambient brightness changes.
We then ran the PCMark Work 3.0 battery life test until its battery capacity dropped to 20% several times, and this was the best result we obtained with 60 Hz and 120 Hz refresh rates :
Astoundingly, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra only has a battery life of 6.5 hours with High refresh rate enabled, and a more acceptable 8 hours with the Standard refresh rate!
This is a slight improvement over last year’s Galaxy Tab S7 Plus. There is no doubt that its much larger 14.6-inch Super AMOLED display is a significant drain on battery life.
Let’s compare its battery life against the Galaxy Tab S7 Plus, and the Galaxy S22 Ultra smartphone which uses the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 mobile SoC.
Standard Refresh Rate (60 Hz)
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra delivers the best battery life with the Standard refresh rate of 60 Hz.
The Tab S8 Ultra appears to use 9% more power than the Tab S7 Plus, but I have to point out that it has a 39% larger display.
Fortunately, the battery life deficit is “covered” by its 11% larger battery.
Work 3.0
S22 Ultra
(60 Hz)
Tab S7 Plus
(60 Hz)
Tab S8 Ultra
(60 Hz)
Display Size
6.8-inch
12.4-inch
14.6-inch
Battery Capacity
5,000 mAh
10,090 mAh
11,200 mAh
Battery Life
14 hrs 15 mins
7 hrs 55 mins
8 hrs
3 mins
Utilisation
per min.
4.68 mAh
16.99 mAh
18.55 mAh
High Refresh Rate (120 Hz)
Switching on the High refresh rate of 120 Hz cut its battery life by 17.6% – almost 1.5 hours!
But the data shows that its larger 14.6-inch display only used 3.4% more power than the Tab S7 Plus.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra supports up to 45 watts of wired fast charging, but unfortunately, does not come with the charger in-the-box.
So we relied on the standard 15 watt Samsung fast charger than shipped with their previous smartphones and tablets – something we believe most users will end up doing.
Recharging Speed
Tab S8 Ultra
Tab S7 Plus
S22 Ultra
Display Size
14.6-inch
12.4-inch
6.8-inch
Battery Capacity
11,200 mAh
10,090 mAh
5,000 mAh
Charger Output
15 watts
15 watts
15 watts
Battery Life
86.5 mins
86 mins
64.5 mins
Recharging Speed
(per minute)
103.6 mAh
93.9 mAh
62.0 mAh
Interestingly, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra recharged faster with a standard 15 watt charger, than the Tab S7 Plus or even the Galaxy S22 Ultra!
This is really good news. It means that Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra owners need not worry too much about its recharging speed with the older 15 watt chargers.
In fact, you don’t need to splurge on a new 45 watt fast charger. The Tab S8 Ultra fully recharges its massive battery from 20% to 100% in just under 1.5 hours with the standard 15 watt Samsung charger!
Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp
Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Take a look at the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra camera’s video recording performance, and find out why it’s such an awesome video recording device!
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Flagship Class Camera Performance!
The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is their flagship smartphone for the year 2022, and it boasts the best cameras money can buy.
Headlining its top-of-the-line quad-camera system is a Dual Pixel camera, which is built around the 108 MP ISOCELL HM3 sensor, and optically-stabilised lens with a large f/1.8 aperture.
In this article, we are going to take a look at the video recording capability of Galaxy S22 Ultra, and show you just how well its quad-camera system performs!
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Video Recording Performance
The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra’s super-high resolution 108 MP main camera can take up to 8K videos, if you want to. But in reality – most people are not going to bother with 8K video recording, at least for now.
Very few televisions and devices support 8K video playback, and even the S22 Ultra will downsample the 8K video when playing back on its 3K display.
1080p and 4K videos are what the Galaxy S22 Ultra does best, thanks to its support for 60 fps recording and combination of optical image stabilisation and advanced electronic image stabilisation.
1080p Video Sample : Concubine Lane @ Ipoh
This video sample was taken at the famous Concubine Lane in Ipoh, which is crowded and really great to test the camera out.
In this video sample, you can see just how smooth and stable the video is at 60 fps, even with so much shaking and jostling.
4K Video Sample : Concubine Lane @ Ipoh
When we switched to 4K, the video was remarkably stable, even while we walk through the crowd, and pan around Concubine Lane.
You should also note the lack of wind noise, which is fantastic. You won’t need to use a third-party microphone with a dead cat with this phone!
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Video Zoom Capability
The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra also supports multiple zoom levels – up to 20X zoom at 1080p, and up to 10X zoom at 4K.
Its ultra-wide camera lets you record with a wider 0.6X zoom, while its 3X zoom and 10X zoom cameras allow for extended optical zoom capabilities.
1080p Zoom Demonstration
At 1080p, you can record videos from 0.6X zoom up to 20X zoom – which offers much wider range than competing smartphones.
The best image quality was seen at up to 10X zoom, while image stabilisation was best at up to 4X zoom, and still pretty good at 10X zoom.
While 20X zoom has pretty decent image quality, it is not as sharp as at 10X or lower zoom. Colours also appear more washed out at 20X.
4K Zoom Demonstration
You can record 4K videos from 0.6X zoom up to 10X zoom. – which is narrower than recording 1080p video.
For best image quality, limit your zoom up to 3X while recording 4K video. While image stabilisation was pretty good at 10X zoom, the image isn’t sharp and colours appear washed out.
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Video Recording Performance Summary
If you ignore the 8K hype, you will realise that the Galaxy S22 Ultra offers truly excellent 4K and 1080p video recording capabilities.
You should buy the Galaxy S22 Ultra for its advanced optical and electronic image stabilisation for super-stable recording on-the-move.
You should also buy the Galaxy S22 Ultra for its wide zoom range of 0.6X to 10X when recording 1080p videos, or 0.6X to 3X when recording 4K videos.
These are the critical video recording features that will give you greater flexibility and super stable videos, without the need to use a gimbal.
While not showcased in our videos, the Galaxy S22 Ultra also supports Audio Zoom, focusing the audio recording as you zoom into a scene. That can be really helpful in isolating audio from the subject from background noise.
These features are not new – they have been part of the Samsung Galaxy S and Note series for a few years now. Samsung just keeps improving them, which is why we keep using Galaxy S smartphones as our primary video recording device.
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Price + Availability
Samsung is offering the Galaxy S22 Ultra in four colour options – Burgundy, Green, Phantom Black and Phantom White.
I had the opportunity to attend an exclusive Samsung preview event, to check out all four colours for ourselves.
Note : Samsung only allowed us to use digital cameras, so the video is not stabilised as it would be with smartphones that I generally use.
Here in Malaysia, it is available starting 10 February 2022 in three variants, at these price points :
Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp
Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
The Samsung 980 Pro is still the epitome of a fast gaming SSD that will let you boot up instantly, and load massive games quickly.
Find out why it is still the favourite SSD for discerning gamers all over the world!
Samsung 980 Pro : Super Fast Gaming SSD!
When it was launched back in September 2020, the Samsung 980 Pro was amongst the best and fastest gaming SSD money could buy.
It boasted a brand new 8nm Samsung Elpis controller with a native PCIe 4.0 interface, as well as improved TurboWrite caching.
To keep it running at peak performance, the Elpis controller is nickel coated to improve heat dissipation. It also uses a heat spreader label to keep the NAND chips cool.
The 980 Pro SSD also uses Samsung’s latest V-NAND TLC flash memory, with storage capacities of up to 2 TB in an M.2 2280 form factor.
Each SSD comes with 512 GB to 2 GB of LPDDR4 cache, and uses some of its storage as a fast SLC cache of between 49 GB and 216 GB in size.
Thanks to this combination of both DRAM and SLC caching, the Samsung 980 Pro boasts sequential read speeds of 6.4 GB/s to 7.0 GB/s, and sequential write speeds of 2.7 GB/s to 5.1 GB/s.
Of course, once the write caches ran out, sustained write speed fell to 400 MB/s for the 250 GB model, 900 MB/s for the 500 GB model, and 1.7 GB/s for the 1 TB and 2 TB models. But this was generally not an issue for gaming PCs, where read speed is paramount.
Capacity
Fixed
Intelligent
Total
TurboWrite
Speed
After
TurboWrite
250 GB
4 GB
45 GB
49 GB
2.7 GB/s
0.4 GB/s
500 GB
4 GB
90 GB
94 GB
5.0 GB/s
0.9 GB/s
1 TB
6 GB
108 GB
114 GB
5.0 GB/s
1.7 GB/s
2 TB
6 GB
210 GB
216 GB
5.1 GB/s
1.7 GB/s
But note that TurboWrite requires you keeping approximately 20% of the drive’s storage capacity free or empty. If you fill up the drive beyond that, the Intelligent portion of TurboWrite will be reduced.
Also, to fully utilise the Samsung 980 Pro, your gaming PC should PCIe 4.0. It is backward compatible and will have no issues working with PCIe 3.0, but your drive will be limited to 3.5GB/s for sequential reads.
Samsung 980 Pro : Now A Fast SSD That Won’t Break The Bank!
When it was first released, the Samsung 980 Pro was not only expensive, it was much sought after and were consequently hard to come by.
The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t do us any favour, with computer part prices skyrocketing from a combination of increased demand and reduced production.
18 months later – the Samsung 980 Pro remains one of the better gaming SSDs money can buy, only it’s more affordable these days!
Of particular interest are the smaller 250GB and 500GB models. While they don’t offer that much storage space, they are much cheaper on a per GB basis.
Here is a look at the latest deals on the Samsung 980 Pro SSD globally :
Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp
Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Take a look at the performance of the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, and find out how well it performs against the competition!
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Flagship Class Performance!
The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra runs on the most powerful mobile SoC available for Android devices – the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.
