AMD RDNA-Infused Samsung SoC Benchmarks Obliterate Galaxy S20 Graphics

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Keeping an eye on Samsung's developments with AMD RDNA

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Last summer, news broke that AMD was partnering with Samsung to license its RDNA graphics for use in smartphones. Since then, it had pretty much been radio silence on the topic, until a thread recently spawned on the clien.net forums with benchmark figures, as spotted by Twitter user @Kaz9837.

According to the thread's author, the RNDA-Exynos combo SoC put down some serious performance numbers in the GFXBench test, as you can see in the table below. The data on the Adreno 650 comes from Notebookcheck, as the source appears to have removed data on the Adreno 650.

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Header Cell - Column 0 RDNA-ExynosAdreno 650Performance Increase
Manhattan 3.1181.8 fps123 fps+ 48%
Aztec Normal138.25 fps53.5 fps+ 158%
Aztec High58 fps20 fps+ 190%

The Adreno 650 is one of the most powerful mobile GPUs currently available and part of the Snapdragon 865 SoC, which is installed in the Samsung Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20 Plus and Galaxy S20 Ultra, as well as smartphones from other manufacturers.

However, we are unfamiliar with the source of the purported RDNA-Exynos data. With the numbers not yet verified, don't take results at face value. Nevertheless, it wouldn't be surprising to see such a performance uplift. After all, Samsung isn't partnering with AMD for nothing.

Don't expect to see an RDNA-infused mobile phone on the market anytime soon. Those aren't expected to arrive until 2021 at the earliest.

Niels Broekhuijsen
Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.

15 Comments Comment from the forums
  • crysis2
    Hi
    Could it be for Galaxy Fold 2?
    Reply
  • Pat Flynn
    crysis2 said:
    Hi
    Could it be for Galaxy Fold 2?

    Likely for any Samsung flagship phone, or Samsung laptop/Chromebook. Being that this is likely for flagship/laptop, it'll likely be in the Fold 2 (but don't quote me on that).
    Reply
  • bit_user
    The irony is that the group responsible for the Adreno GPUs was once part of ATI, and later spun off by AMD (hint: Adreno is an anagram of Radeon). So, it's interesting to see parts of the former ATI now competing directly with each other.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitBoys
    In Boxborough, Massachusetts, both AMD and Qualcomm even occupy different floors of the same building, which I've heard was legacy from that era.
    Reply
  • watzupken
    WIth AMD back in the SOC graphics space, I think we can expect some exciting products. SOC graphics are in need of a proper refresh. After so many years, despite the supposed improvements in SOC GPUs, the Nvidia Maxwell GPU on the Tegra is still the best out there. However despite being the best, it is not suited for mobile phone usage due to the high power requirements. Adreno from Qualcomm was previously a Radeon product, but considering Qualcomm have only been refining it over the years, its really just evolutionary, and not something built from scratch.
    Reply
  • Deicidium369
    bit_user said:
    The irony is that the group responsible for the Adreno GPUs was once part of ATI, and later spun off by AMD (hint: Adreno is an anagram of Radeon). So, it's interesting to see parts of the former ATI now competing directly with each other.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitBoys
    In Boxborough, Massachusetts, both AMD and Qualcomm even occupy different floors of the same building, which I've heard was legacy from that era.
    I love a good anagram - like Senator and Treason. Did not know about the office space situation -
    Knowing Samsung's history - I really don't necessarily see it ever seeing the light of day in an actual product - All of my cellphones are way overkill for that I use them for - interesting but I don't need that amt of graphics power for text and voice calls - anything past my Galaxy S5 is overkill - esp my Pixel 4XL.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    watzupken said:
    WIth AMD back in the SOC graphics space, I think we can expect some exciting products.
    Kind of. There's a partnership agreement between AMD and Samsung, but it's not entirely clear what's the nature of the partnership. The point is that it's only Samsung using RDNA. I don't expect to see it popping up in other SoCs, any time soon.

    watzupken said:
    SOC graphics are in need of a proper refresh.
    It's not like Adreno is the only game in town. Over the years, ARM and Imagination have continued forging ahead, advancing their GPU architectures.

    watzupken said:
    After so many years, despite the supposed improvements in SOC GPUs, the Nvidia Maxwell GPU on the Tegra is still the best out there. However despite being the best, it is not suited for mobile phone usage due to the high power requirements.
    They haven't been in the cell phone game for like a decade. It's a little unfair to compare Tegra X1/X2 with cell phone SoCs because, as you rightly point out, its power consumption puts it well out of the cell phone arena. So, apples vs. oranges.

    With that said, we should consider that the platform they're benchmarking could be a tablet or a chromebook. It's not necessarily a cell phone.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    Deicidium369 said:
    Senator and Treason
    Oh, what a delightful example!

    Deicidium369 said:
    Did not know about the office space situation
    I'm sure they're disjoint, but you can check it out on Google maps. I know at least some of those working in the respective offices are in the GPU divisions.

    Deicidium369 said:
    Knowing Samsung's history - I really don't necessarily see it ever seeing the light of day in an actual product
    That's a weird thing to say. Why?

    They had an internal GPU effort they killed off, in favor of licensing RDNA. They need some GPU, so it looks like they'd rather license it from AMD than Qualcomm or ARM.

    Samsung also killed off their internal CPU core design team, BTW.
    Reply
  • LordVile
    watzupken said:
    WIth AMD back in the SOC graphics space, I think we can expect some exciting products. SOC graphics are in need of a proper refresh. After so many years, despite the supposed improvements in SOC GPUs, the Nvidia Maxwell GPU on the Tegra is still the best out there. However despite being the best, it is not suited for mobile phone usage due to the high power requirements. Adreno from Qualcomm was previously a Radeon product, but considering Qualcomm have only been refining it over the years, its really just evolutionary, and not something built from scratch.
    Ummm... back in the SoC space? I mean they’ve been doing them in the Xbone and PS4 for nearly 10 years now...

    Depends on the wattage of the parts tbh. A good benchmark is great but how it performance inside a device is another question entirely.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    LordVile said:
    Ummm... back in the SoC space? I mean they’ve been doing them in the Xbone and PS4 for nearly 10 years now...
    I think the point was mobile SoCs (i.e. phone/tablet). Otherwise, you might even broaden out to talk about EPYC as a SoC, since it lacks a southbridge.

    LordVile said:
    Depends on the wattage of the parts tbh. A good benchmark is great but how it performance inside a device is another question entirely.
    Yeah, and for phones, thermal management is a key factor.
    Reply
  • LordVile
    bit_user said:
    I think the point was mobile SoCs (i.e. phone/tablet). Otherwise, you might even broaden out to talk about EPYC as a SoC, since it lacks a southbridge.


    Yeah, and for phones, thermal management is a key factor.
    Was being pedantic ;)

    Interested to see what it yeilds tbh. RDNA wasn’t exactly power sipping. Expecting this to be for larger devices if the benchmarks are true with a cut down version for phones maybe though I don’t see Qualcomm allowing that in their SoCs and Exynos isn’t exactly... well up to snuff. Could be a Dex based tablet/laptop line, that could be fun.
    Reply