As the end of the year draws closer, the smartphone category in the mobile industry is expecting its flagship processors. Usually, Qualcomm is the “king” of this segment with its Snapdragon chip claiming most of the orders. However, with the reports so far, this year may be a little different. However, Qualcomm and MediaTek chips will not be the only 2021 smartphone flagship chips in the market. A few weeks ago, Apple took the lead by releasing its latest self-developed A15 Bionic processor for the iPhone 13 series. Google has also unveiled its first-ever self-developed Tensor chip which focuses on AI and performance. Samsung will also unveil the Exynos 2200. However, these flagship processors are basically exclusive chips. Thus, the flagship processors from Qualcomm, Snapdragon 898, and MediaTek, Dimensity 2000, are getting all the attention.
From what we know so far, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 898 will arrive in mid-December. However, the Dimensity 2000 will debut early next year. Nevertheless, both chips will arrive at the market at almost the same time. Since their performance will be similar, the expectation is that the competition will be fierce.
Snapdragon 898 Vs Dimensity 2000 – how do these chips compare
While we are yet to get official details of these processors, high-quality leaks have exposed some of their parameters. According to popular Weibo leakster, @DCS here is the latest leak on these processors
- Snapdragon 898: Samsung 4nm process, 1 x 3.0GHz X2 super large core + 3 x 2.5GHz large core + 4 x 1.79GHz small core. The graphics card is Adreno 730 GPU.
- Dimensity 2000: TSMC 4nm process, 1 x 3.0GHz X2 super large core + 3 x 2.85GHz large core + 4 x 1.8GHz small core. The graphics card is Mali-G710 MC10 GPU.
On the whole, Snapdragon 898 and Dimensity 2000 are not bad in terms of CPU design. They both use 4nm technology and a three-cluster architecture solution and are equipped with a 3.0GHz X2 super core. The medium and small cores of the Dimensity 2000 clocks slightly higher than the Snapdragon 898. However, this will not be able to significantly widen the gap between these chips.
The biggest difference between the two in terms of CPU is actually the foundry. Qualcomm chose Samsung and MediaTek chose TSMC. According to previous performance, TSMC’s process is relatively more mature. The finished product is more mature in terms of power consumption and heat generation and the performance is more prominent. This will probably give MediaTek an edge over Qualcomm.
On the GPU end, Qualcomm has always had the best GPU performance in Android. However, the gap between the Snapdragon 898 GPU and the Dimensity 2000 GPU will not be too wide. There are confirmations that the Dimensity 2000 GPU will be better than that of the Snapdragon 888. Even if its GPU is weaker than that of the SD898, the gap will be minimal.
At present, the specifications of Snapdragon 898 and Dimensity 2000 are very close, but the actual performance needs to be combined with the manufacturer’s tuning and scheduling, and the parameters do not represent the final experience.
Gizchina News of the week
MediaTek Dimensity 2000 architecture
This chip will adopt the ARM V9 architecture which will significantly improve its performance. According to a recent report, the Dimensity 2000 will ship in small batches by the end of this year. Furthermore, the first batch of manufacturers is already conducting relevant tests. If all goes well, the launch time of a Dimensity 2000 smartphone may coincide with the Snapdragon 898. This means that there may be a head-on competition between these chips. If we go by the previous market situation, the Snapdragon chip always comes top.
The CPU of the Dimensity 2000 will be the same as Qualcomm’s next-generation product, Snapdragon 898, or even stronger. As for GPU, it will be stronger than Snapdragon 888, and its power consumption will perform better. This flagship processor is not only stronger than the current Dimensity 1200, it saves more power and is stronger than the Snapdragon 888 series.
Snapdragon 898 appears on Geekbench
The Geekbench listing shows the chipset’s core configuration. It suggests that the prime Cortex X2 core clocks at 2.42GHz. Likewise, the Cortex-A710 core clocks at 2.17GHz, and the Cortex-A510 cores are at 1.79GHz. It seems that the Snapdragon 898 sample did not run at its top potential. Earlier reports have revealed that the Cortex X2 core is capable of going as high as 3.09GHz. Moreover, the Geekbench listing has revealed that the Qualcomm SoC will feature a competent Adreno 730 GPU.
Surprisingly, this chip scores 720 in the single-core and 1,919 in the multi-core tests. This is lower than its predecessor and this could be because it is an engineering sample and the phone could be running on unstable firmware. There is also a possibility that the phone may be running in a battery-saving mode, which restrains the CPU. Alternatively, this abysmal performance could be a result of bad thermals. The low performance can also be due to Samsung’s 4nm node, which will be used in the chipset. An earlier Weibo leak shows that the Snapdragon 898 will be 20 times faster than its predecessor.
A recent report out of China claims that the overall power consumption of the Dimensity 2000 is much lower than that of the Snapdragon 898. The report claims that in terms of power consumption, Dimensity 2000 will lead by 20% to 25%. Furthermore, the Dimensity 2000 performance will be very high. However, the report did not say whether or not it will be higher than the Snapdragon 898 SoC. Most likely, the Dimensity 2000 will be one of the choices for flagship smartphones next year.
Dimensity 2000 & Snapdragon 898 running score projections
The running score of the Dimensity 2000 may exceed 900,000 points. However, projections for the Snapdragon 898 shows that its running score may exceed a million for the first time.
Compared with the Cortex X1 core used by Snapdragon 888, the performance of the X2 core will also increase by at least 17%. Also, the power consumption can reduce by 10%, which means that the energy efficiency is comprehensively better. Furthermore, the performance improvement of the A710 core and the A510 core is also very significant.
Since this year’s Snapdragon 888 and Snapdragon 888 Plus processors have massive power consumption, it is very difficult to suppress the heat of the product itself.
It is worth mentioning that the Snapdragon 898 chip will also use Samsung’s 4nm process. This chip will improve performance and also overcome the problem of large heat generation. Therefore, Dimensity 2000 and Snapdragon 898 can be described as rivals.