Fabricated on the latest 4nm Samsung process technology, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 boasts a powerful Adreno 730 GPU as well as eight processor cores in a triple-tier architecture :
a Cortex-X2 prime core running at up to 3 GHz,
three sustained-performance Cortex-A710 cores running at up to 2.5 GHz, and
four energy-efficient Cortex-A510 cores running at 1.8 GHz.
On paper, this is about as powerful as it gets in 2022, but let’s take a look at how it actually performs!
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Work Performance
We first tested the Galaxy S22 Ultra using PCMark, which simulates work applications like web browsing, playing video, writing text and editing photos.
Work 3.0
Galaxy
Z Flip 3
Galaxy
S22 Ultra
Galaxy
S21 Ultra
Note20
Ultra
Galaxy
A52
Mobile Platform
SD 888
SD 8
Gen 1
Exynos
2100
Exynos
990
SD
750G
Performance Score
13317
12860
12535
10523
7874
Web Browsing
11637
10442
10185
8865
7021
Video Editing
7762
7444
6336
6232
5693
Writing
15316
15471
15247
11112
7454
Photo Editing
25357
30177
37847
30789
15812
Data Manipulation
11938
9691
8310
6825
6424
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 was surprisingly slightly slower than the Snapdragon 888 used by the Galaxy Z Flip 3, but the difference is just 5%, which means you won’t actually notice the difference.
For certain, it will easily handle anything you throw at it, whether it’s just posting your latest Instagram pictures or editing a 4K video.
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Gaming Performance
For gaming, we tested the Galaxy S22 Ultra using 3DMark, with these results :
3DMark
Galaxy
S22 Ultra
Galaxy
Z Flip 3
Note20
Ultra
Galaxy
Note10+
Device
SD 8
Gen 1
SD 888
Exynos
990
Exynos
9825
Sling Shot Unlimited
11094
9248
8026
3327
Wild Life Unlimited
9106
3952
4504
3288
Wild Life
Extreme
Unlimited
2220
1174
1387
528
Look at that! The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 was a head above the competition when it comes to gaming!
It was 20% to 130% faster than the Snapdragon 888, and 38% to 102% faster than the Exynos 990!
For certain, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 will crush any game you throw at it.
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Overall Performance
We then tested the Galaxy S22 Ultra using AnTuTu, yielding these results :
AnTuTu
Galaxy
S22 Ultra
Galaxy
Z Flip 3
Galaxy
S21 Ultra
Note20
Ultra
Galaxy
A52
Device
SD 8 Gen 1
SD
888
Exynos
2100
Exynos
990
SD 750G
AnTuTu Score
889167
696767
624411
522735
341908
CPU
203090
206228
166290
146783
105098
GPU
402617
242573
258995
215205
88068
Memory
146002
133586
120805
89376
60642
UX
137458
114380
78321
71371
88100
The AnTuTu benchmark confirmed that the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is a veritable beast of a performer, beating even the very fast Galaxy Z Flip 3 by 28%, and the last-generation Galaxy S21 Ultra by 42!
Its GPU performance was, in particular, spectacular, delivering 66% better performance than the Galaxy Z Flip 3, and 55% better performance than the Galaxy S21 Ultra!
But note that its temperature jumped by over 10°C! At peak performance, the Galaxy S22 Ultra can get quite toasty!
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Performance Summary
The Galaxy S22 Ultra was meant to be the ultimate Samsung smartphone for 2022, and it does not disappoint.
Built around the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 – the fastest mobile SoC that exists for Android devices – it offers a tremendous boost in GPU performance, which should make gamers and mobile content creators happy.
The benchmark results amply demonstrates, you can count on the Galaxy S22 Ultra to easily handle anything and everything you throw at it.
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Price + Availability
Samsung is offering the Galaxy S22 Ultra in four colour options – Burgundy, Green, Phantom Black and Phantom White.
I had the opportunity to attend an exclusive Samsung preview event, to check out all four colours for ourselves.
Note : Samsung only allowed us to use digital cameras, so the video is not stabilised as it would be with smartphones that I generally use.
Here in Malaysia, it is available starting 10 February 2022 in three variants, at these price points :
Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp
Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Battery Life Comparison!
The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra comes with a larger 5,000 mAh battery, which is the same size as last year’s Galaxy S21 Ultra.
To test its battery life, we turned off Automatic Brightness, and set its display brightness to 50%.
Why 50%? That is actually slightly higher than the average indoor brightness level of 40% during the day, and is what we usually use in all our mobile battery life tests.
It is important to fix the brightness level, to make sure the screen brightness does not change as the ambient brightness changes.
We then ran the PCMark Work 3.0 battery life test until its battery capacity dropped to 20% several times, and this was the best result we obtained with 60 Hz and 120 Hz refresh rates :
Will you look at that!
The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra has a battery life of 10.5 hours with Adaptive refresh rate enabled, and a whopping 14.25 hours with the Standard refresh rate!
But let’s compare its battery life at 60 Hz and 120 Hz, against the S21 Ultra and Z Flip 3 smartphones.
Standard Refresh Rate (60 Hz)
The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra really shines with the refresh rate set to 60 Hz.
The S22 Ultra used 20% less power per minute, which delivered 25% longer battery life than the S21 Ultra.
Work 3.0
S22 Ultra
(60 Hz)
Z Flip 3
(60 Hz)
S21 Ultra
(60 Hz)
Battery Capacity
5,000 mAh
3,300 mAh
5,000 mAh
Battery Life
14 hrs
15 mins
8 hrs 11 mins
11 hrs 22 mins
Utilisation
per min.
4.68 mAh
5.38 mAh
5.87 mAh
Adaptive Refresh Rate (120 Hz)
While the Galaxy S22 Ultra certainly used less power than the S21 Ultra, that advantage was greatly diminished with the Adaptive refresh rate enabled.
The S22 Ultra used just 2% less power per minute, which delivered 2% (12 minutes) longer battery life than the S21 Ultra.
The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra supports up to 45 watts of wired fast charging, but unfortunately, does not come with the charger in-the-box.
So we relied on the standard 15 watt Samsung fast charger than shipped with their previous smartphones – something we believe most users will end up doing.
But we used the 25 watt charger for the S21 Ultra, because it came with that charger.
Work 3.0
S21 Ultra
S22 Ultra
Z Flip 3
Battery Capacity
5,000 mAh
5,000 mAh
3,300 mAh
Charger Output
25 watts
15 watts
15 watts
Battery Life
64 minutes
64.5 minutes
88.5 minutes
Recharging Speed
(per minute)
62.5 mAh
62.0 mAh
29.8 mAh
Interestingly, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra recharged as quickly with a standard 15 watt charger, as the S21 Ultra with its more powerful 25 watt charger!
In fact, the Galaxy S22 Ultra recharged itself twice as fast as the Galaxy Z Flip 3, even though they both used the same 15 watt charger!
This is really good news. It means that Galaxy S22 Ultra owners need not worry too much about its recharging speed with the older 15 watt chargers.
In fact, you don’t really need to splurge on a new 45 watt fast charger. The Galaxy S22 Ultra fully recharges from 20% to 100% in just over an hour with the standard 15 watt Samsung charger!
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Price + Availability
Samsung is offering the Galaxy S22 Ultra in four colour options – Burgundy, Green, Phantom Black and Phantom White.
I had the opportunity to attend an exclusive Samsung preview event, to check out all four colours for ourselves.
Note : Samsung only allowed us to use digital cameras, so the video is not stabilised as it would be with smartphones that I generally use.
Here in Malaysia, it is available starting 10 February 2022 in three variants, at these price points :
Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp
Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
72.2 mm wide
86.4 mm tall
15.9 mm to 17.1 mm thick
Unfolded
Dimensions
72.2 mm wide
166.0 mm tall
6.9 mm thick
Weight
183 grams
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 : Unboxing + Contents!
The new Galaxy Z Flip 3 is Samsung’s third-generation Flip device, featuring not only a large foldable 6.7-inch display, but also IPX8 water resistance!
As a Samsung ultra-premium smartphone, the Galaxy Z Flip 3 comes in a premium two-tone black-grey box, with these items inside :
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 smartphone
Quick Start Guide
USB-C to USB-C data and power cable
SIM tray ejection pin
Unfortunately, it does not come with a fast charger in-the-box, or an USB-C to 3.5 mm audio adaptor. Not does it come with any USB-C earphones…
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 boasts a large 6.7-inch Infinity Flex display, with a Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel that has a 120 Hz refresh rate and a resolution of 1080 x 2640 pixels.
In case you are wondering – the crease is visible if you view it from an angle, and you can feel it if you run your finger over it. But after using it some time – you will forget it’s even there.
The display is large and really beautiful – with excellent resolution, colour gamut and brightness. And it folds into a really compact device about the size of a pager – if you are old enough to remember what that is!
Its foldable display has a new protective film made from stretchable PET, and newly-optimised display panel layers that are 80% more durable than the Z Fold2 display. It is now certified to withstand folding at least 200,000 times!
If you are new to foldable phones, you will be really tentative about folding it. But over time, it will become really natural – you won’t even think twice about folding it before shoving it down your pocket.
But while the Ultra Thin Glass (UTG) can withstand a lot more folding, you must still take care not to SCRATCH it. Avoid putting it together in your pocket or handbag with hard objects like coins, another phone, etc.
You also need to remember to fold it once you don’t need to use the main display. Don’t worry – even if you fold it a 100X a day, it should last 5.5 years!
1.9-inch Cover Display
In the front, it has a small 1.9-inch Cover Display with a Super AMOLED panel with a resolution of 260 x 512 pixels.
This redesigned Cover Screen is 4X larger, making it easier to view notifications and messages without opening the Z Flip 3.
You will be able to check your schedule, the weather, and your daily step count with the new Cover Screen widgets. You can even coordinate its wallpaper with the new Galaxy Watch4 or Galaxy Watch4 Classic!
The Cover Display also serves as a camera preview display, letting you use both rear cameras for superior selfies! This is one of the Z Flip 3’s relatively unknown but truly useful feature.
Performance + Storage
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 is built around the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 5G mobile platform, which makes it one of the most powerful smartphones in the world.
Our review sample came with 8 GB of memory, and 128 GB of fast UFS 3.1 storage. It is also available with 256 GB of storage.
It only supports a single SIM card, with no microSD card tray. There is no option to increase storage, but generally 128 GB of storage is more than enough for most people.
Protection
The Galaxy Z Flip 3 is water-resistant in up to 1.5 metres of freshwater for up to 30 minutes, but is not dust-resistant due to its foldable display and folding mechanism. Hence, it is IPX8-rated.
To protect against dust and other particles, its Hideaway Hinge has enhanced Sweeper technology, with shorter bristles.
In addition, its chassis is made with Armor Aluminium, and the Cover Display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus. Its Dual Pixel main camera is also protected by Gorilla Glass with DX.
Buttons
The only buttons you will find are on the upper right side of the Galaxy Z Flip 3 – the Volume control buttons and the Power button, which doubles as the fingerprint sensor.
Pressing the Power button twice activates the Quick Shot mode, which lets you take selfies using the rear cameras with the Cover Display for preview and control.
Only One Port
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 comes with a USB Type C port, which supports USB 3.2 connectivity.
It does not come with a 3.5 mm audio jack, or a USB-C to 3.5 mm adapter in the box.
Battery + Charging
Powering all that is a 3,300 mAh lithium-ion polymer battery, which supports 15 watt fast charging, and 10 watt wireless charging. It can even wireless recharge other devices, albeit at just 4.5 watts.
This is a pretty small battery, and rather slow charging speeds. On top of that, it does not come with an in-box charger. So you will have to use your old charger, or buy a new one.
Samsung flagship smartphones are notable for featuring cutting-edge cameras, but the Galaxy Z Flip 3 stayed with the last generation cameras.
In front, it uses a 10 MP punch hole camera, with an f/2.4 aperture. To be clear, this is an excellent camera. It’s just not new.
But don’t worry – you will end up using this selfie camera only for video calls, and use the better cameras at the back for your “selfies”!
Dual Cameras At The Back
In the back, it has a dual-camera system, which consists of :
a 12 MP main camera, with f/1.8 aperture
a 12 MP ultra-wide camera, with f/2.2 aperture
These cameras are offer great image quality, even in low-light conditions – thanks to their large apertures.
As I pointed out earlier, the Cover Display lets you use these cameras for really excellent selfies. Just double-press the Power button with the Galaxy Z Flip 3 folded to activate these cameras.
This is why Samsung did not “upgrade” the front camera. These rear cameras are really the Galaxy Z Flip 3’s true selfie cameras.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 : Photo Samples
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3’s rear cameras may “only” have 12 MP sensors, but they are truly excellent cameras.
The cameras both offer good low-light performance, thanks to the wide f/1.8 and f/2.2 apertures. But the wide aperture also creates creates a narrow depth-of-field, so there is the risk of ending up with an out-of-focus photo.
Here are ten unedited photo samples for you to check out.
When used in the selfie mode, the rear cameras deliver Instagram-friendly square 9MP photos with a resolution of 2992 x 2992 pixels, and a file size of about 1.3 MB (HEIC format).
When used unfolded, the rear cameras deliver can be used to take 12MP photos with a resolution of 4000 x 3000 pixels, and a file size of about 3 MB (HEIC format).
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 comes with a small 3,300 mAh battery.
To test its battery life, we turned off Automatic Brightness, and set its display brightness to 50%.
Why 50%? That is actually slightly higher than the average indoor brightness level of 40% during the day, and is what we usually use in all our mobile battery life tests.
It is important to fix the brightness level, to make sure the screen brightness does not change as the ambient brightness changes.
We then ran the PCMark Work 3.0 battery life test until its battery capacity dropped to 20% several times, and this was the best result we obtained with 60 Hz and 120 Hz refresh rates :
Work 3.0
Galaxy A52
(60 Hz)
Galaxy A52
(90 Hz)
S21 Ultra
(60 Hz)
S21 Ultra
(120 Hz)
Note20
Ultra
Z Flip 3
(60 Hz)
Z Flip 3
(120 Hz)
Battery Capacity
4,500 mAh
4,500 mAh
5,000 mAh
5,000 mAh
4,500 mAh
3,300 mAh
3,300 mAh
Battery Life
15 hrs 33 mins
12 hrs 30 mins
11 hrs 22 mins
10 hrs
26 mins
10 hrs
9 mins
8 hrs
11 mins
6 hrs
44 mins
Utilisation
per min.
3.86 mAh
4.80 mAh
5.87 mAh
6.39 mAh
5.91 mAh
5.38 mAh
6.53 mAh
This is the biggest problem with the Galaxy Z Flip 3 – a relatively short battery life, because it pairs a powerful processor and a very large display with a small 3,300 mAh battery.
Even with the display set to 60 Hz, it only lasts just over 8 hours. If you set the display to dynamically adjust its refresh rate up to 120 Hz, that drops to just over 6.5 hours.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 : Recharging Speed
S21
Ultra
Note20
Ultra
Galaxy A52
Z Flip 3
Redmi 9T
Battery Capacity
5,000 mAh
4,500 mAh
4,500 mAh
3,300 mAh
6,000 mAh
Charger Output
25 watts
25 watts
15 watts
15 watts
18 watts
Recharging Time
64 mins
66.5 mins
84.5 mins
88.5 mins
184 mins
Recharging Speed
(per minute)
62.5 mAh
54.1 mAh
42.4 mAh
29.8 mAh
26.1 mAh
The Galaxy Z Flip 3 recharges very slowly, even using the same 15 watt Samsung fast charger as the Galaxy A52.
It actually took longer to recharge its smaller 3,300 mAh battery than the Galaxy A52 which has a much larger 4,500 mAh battery!
Its only saving grace – it was able to recharge slightly faster than the Xiaomi Redmi 9T.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 : Work Performance
We first tested the Galaxy Z Flip 3 using PCMark, which simulates work applications like web browsing, playing video, writing text and editing photos.
Work 3.0
Galaxy
Z Flip 3
Galaxy
S21 Ultra
Note20
Ultra
Galaxy
A52
Redmi
9T
Mobile Platform
SD 888
Exynos
2100
Exynos
990
SD 750G
SD 662
Performance Score
13317
12535
10523
7874
5986
Web Browsing
11637
10185
8865
7021
5844
Video Editing
7762
6336
6232
5693
3423
Writing
15316
15247
11112
7454
6657
Photo Editing
25357
37847
30789
15812
12031
Data Manipulation
11938
8310
6825
6424
4799
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 lets the Galaxy Z Flip 3 easily handle anything you throw at it, whether it’s just posting your latest Instagram pictures or editing a 4K video.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 : Gaming Performance
For gaming, we tested the Galaxy Z Flip 3 using 3DMark, with these results :
3DMark
Galaxy
Z Flip 3
Note20
Ultra
Galaxy
Note10+
Device
SD 888
Exynos
990
Exynos
9825
Sling Shot Unlimited
9248
8026
3327
Wild Life Unlimited
3952
4504
3288
Wild Life
Extreme
Unlimited
1174
1387
528
Look at that – the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 packs a serious punch when it comes to gaming.
It may seem unbelievable because the Galaxy Z Flip 3 is so slim and stylish, but it will easily handle any game you throw at it. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!
The only problem is that because it’s so thin – it can get real toasty when you game on it. The back of the chassis can get as warm as 42°C.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 : Overall Performance
We then tested the Galaxy Z Flip 3 using AnTuTu, yielding these results :
AnTuTu
Galaxy
Z
Flip 3
Galaxy
S21 Ultra
Note20
Ultra
Galaxy
A52
Redmi 9T
Device
SD 888
Exynos
2100
Exynos
990
SD 750G
SD
662
AnTuTu Score
696767
624411
522735
341908
173559
CPU
206228
166290
146783
105098
64505
GPU
242573
258995
215205
88068
31734
Memory
133586
120805
89376
60642
40377
UX
114380
78321
71371
88100
36943
The AnTuTu benchmark confirms that the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 is a beast of a performer, beating even the very fast Galaxy S21 Ultra.
Let’s do a quick wrap of what I really like, and don’t like, about it.
Better Displays
I love the large 6.7-inch foldable display that is now tougher and more durable, and supports the 120 Hz refresh rate.
Even the larger 1.9-inch cover display deserves special mention, because it is a lot more functional!
Great Performance
Even though it looks real sleek, it is powered by the incredibly powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 mobile SoC.
It will easily handle EVERYTHING you throw at it – even graphics-intensive games. It gets toasty when you game, but hey, at least it doesn’t feel like a brick!
Good Cameras
The front camera is nothing to write about, but the rear cameras are good, even though they are still stuck at 12 MP.
I like how the larger Cover Display lets you easily use the rear cameras for really good selfies.
Short Battery Life + Slow Charging
The problem with the sleek, light design – its small 3,300 mAh battery which barely does 6.5 hours with the 120 Hz refresh rate.
It doesn’t help that it recharges really slowly, even with a standard 15 watt charger… and don’t get me started on the lack of an in-box charger!
Zilch In-Box Freebies
For a premium product, it comes with zilch freebies in-the-box. As mentioned before, there is no fast charger.
There is also no USB-C to 3.5 mm audio jack, not even a pair of USB-C earphones. Neither did Samsung provide even a cheap TPU case.
Incredible New Price Point
On the other hand, Samsung really surprised me with the new price points :
Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp
Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Take a look at the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 foldable smartphone’s performance, and find out why this beauty is hiding a gaming beast inside!
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 : Flagship Class Performance!
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 is a very slim smartphone that folds to fit even the smallest pockets.
Yet it is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888, which makes it one of the most powerful smartphones in the world, with high-performance CPU + GPU cores :
a boosted Kryo 680 Prime core running at 2.84 GHz,
three high-performance Kryo 680 Gold cores running at 2.42 GHz,
four high-efficiency Kryo 680 Silver cores running at 1.8 GHz, and
an Adreno 660 GPU running at 792 MHz
This actually makes it a great gaming smartphone and one that is slim and stylish, and does not feel like a brick!
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 : Work Performance
We first tested the Galaxy Z Flip 3 using PCMark, which simulates work applications like web browsing, playing video, writing text and editing photos.
Work 3.0
Galaxy
Z Flip 3
Galaxy
S21 Ultra
Note20
Ultra
Galaxy
A52
Redmi
9T
Mobile Platform
SD 888
Exynos
2100
Exynos
990
SD 750G
SD 662
Performance Score
13317
12535
10523
7874
5986
Web Browsing
11637
10185
8865
7021
5844
Video Editing
7762
6336
6232
5693
3423
Writing
15316
15247
11112
7454
6657
Photo Editing
25357
37847
30789
15812
12031
Data Manipulation
11938
8310
6825
6424
4799
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 lets the Galaxy Z Flip 3 easily handle anything you throw at it, whether it’s just posting your latest Instagram pictures or editing a 4K video.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 : Gaming Performance
For gaming, we tested the Galaxy Z Flip 3 using 3DMark, with these results :
3DMark
Galaxy
Z Flip 3
Note20
Ultra
Galaxy
Note10+
Device
SD 888
Exynos
990
Exynos
9825
Sling Shot Unlimited
9248
8026
3327
Wild Life Unlimited
3952
4504
3288
Wild Life
Extreme
Unlimited
1174
1387
528
Look at that – the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 packs a serious punch when it comes to gaming.
It may seem unbelievable because the Galaxy Z Flip 3 is so slim and stylish, but it will easily handle any game you throw at it. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!
The only problem is that because it’s so thin – it can get real toasty when you game on it. The back of the chassis can get as warm as 42°C.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 : Overall Performance
We then tested the Galaxy Z Flip 3 using AnTuTu, yielding these results :
AnTuTu
Galaxy
Z
Flip 3
Galaxy
S21 Ultra
Note20
Ultra
Galaxy
A52
Redmi 9T
Device
SD 888
Exynos
2100
Exynos
990
SD 750G
SD
662
AnTuTu Score
696767
624411
522735
341908
173559
CPU
206228
166290
146783
105098
64505
GPU
242573
258995
215205
88068
31734
Memory
133586
120805
89376
60642
40377
UX
114380
78321
71371
88100
36943
The AnTuTu benchmark confirms that the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 is a beast of a performer, beating even the very fast Galaxy S21 Ultra.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 : Performance Summary
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 doesn’t look like your typical flagship smartphone. It’s larger than normal but looks extraordinarily slim. So you may be forgiven if you thought Samsung gave it a mid-range processor to keep it cool.
This is a flagship smartphone, and it comes with the industry-leading Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 mobile SoC, offering top-notch performance.
So you can count on it to easily handle anything and everything you throw at it, as the benchmark results above amply demonstrates.
The only problems with fitting such a powerful SoC into such a thin and light form factor? Heat and battery life, but that’s another story for another time!
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 : Price + Availability
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 is available for purchase from 27 August 2021 onwards, with a starting price of US$999 – about £723 / A$1,361 / S$1,357 / RM 4,231.
Here in Malaysia, you can buy one with these freebies :
RM350 e-voucher for Samsung Malaysia Online Store
Samsung Care+ protection (1 year), which covers accidental damage, including screen replacement, water damage and back cover replacement
In Singapore, you can buy one with these freebies :
Free Wireless Charger Duo and Clear Cover with Ring
Samsung Care+ protection (1 year), which covers accidental damage, including screen replacement, water damage and back cover replacement
In the United States, you will get these offers or freebies when you buy a Galaxy Z Flip 3 :
50% off Samsung Galaxy Buds2
Free 4 months of YouTube Premium
Free 6 months of SiriusXM Streaming
Free 3 months of Spotify Premium
In the United Kingdom, you will get this freebie + offer when you buy a Galaxy Z Flip 3 :
Free 4 months of YouTube Premium
5% cash back on Samsung.com purchases using Samsung Pay+
In Australia, you will get these offers when you buy a Galaxy Z Flip 3 :
Bonus $300 when you trade-in an eligible device
50% off Samsung Care+
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
The vivo V21 series and X60 smartphones now support Virtual RAM / Extended RAM technology!
But what exactly is vivo Virtual RAM, and how does it work?
vivo Virtual RAM : How Does It Work?
First introduced in the vivo V21 series, vivo Virtual RAM is basically virtual memory that computers have been using for decades.
When our computers begin to run out of memory, it can use some of our HDD / SDD storage as virtual memory.
While storage speeds are many times slower than RAM speed, this is better than running out of memory, which would cause the app to stop working, or worse, crash the operating system.
vivo Virtual RAM uses the same concept – it utilises 3 GB of the smartphone’s internal storage as virtual memory.
This effectively gives the operating system and apps more memory to use. If your vivo smartphone has 8 GB of RAM, then Virtual RAM expands that to 11 GB.
To improve performance, vivo also borrowed the PC virtual memory technique of swapping out inactive apps into the extended RAM space, so active apps have access to the much faster RAM.
The Virtual RAM technology was introduced in the V21 series, and will soon be added to their flagship X60 smartphone.
vivo Virtual RAM : How Useful Is It?
That really depends on how you use your smartphone.
If you only use a few apps at the same time, you will probably never run out of memory.
vivo smartphones now come with a lot of memory – 8 GB, and even games like PUBG Mobile and Asphalt 9 use less than 1.2 GB of RAM!
But if you use many apps simultaneously, or switch between them often, this could help prevent slow loading.
According to vivo, turning on Virtual RAM on an 8 GB smartphone will allow you to cache up to 20 background apps simultaneously.
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Packing 16 billion transistors, it is the first chip to be manufactured on the new 5 nm TSMC process technology.
As an SoC, it combines 8 CPU cores, an 8-core GPU, a 16-core Neural Engine, an image signal processor (ISP), an NVMe storage controller, a Thunderbolt 4 controller and a Secure Enclave – all in a single chip.
The Apple M1 is paired with either 8 GB or 16 GB of LPDDR4X memory using a system-in-a-package design.
8-Core CPU : ARM big.LITTLE Design
The Apple M1 uses the ARM big.LITTLE design for the CPU. Its 8-core CPU is divided into two performance clusters :
P Cluster (Performance) : 4 x Firestorm cores (up to 3.2 GHz)
E Cluster (Efficient) : 4 x Icestorm cores (up to 2.06 GHz)
The P Cluster is designed for high-performance, with a power consumption of 13.8 watts. It has a large 12 MB shared L2 cache, with a 128 KB dedicated L1 cache for each Firestorm core.
The E Cluster, on the other hand, is designed for a low power consumption of just 1.3 watts. It has a smaller 4 MB shared L2 cache, with a 64 KB dedicated L1 cache for each Icestorm core.
8-Core GPU : Mysterious Indeed!
The M1 uses an Apple-designed 8-core GPU, of which very little is known. Apple only says that it can handle up to 25,000 concurrent threads.
But from what we can tell, it has 128 execution units with an FP32 performance of 2.6 teraflops per second, a 82 GT/s texture fill rate, and a 41 GP/s pixel fill rate.
16-Core Neural Engine
The Apple M1 features a 16-core Neural Engine, which is capable of executing 11 trillion operations per second.
LPDDR4X Unified Memory
The Apple M1 uses a unified memory design, which means the CPU and GPU share the same memory.
Apple offers 8 GB and 16 GB LPDDR4X SDRAM options, built directly onto the package for near-instantaneous access.
Rosetta 2 Translation
As most Mac apps are compiled for x86 processors, they need to be translated to work with the Apple M1, which uses the totally different ARM architecture.
That’s where Apple Rosetta 2 comes in – introduced in macOS Big Sur, it translates or emulates x86 apps so that they can run properly on the M1 processor.
Certain apps, especially games, may require third-party software like Wine or CrossOver to work properly, like this example of The Witcher 3 running on the Apple M1.
Apple M1 : Specifications
Apple is hardly the most transparent company in the world, but here is what we know so far about the M1 chip’s specifications :
Specifications
Apple M1 (APL1102)
Fab Process
5 nm TSMC
Transistor Count
16 Billion
Die Size
120 mm²
CPU Cores
P Cluster : 4 x Firestorm cores
E Cluster : 4 x Icestorm cores
L1 Caches
Firestorm : 128 KB per core
Icestorm : 64 KB per core
L2 Caches
P Cluster : 12 MB shared
E Cluster : 4 MB shared
Clock Speed
P Cluster : 0.6~3.204 GHz
E Cluster : 0.6~2.064 GHz
CPU Power
Consumption
P Cluster : 13.8 W
E Cluster : 1.3 W
GPU Cores
8 Cores, 128 Execution Units
GPU FP32 Performance
2.6 TFLOPS
GPU Texture Fillrate
82 GT/s
GPU Pixel Fillrate
41 GP/s
Memory Size
8 GB / 16 GB
Memory Type
LPDDR4x-4266
Memory Interface
128-bit
Memory Bandwidth
68.27 GB/s
Neural Engine
16 Cores
Neural Engine
Performance
11 Trillion Ops / Second
TDP
10 watts (MacBook Air)
Apple M1 : How Fast Are Its CPU + GPU?
Unfortunately, we do not have access to the Apple M1, but Ars Technica tested it in the 2020 Mac mini. Take a look at some of the results they posted :
Note : While Ars Technica listed the M1 as a 10 watt part, this is only what Apple claims for the MacBook Air. It is likely to be clocked higher, with a higher TDP in the Mac mini and MacBook Pro.
Geekbench 5 : Single-Threaded CPU Test
Will you look at that? The Apple M1’s Firestorm cluster has really good single-core performance!
It was 7% faster than the Core i7-1185G7, in both 28W and 15W TDP modes; and 53% faster than the Ryzen 7 4700U!
Geekbench 5 : Multi-Threaded CPU Test
This is even more astounding! The Apple M1 is even faster in the multi-threaded test!
In the multi-threaded test, the Apple M1 was 22% faster and 54% faster than the Core i7-1185G7 in 28W and 15W modes, respectively. It was also 52% faster than the Ryzen 7 4700U!
Geekbench 5 : GPU Test
Even its 8-core GPU did very well, beating the Core i7-1185G7‘s integrated Iris Xe by 26%, and Ryzen 7 4700U‘s integrated Vega 7 by 65%.
Cinebench R23 : Single-Threaded Test
The Apple M1 was as fast as the 28-watt Core i7-1185G7 in the single-threaded test, and was 28% faster than the Ryzen 7 4700U. And it was only 6.5% slower than the Ryzen 9 5950X.
Cinebench R23 : Multi-Threaded Test
In the multi-threaded test, the Ars Technica team set a limit of 8 threads for a level-playing field.
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NVIDIA just launched the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, which is faster than the RTX 2080 SUPER and yet, costs only $399!
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti : Powered By Ampere!
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is a compact, 2-slot graphics card, with a 200 watt TDP and a single 8-pin PCIe power connector.
Its NVIDIA GA104 GPU has 4,864 CUDA cores, 152 TMUs, 80 ROPs, 152 tensor cores and 38 RT cores, with a base clock of 1.41 GHz and a boost clock of 1.67 GHz.
Built on the Samsung 8nm process, the GA1044 has 17.4 billion transistors with a die size of 392 mm².
It is paired with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory running at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps), delivering 448 GB/s of memory bandwidth on its 256-bit memory bus.
It has a PCI Express 4.0 x16 interface, and offers four display outputs – a single HDMI port, and three DisplayPorts.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti : Specifications
Here is how the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti compares against the bigger brothers of the GeForce RTX 30 family.
Specifications
RTX 3090
RTX 3080
RTX 3070
RTX 3060
CUDA Cores
10,496
8,704
5,888
4,864
Base Clock
1.40 GHz
1.44 GHz
1.50 GHz
1.41 GHz
Boost Clock
1.70 GHz
1.71 GHz
1.73 GHz
1.67 GHz
Memory Size
24 GB
10 GB
8 GB
Memory Type
GDDR6X
GDDR6
Memory Speed
19.5 MT/s
14 MT/s
Memory
Interface
384-bit
320-bit
256-bit
Memory
Bandwidth
936 GB/s
780 GB/s
624 GB/s
448 GB/s
NVLink (SLI)
Yes
No
Card Size
3-Slot
2-Slot
Card Power
350 W
320 W
220 W
200 W
Card Connectors
2 x 8-pin
1 x 8-pin
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti : Performance
Built around the NVIDIA Ampere architecture, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is designed for 1080p and 1440 gameplay.
In fact, NVIDIA claims it is faster than the previous-generation GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER, at a fraction of the cost!
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti : Price + Availability
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is priced at just $399, and it is available for sale starting tomorrow, 2 December 2020!
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series : Where To Buy?
Here is a list of GeForce RTX 30 Series graphics cards available online, as of 1 December 2020 :
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Find out what AMD Smart Access Memory is all about, and how much of a performance effect it really has on the Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card!
RX 6800 XT Smart Access Memory : How Does It Improve Performance?
Smart Access Memory is really a marketing term for AMD’s implementation of the PCI Express Resizable BAR (Base Address Registers) capability.
CPUs are traditionally limited to a 256 MB I/O memory address “window” for the GPU frame buffer.
Turning on Resizable BAR or Smart Access Memory removes that small access window, letting the CPU directly access the Radeon RX 6800 XT‘s graphics memory.
While the AMD graphics above suggest that Smart Access Memory will widen the memory path, and thus memory bandwidth, between the CPU and GPU, that’s not true.
It does not increase memory bandwidth. Instead, it speeds up CPU to GPU communications, by letting the CPU directly access more of GPU memory, instead of using the usual 256 MB “window”.
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If you like our work, you can help support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
Built on the new Zen 3 architecture, the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X promises to offer unparalleled 16-core, 32-thread performance!
Take a look at its performance in our in-depth review, and find out why we gave it our Reviewer’s Choice Award!
AMD Ryzen 5000 Series : Built On Zen 3
The AMD Ryzen 5000 series is designed using the new AMD Zen 3 architecture, which promises to deliver 19% more instructions per cycle (IPC) over the last generation, thanks to these new features :
improved load / store performance and flexibility
double the size of directly-accessible L3 cache per core
a unified 8-core complex (CCX) with direct access to the 32 MB L3 cache
wider issue in floating point and integer engines
Zero Bubble branch prediction
The new architecture also reduces memory latency through improved core and cache communication, and offer a higher maximum boost clock.
This allows the Ryzen 5000 series desktop processors to deliver up to 2.8X more performance-per-watt versus the competition.
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X : Price + Availability
The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X processor is available for sale starting 5 November 2020, at these RRP inclusive of tax, in Malaysia :
If you like our work, you can help support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
AMD Zen 3 Architecture
Codename Vermeer, Zen 3 is the next evolution of the Zen architecture, delivering a 19% improvement in instructions per clock (IPC) through these improvements :
Front-End Enhancements
Faster fetching, especially for branchy and large-footprint code
L1 branch target buffer doubled in size to 1024 entries for better prediction latency
Improved branch predictor bandwidth
Faster recovery from misprediction
“No bubble” prediction capabilities to make back-to-back predictions more quickly and better handle branchy code
Faster sequencing of op-cache fetches
Finer granularity in switching of op-cache pipes
Execution Engines
Reduce latency and enlarge structures to extract higher instruction-level parallelism (ILP)
New dedicated branch and st-data pickers for integer, now at 10 issues per cycle (+3 vs. Zen 2)
Larger integer window at +32 vs. Zen 2
Reduced latency for select float and int operations
Floating point has increased bandwidth by +2 for a total of 6-wide dispatch and issue
Floating point FMAC is now 1 cycle faster
Load Store
Larger structures and better prefetching to support the enhanced execution engine bandwidth
Overall higher bandwidth to feed the appetite of the larger/faster execution resources
Higher load bandwidth vs. Zen 2 by +1
Higher store bandwidth vs. Zen 2 by +1
More flexibility in load/store operations
Improved memory dependence detection
+4 table walkers in the TLB
SOC Architecture
Reduce dependency on main memory accesses, reduce core-to-core latency, reduce core-to-cache latency.
Unify all cores in a CCD into a single unified complex consisting of 4, 6, or 8 contiguous cores
Unify all L3 cache in a CCD into a single contiguous element of up to 32MB
Rearchitect core/cache communication into a ring system
AMD Zen 3 SoC Design
In addition to micro architectural improvements, Zen 3 (Vermeer) also features SoC design changes.
In Zen 2, each CCD (Compute Die) is made up of two CCX (core complexes), each with a 16 MB L3 cache.
Zen 3 uses a unified complex, in which each CCD now contains a single CCX with a unified 32 MB L3 cache.
On the other hand, AMD reused the chiplet design, with one or two CCDs (fabricated on 7 nm) paired with a 12 nm IOD (I/O Die).
Reads from CCD to IO are still 2X write, to conserve die area and transistor budget. And it uses the same IOD from Matisse (Zen 2).
The new Zen 3 CCD has 4.15 billion transistors, with a die size of 80.7 mm². The Matisse-era IOD remains the same – 2.09 billion transistors, with a die size of 125 mm².
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X Benchmarking Notes
In this review, we will take a look at the content creation and gaming performance of the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X, comparing it to 6 other processors :
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AMD Ryzen 9 5950X : 3D Rendering Speed
CINEBENCH R20 is a real-world 3D rendering benchmark based on the MAXON Cinema 4D animation software.
It is a great way to accurately determine the actual performance of a processor in 3D content creation.
CINEBENCH R20 Single Core Performance
This Single Core test is not reflective of real world performance, but it is useful to find out the performance of the individual core.
Like the Ryzen 7 5800X, the Ryzen 9 5950X broke past the 600 mark, and was 22.5% faster than the Ryzen 7 3700X.
Because it has a 11.4% higher boost clock, that works out to a 10% better performance per clock, over the last-generation Ryzen.
CINEBENCH R20 Multi Core Performance
The Multi Core test shows the processor’s real-world 3D rendering performance.
A score of almost 9900! That makes it 66% faster than the Ryzen 7 5800X, and 2X faster than the Ryzen 7 3700X, both 8-core, 16-thread processors.
Multi-Threading Boost
This is not a CINEBENCH benchmark result. The Multi-Threading Boost is our calculation of the performance boost that the processor’s Multi-Threading capability provides.
For some reason, the Ryzen 9 5950X doesn’t benefit at all from its SMT capability.
That’s why it only has a 66% performance advantage over the Ryzen 7 5800X, despite having twice as many cores.
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X : Transcoding Speed
HandBrake is a free, open-source video transcoding utility, which converts a video file from one resolution / format to another.
As you can imagine, it’s very compute-intensive, which makes it a great benchmark for multi-core processors. In our test, we converted a 4K video of 1.3 GB in size into a 1080p video (HQ1080p30).
The radial blur filter adds the perception of motion to a picture. This is a compute-intensive operation that benefits from multiple processing cores.
This radial blur test was performed on Photoshop 2020 using a single 13.5 megapixel photo, with a filesize of 4,910,867 bytes.
This is a huge boost in performance! The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X was 87% faster than the Ryzen 7 5800X, 2.33X faster than the Ryzen 7 3700X and 2.67X faster than the Ryzen 7 2700X.
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Synthetic Game Test : 3DMark
We used 3DMark’s Time Spy and Time Spy Extreme synthetic benchmarks, which supports DirectX 12, and the latest features like asynchronous compute, and multi-threading support.
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World War Z
Based on the 2013 movie, World War Z is a relatively recent third-person shooter game, released in April 2019.
We tested it on three resolutions using the Vulkan API at the High settings :
1080p : 1920 x 1080 pixels
1440p : 2560 x 1440 pixels
2160p : 3840 x 2160 pixels
1080p Gaming Resolution
Look at that! The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X topped this comparison, tying with the Ryzen 7 5800X.
It delivered 16% higher frame rates than the Ryzen 7 3700X, and 20% higher frame rates than the Core i7-8700K.
1440p Gaming Resolution
When we bumped the resolution up to 1440p, it really didn’t matter that much which processor we used. They all performed about the same.
2160p Gaming Resolution
At 4K resolution, processor performance had absolutely no effect. The game was completely graphics-limited.
Strange Brigade
Strange Brigade is a third-person shooter game, released in August 2018. We tested it in three resolutions using the Vulkan API at the Ultra High settings :
1080p : 1920 x 1080 pixels
1440p : 2560 x 1440 pixels
2160p : 3840 x 2160 pixels
1080p Gaming Resolution
CPU performance had only a small effect on frame rates in Strange Brigade, even at 1080p.
1440p Gaming Resolution
At 1440p, they were virtually all equal in performance. The game was already graphics-limited.
2160p Gaming Resolution
It was the same at 4K, of course – the game was completely graphics-limited.
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Metro Exodus
Metro Exodus is a first-person shooter game, released in February 2019. We tested it in three resolutions using the Ultra settings :
1080p : 1920 x 1080 pixels
1440p : 2560 x 1440 pixels
2160p : 3840 x 2160 pixels
1080p Gaming Resolution
Metro Exodus is graphics-intensive, so CPU performance has limited effect on its frame rate.
1440p Gaming Resolution
All of the processors performed the same at 1440p, with a slight edge to the Core i7-8700K.
2160p Gaming Resolution
At 4K, the game was completely graphics-limited, so it didn’t matter which processor we tested.
Ashes of the Singularity
Ashes of the Singularity is a 2016 game that supports multi-core processing and asynchronous compute.
In this game, the single core CPU performance has a significant effect on the actual frame rate.
We tested it on three resolutions using the DirectX 12 API at the High settings :
1080p : 1920 x 1080
1440p : 2560 x 1440
2160p : 3840 x 2160
1080p Gaming Resolution
Look at that! The Ryzen 9 5950X delivered 9% higher frame rates than the Ryzen 7 5800X, 21% higher frame rates than the Core i7-8700K, and 23% higher frame rates than the Ryzen 7 3700X.
1440p Gaming Resolution
At 1440p, the Ryzen 9 5950X delivered 7% higher frame rates than the Ryzen 7 5800X, and 23% higher frame rates than both the Core i7-8700K and the Ryzen 7 3700X.
2160p Gaming Resolution
Even at 4K, CPU performance mattered in Ashes of the Singularity. The Ryzen 9 5950X delivered just 2% higher frame rates than the Ryzen 7 5800X, and 14% higher frame rates than both the Core i7-8700K and the Ryzen 7 3700X.
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AMD Ryzen 9 5950X : Our Verdict + Award!
Thanks to the new Zen 3 core optimisations and SoC design, the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X offers a nice leap forward in performance.
It offers significantly better single-core and multi-core performance over the last generation, offering a nice boost to both content creation and gaming performance.
With 16 cores that support up to 32 threads, it barrels through everything thrown at it without a sweat.
But while AMD has highlighted the Ryzen 9 5950X as a great processor for gaming, it’s really best for serious content creation work.
It’s not that it won’t work well in games, it’s just overkill for games.
We cannot emphasise this great point about the Ryzen 9 5950X – even though it uses a new Zen 3 microarchitecture, it continues to use the AM4 socket.
If you have an existing AMD 500 Series motherboard, you can just pop in the Ryzen 9 5950X after a BIOS upgrade.
Those on AMD 400 Series motherboards will have to wait until Q1 2020, before they receive BIOS upgrades to support Zen 3.
In our Ryzen 5 5600X and Ryzen 7 5800X reviews, we pointed out that they were priced significantly higher than their predecessors.
The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X is priced at $799 (RM3,699) – a $50 (RM550) premium over the last-generation Ryzen 9 3950X, which had a launch price of $749 (RM3,149).
But this time, it comes with a free copy of the upcoming game – Far Cry 6 Standard Edition, which is priced at $56.99.
Paradoxically, this makes the Ryzen 9 5950X the best deal of the Ryzen 5000 series, if you can afford it, of course!
That’s why we believe it deserves our Reviewer’s Choice Award. Congratulations, AMD!
So who should, or should NOT, buy the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X?
Buy : If you want the best possible 16-core processor for a new content creation system.
Buy : If you are upgrading from a first-generation Ryzen processor.
Buy : If you need more computing cores than your current system.
Consider : If you are upgrading from a second-generation Ryzen processor.
Skip : If you are already using a 3rd Gen Ryzen processor.
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X : Price + Availability
The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X processor is available for sale starting 5 November 2020, at these RRP inclusive of tax, in Malaysia :
If you like our work, you can help support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
Built on the new Zen 3 architecture, the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X promises to offer a leap forward in performance.
Take a look at its performance in our in-depth review, and find out if this is the Ryzen for you!
AMD Ryzen 5000 Series : Built On Zen 3
The AMD Ryzen 5000 series is designed using the new AMD Zen 3 architecture, which promises to deliver 19% more instructions per cycle (IPC) over the last generation, thanks to these new features :
improved load / store performance and flexibility
double the size of directly-accessible L3 cache per core
a unified 8-core complex (CCX) with direct access to the 32 MB L3 cache
wider issue in floating point and integer engines
Zero Bubble branch prediction
The new architecture also reduces memory latency through improved core and cache communication, and offer a higher maximum boost clock.
This allows the Ryzen 5000 series desktop processors to deliver up to 2.8X more performance-per-watt versus the competition.
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X : Price + Availability
The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X processor will be available for sale starting 5 November 2020, at these RRP inclusive of tax :
If you like our work, you can help support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
AMD Zen 3 Architecture
Codename Vermeer, Zen 3 is the next evolution of the Zen architecture, delivering a 19% improvement in instructions per clock (IPC) through these improvements :
Front-End Enhancements
Faster fetching, especially for branchy and large-footprint code
L1 branch target buffer doubled in size to 1024 entries for better prediction latency
Improved branch predictor bandwidth
Faster recovery from misprediction
“No bubble” prediction capabilities to make back-to-back predictions more quickly and better handle branchy code
Faster sequencing of op-cache fetches
Finer granularity in switching of op-cache pipes
Execution Engines
Reduce latency and enlarge structures to extract higher instruction-level parallelism (ILP)
New dedicated branch and st-data pickers for integer, now at 10 issues per cycle (+3 vs. Zen 2)
Larger integer window at +32 vs. Zen 2
Reduced latency for select float and int operations
Floating point has increased bandwidth by +2 for a total of 6-wide dispatch and issue
Floating point FMAC is now 1 cycle faster
Load Store
Larger structures and better prefetching to support the enhanced execution engine bandwidth
Overall higher bandwidth to feed the appetite of the larger/faster execution resources
Higher load bandwidth vs. Zen 2 by +1
Higher store bandwidth vs. Zen 2 by +1
More flexibility in load/store operations
Improved memory dependence detection
+4 table walkers in the TLB
SOC Architecture
Reduce dependency on main memory accesses, reduce core-to-core latency, reduce core-to-cache latency.
Unify all cores in a CCD into a single unified complex consisting of 4, 6, or 8 contiguous cores
Unify all L3 cache in a CCD into a single contiguous element of up to 32MB
Rearchitect core/cache communication into a ring system
AMD Zen 3 SoC Design
In addition to micro architectural improvements, Zen 3 (Vermeer) also features SoC design changes.
In Zen 2, each CCD (Compute Die) is made up of two CCX (core complexes), each with a 16 MB L3 cache.
Zen 3 uses a unified complex, in which each CCD now contains a single CCX with a unified 32 MB L3 cache.
On the other hand, AMD reused the chiplet design, with one or two CCDs (fabricated on 7 nm) paired with a 12 nm IOD (I/O Die).
Reads from CCD to IO are still 2X write, to conserve die area and transistor budget. And it uses the same IOD from Matisse (Zen 2).
The new Zen 3 CCD has 4.15 billion transistors, with a die size of 80.7 mm². The Matisse-era IOD remains the same – 2.09 billion transistors, with a die size of 125 mm².
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Benchmarking Notes
In this review, we will take a look at the content creation and gaming performance of the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X, comparing it to 6 other processors :
If you like our work, you can help support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X : 3D Rendering Speed
CINEBENCH R20 is a real-world 3D rendering benchmark based on the MAXON Cinema 4D animation software.
It is a great way to accurately determine the actual performance of a processor in 3D content creation.
CINEBENCH R20 Single Core Performance
This Single Core test is not reflective of real world performance, but it is useful to find out the performance of the individual core.
Look at that! What a phenomenal boost in single-core performance!
The Ryzen 7 5800X broke past the 600 mark, and was 22.5% faster than the Ryzen 7 3700X, even though it only has a 6.8% higher boost clock!
That works out to a 14.7% better performance per clock, over the last-generation Ryzen.
CINEBENCH R20 Multi Core Performance
The Multi Core test shows the processor’s real-world 3D rendering performance.
A score of almost 6000! That’s 23.6% faster than the Ryzen 7 3700X, which is also an 8-core, 16-thread processor.
It was actually 58.8% faster than the Ryzen 7 2700X, which makes it a great upgrade for the older 8-core, 16-thread processor.
Multi-Threading Boost
This is not a CINEBENCH benchmark result. The Multi-Threading Boost is our calculation of the performance boost that the processor’s Multi-Threading capability provides.
Interestingly, the Ryzen 7 5800X has better SMT performance than the Ryzen 5 5600X, even though they both use a single CCD.
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X : Transcoding Speed
HandBrake is a free, open-source video transcoding utility, which converts a video file from one resolution / format to another.
As you can imagine, it’s very compute-intensive, which makes it a great benchmark for multi-core processors. In our test, we converted a 4K video of 1.3 GB in size into a 1080p video (HQ1080p30).
That’s a nice speed bump! The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X was 10.4% faster than the Ryzen 7 3700X and 33.8% faster than Ryzen 7 2700X.
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X : Radial Blur Speed
The radial blur filter adds the perception of motion to a picture. This is a compute-intensive operation that benefits from multiple processing cores.
This radial blur test was performed on Photoshop 2020 using a single 13.5 megapixel photo, with a filesize of 4,910,867 bytes.
This is a big boost in performance! The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X was 24.5% faster than the Ryzen 7 3700X and 42.3% faster than both Ryzen 7 2700X and Ryzen 5 5600X.
If you like our work, you can help support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
Synthetic Game Test : 3DMark
We used 3DMark’s Time Spy and Time Spy Extreme synthetic benchmarks, which supports DirectX 12, and the latest features like asynchronous compute, and multi-threading support.
If you like our work, you can help support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
World War Z
Based on the 2013 movie, World War Z is a relatively recent third-person shooter game, released in April 2019.
We tested it on three resolutions using the Vulkan API at the High settings :
1080p : 1920 x 1080 pixels
1440p : 2560 x 1440 pixels
2160p : 3840 x 2160 pixels
1080p Gaming Resolution
Look at that! The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X topped this comparison, tying with the Ryzen 5 5600X.
It delivered 17% higher frame rates than the Ryzen 7 3700X, and 21% higher frame rates than the Core i7-8700K.
1440p Gaming Resolution
When we bumped the resolution up to 1440p, it really didn’t matter that much which processor we used. They all performed about the same.
2160p Gaming Resolution
At 4K resolution, processor performance had absolutely no effect. The game was completely graphics-limited.
Strange Brigade
Strange Brigade is a third-person shooter game, released in August 2018. We tested it in three resolutions using the Vulkan API at the Ultra High settings :
1080p : 1920 x 1080 pixels
1440p : 2560 x 1440 pixels
2160p : 3840 x 2160 pixels
1080p Gaming Resolution
CPU performance had only a small effect on frame rates in Strange Brigade, even at 1080p.
1440p Gaming Resolution
At 1440p, they were virtually all equal in performance. The game was already graphics-limited.
2160p Gaming Resolution
It was the same at 4K, of course – the game was completely graphics-limited.
If you like our work, you can help support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
Metro Exodus
Metro Exodus is a first-person shooter game, released in February 2019. We tested it in three resolutions using the Ultra settings :
1080p : 1920 x 1080 pixels
1440p : 2560 x 1440 pixels
2160p : 3840 x 2160 pixels
1080p Gaming Resolution
Metro Exodus is graphics-intensive, so CPU performance has limited effect on its frame rate.
1440p Gaming Resolution
All of the processors performed the same at 1440p, with a slight edge to the Core i7-8700K.
2160p Gaming Resolution
At 4K, the game was completely graphics-limited, so it didn’t matter which processor we tested.
Ashes of the Singularity
Ashes of the Singularity is a 2016 game that supports multi-core processing and asynchronous compute.
In this game, the single core CPU performance has a significant effect on the actual frame rate.
We tested it on three resolutions using the DirectX 12 API at the High settings :
1080p : 1920 x 1080
1440p : 2560 x 1440
2160p : 3840 x 2160
1080p Gaming Resolution
Nice! The Ryzen 7 5800X delivered 11% higher frame rates than the Core i7-8700K, and 13% higher frame rates than the Ryzen 7 3700X.
1440p Gaming Resolution
At 1440p, the Ryzen 7 5800X delivered 15.5% higher frame rates than both the Core i7-8700K and the Ryzen 7 3700X.
2160p Gaming Resolution
Even at 4K, CPU performance mattered in Ashes of the Singularity. The Ryzen 7 5800X delivered 12% higher frame rates than both the Core i7-8700K and the Ryzen 7 3700X.
If you like our work, you can help support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X : Our Verdict!
Thanks to the new Zen 3 core optimisations and SoC design, the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X offers a nice leap forward in performance.
Its single-core performance has been improved significantly over its predecessors, and so has its multi-core performance, offering a nice boost to both content creation and gaming performance.
Gamers will favour the cheaper Ryzen 5 5600X, but this is a great option for those who also need serious multi-core performance for content creation work.
It offers a large performance boost over the Ryzen 7 3700X and Ryzen 7 2700X in both content creation and gaming performance.
Another great point about the Ryzen 7 5800X – even though it uses a new microarchitecture, it continues to use the AM4 socket
If you have an existing AMD 500 Series motherboard, you can pop it in after a BIOS upgrade.
Those on AMD 400 Series motherboards will have to wait until Q1 2020, before they receive BIOS upgrades to support Zen 3.
But while the Ryzen 7 5800X’s performance may be a leap forward, so is its price tag…
You may recall that the last-generation Ryzen 7 3800X had a launch price of $399 (RM1,799), with a nice Wraith Prism cooler.
The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X costs substantially more at $449 (RM2,049), and no longer comes with a very nice bundled cooler!
On the other hand, it comes with a free copy of the upcoming game – Far Cry 6 Standard Edition...
So who should, or should NOT, buy the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X?
Buy : If you want the best possible 8-core processor for a new gaming or content creation system.
Buy : If you are upgrading from a first-generation Ryzen processor.
Buy : If you need more computing cores than your current system.
Consider : If you are upgrading from a second-generation Ryzen processor.
Skip : If you are already using a 3rd Gen Ryzen processor.
Those on a budget can consider purchasing a Ryzen 7 3700X. It may be slower for sure, but the money you save can be used towards the upcoming Radeon RX 6000 series graphics card!
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X : Price + Availability
The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X processor will be available for sale starting 5 November 2020, at these RRP inclusive of tax, in Malaysia :
If you like our work, you can help support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
Built on the new Zen 3 architecture, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X promises to offer a leap forward in performance.
Find out in our in-depth review why we agree, and gave it our Reviewer’s Choice Award!
AMD Ryzen 5000 Series : Built On Zen 3
The AMD Ryzen 5000 series is designed using the new AMD Zen 3 architecture, which promises to deliver 19% more instructions per cycle (IPC) over the last generation, thanks to these new features :
improved load / store performance and flexibility
double the size of directly-accessible L3 cache per core
a unified 8-core complex (CCX) with direct access to the 32 MB L3 cache
wider issue in floating point and integer engines
Zero Bubble branch prediction
The new architecture also reduces memory latency through improved core and cache communication, and offer a higher maximum boost clock.
This allows the Ryzen 5000 series desktop processors to deliver up to 2.8X more performance-per-watt versus the competition.
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X : Price + Availability
The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X processor is available for sale starting 5 November 2020, at these RRP inclusive of tax :
Malaysia : RM 1,349 (~US$324) inclusive of 6% tax
United States : RM 299
Note : Unlike the Ryzen 9 5950X, Ryzen 9 5900X and Ryzen 7 5800X, the Ryzen 5 5600X will NOT come with a free copy of Far Cry 6.
If you like our work, you can help support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
AMD Zen 3 Architecture
Codename Vermeer, Zen 3 is the next evolution of the Zen architecture, delivering a 19% improvement in instructions per clock (IPC) through these improvements :
Front-End Enhancements
Faster fetching, especially for branchy and large-footprint code
L1 branch target buffer doubled in size to 1024 entries for better prediction latency
Improved branch predictor bandwidth
Faster recovery from misprediction
“No bubble” prediction capabilities to make back-to-back predictions more quickly and better handle branchy code
Faster sequencing of op-cache fetches
Finer granularity in switching of op-cache pipes
Execution Engines
Reduce latency and enlarge structures to extract higher instruction-level parallelism (ILP)
New dedicated branch and st-data pickers for integer, now at 10 issues per cycle (+3 vs. Zen 2)
Larger integer window at +32 vs. Zen 2
Reduced latency for select float and int operations
Floating point has increased bandwidth by +2 for a total of 6-wide dispatch and issue
Floating point FMAC is now 1 cycle faster
Load Store
Larger structures and better prefetching to support the enhanced execution engine bandwidth
Overall higher bandwidth to feed the appetite of the larger/faster execution resources
Higher load bandwidth vs. Zen 2 by +1
Higher store bandwidth vs. Zen 2 by +1
More flexibility in load/store operations
Improved memory dependence detection
+4 table walkers in the TLB
SOC Architecture
Reduce dependency on main memory accesses, reduce core-to-core latency, reduce core-to-cache latency.
Unify all cores in a CCD into a single unified complex consisting of 4, 6, or 8 contiguous cores
Unify all L3 cache in a CCD into a single contiguous element of up to 32MB
Rearchitect core/cache communication into a ring system
AMD Zen 3 SoC Design
In addition to micro architectural improvements, Zen 3 (Vermeer) also features SoC design changes.
In Zen 2, each CCD (Compute Die) is made up of two CCX (core complexes), each with a 16 MB L3 cache.
Zen 3 uses a unified complex, in which each CCD now contains a single CCX with a unified 32 MB L3 cache.
On the other hand, AMD reused the chiplet design, with one or two CCDs (fabricated on 7 nm) paired with a 12 nm IOD (I/O Die).
Reads from CCD to IO are still 2X write, to conserve die area and transistor budget. And it uses the same IOD from Matisse (Zen 2).
The new Zen 3 CCD has 4.15 billion transistors, with a die size of 80.7 mm². The Matisse-era IOD remains the same – 2.09 billion transistors, with a die size of 125 mm².
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Benchmarking Notes
In this review, we will take a look at the content creation and gaming performance of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X, comparing it to 6 other processors :
If you like our work, you can help support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X : 3D Rendering Speed
CINEBENCH R20 is a real-world 3D rendering benchmark based on the MAXON Cinema 4D animation software.
It is a great way to accurately determine the actual performance of a processor in 3D content creation.
CINEBENCH R20 Single Core Performance
This Single Core test is not reflective of real world performance, but it is useful to find out the performance of the individual core.
Look at that! What a phenomenal boost in single-core performance!
The Ryzen 5 5600X was 19.5% faster than the Ryzen 7 3700X, even though it only has a 4.5% higher boost clock!
That works out to a 14.3% better performance per clock, over the last-generation Ryzen.
CINEBENCH R20 Multi Core Performance
The Multi Core test shows the processor’s real-world 3D rendering performance.
This is very good performance for a 6-core processor, performing just 12.6% slower than the Ryzen 7 3700X, which is an 8-core, 16-thread processor.
More so when you realise that it was actually 12.3% faster than the Ryzen 7 2700X, which is an older 8-core, 16-thread processor.
Multi-Threading Boost
This is not a CINEBENCH benchmark result. The Multi-Threading Boost is our calculation of the performance boost that the processor’s Multi-Threading capability provides.
While the Zen 3 microarchitecture gave it a big boost in single core performance, its SMT performance appears to have taken a slight hit.
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X : Transcoding Speed
HandBrake is a free, open-source video transcoding utility, which converts a video file from one resolution / format to another.
As you can imagine, it’s very compute-intensive, which makes it a great benchmark for multi-core processors. In our test, we converted a 4K video of 1.3 GB in size into a 1080p video (HQ1080p30).
Look at that! Despite having just six cores, the Ryzen 5 5600X was slightly faster than the Ryzen 7 2700X, which has 8 cores.
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X : Radial Blur Speed
The radial blur filter adds the perception of motion to a picture. This is a compute-intensive operation that benefits from multiple processing cores.
This radial blur test was performed on Photoshop 2020 using a single 13.5 megapixel photo, with a filesize of 4,910,867 bytes.
Even though it was a 6-core processor, the Ryzen 5 5600X was just slightly slower than the Ryzen 7 2700X, which has 8 cores. Impressive!
If you like our work, you can help support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
Synthetic Game Test : 3DMark
We used 3DMark’s Time Spy and Time Spy Extreme synthetic benchmarks, which supports DirectX 12, and the latest features like asynchronous compute, and multi-threading support.
If you like our work, you can help support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
World War Z
Based on the 2013 movie, World War Z is a relatively recent third-person shooter game, released in April 2019.
We tested it on three resolutions using the Vulkan API at the High settings :
1080p : 1920 x 1080 pixels
1440p : 2560 x 1440 pixels
2160p : 3840 x 2160 pixels
1080p Gaming Resolution
Look at that! The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X delivered the best performance in this comparison, matching the Ryzen 7 5800X.
It delivered 17% higher frame rates than the Ryzen 7 3700X, and 21% higher frame rates than the Core i7-8700K.
1440p Gaming Resolution
When we bumped the resolution up to 1440p, it really didn’t matter that much which processor we used. They all performed about the same.
2160p Gaming Resolution
At 4K resolution, processor performance had absolutely no effect. The game was completely graphics-limited.
Strange Brigade
Strange Brigade is a third-person shooter game, released in August 2018. We tested it in three resolutions using the Vulkan API at the Ultra High settings :
1080p : 1920 x 1080 pixels
1440p : 2560 x 1440 pixels
2160p : 3840 x 2160 pixels
1080p Gaming Resolution
CPU performance had only a small effect on frame rates in Strange Brigade, even at 1080p.
1440p Gaming Resolution
At 1440p, they were virtually all equal in performance. The game was already graphics-limited.
2160p Gaming Resolution
It was the same at 4K, of course – the game was completely graphics-limited.
If you like our work, you can help support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
Metro Exodus
Metro Exodus is a first-person shooter game, released in February 2019. We tested it in three resolutions using the Ultra settings :
1080p : 1920 x 1080 pixels
1440p : 2560 x 1440 pixels
2160p : 3840 x 2160 pixels
1080p Gaming Resolution
Metro Exodus is graphics-intensive, so CPU performance has limited effect on its frame rate.
1440p Gaming Resolution
All of the processors performed the same at 1440p, with a slight edge to the Core i7-8700K.
2160p Gaming Resolution
At 4K, the game was completely graphics-limited, so it didn’t matter which processor we tested.
Ashes of the Singularity
Ashes of the Singularity is a 2016 game that supports multi-core processing and asynchronous compute.
In this game, the single core CPU performance has a significant effect on the actual frame rate.
We tested it on three resolutions using the DirectX 12 API at the High settings :
1080p : 1920 x 1080
1440p : 2560 x 1440
2160p : 3840 x 2160
1080p Gaming Resolution
Nice! The Ryzen 5 5600X was almost as fast as the Ryzen 7 5800X, and delivered 9.4% higher frame rates than the Core i7-8700K, and 11.3% higher frame rates than the Ryzen 7 3700X.
1440p Gaming Resolution
At 1440p, the Ryzen 5 5600X delivered 12.8% higher frame rates than both the Core i7-8700K and the Ryzen 7 3700X.
2160p Gaming Resolution
Even at 4K, CPU performance mattered in Ashes of the Singularity. The Ryzen 5 5600X delivered 9.2% higher frame rates than both the Core i7-8700K and the Ryzen 7 3700X.
If you like our work, you can help support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X : Our Verdict + Award!
There is no doubt that the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X is a leap forward for AMD, thanks to the new Zen 3 core and SoC design.
Its single-core performance has been improved significantly over its predecessors, offering a nice boost to content creation and gaming performance.
Gamers, in particular, will favour this model over the Ryzen 7 5800X because it delivers the same gaming performance at 2/3rds the cost.
It also handily beats the Ryzen 7 3700X in gaming performance, making it a better option for gaming systems.
Even though the Ryzen 5 5600X uses a new microarchitecture, it continues to use the AM4 socket and will support AMD 500 Series chipsets on launch day (with a BIOS upgrade).
That’s really great news for those planning to upgrade from their existing Ryzen processors.
Those on AMD 400 Series motherboards will have to wait until Q1 2020, before they receive BIOS upgrades to support Zen 3.
But while the Ryzen 5 5600X’s performance may be a leap forward, so is its price tag…
You may recall that the last-generation Ryzen 5 3600X had a launch price of $249 (RM859), with a Wraith Spire cooler.
The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X costs substantially more at $299 (RM1,349), and ships with the smaller and cheaper Wraith Stealth cooler.
That said, the Ryzen 5 5600X truly provides a significant boost in performance, and it deserves our Reviewer’s Choice Award.
So who should, or should NOT, buy the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X?
Buy : If you want the best possible 6-core processor for a new gaming system.
Buy : If you are upgrading from a first-generation Ryzen processor.
Consider : If you are upgrading from a second-generation Ryzen processor.
Skip : If you are already using a 3rd Gen Ryzen processor.
Those on a budget can consider purchasing a Ryzen 5 3600X. It may not be as fast, but the money you save can be used towards the upcoming Radeon RX 6000 series graphics card!
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X : Price + Availability
The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X processor is available for sale starting 5 November 2020, at these RRP inclusive of tax :
Malaysia : RM 1,349 (~US$324) inclusive of 6% tax
United States : RM 299
Note : Unlike the Ryzen 9 5950X, Ryzen 9 5900X and Ryzen 7 5800X, the Ryzen 5 5600X will NOT come with a free copy of Far Cry 6.
If you like our work, you can help support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
The AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series is built upon the new RDNA 2 architecture, which introduces an enhanced compute unit, a new visual pipeline, and the all-new AMD Infinity Cache!
RDNA 2 promises to deliver up to 54% better performance per watt over the last-generation RDNA, and up to 3.25X more bandwidth with its new Infinity Cache.
In this video, Dr. Lisa Su, Scott Kerkelman and Laura Smith shares how the new Radeon RX 6000 cards beat NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 30 cards in performance, power efficiency and yes, price!
Radeon RX 6000 vs GeForce RTX 30 : Performance Comparison
Caveats
These results were provided by AMD, and have yet to be verified by independent reviewers / end users.
The games were tested with different APIs (DX12, Vulkan) and the best results were used. They are therefore, not directly comparable.
The AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT and RX 6800 cards were tested with Rage Mode and/or Smart Access Memory enabled, which may not reflect real world performance.
According to AMD, their Radeon RX 6900 XT will match or beat the GeForce RTX 3090, at a much lower price point and significantly lower power consumption.
