Battle of the smartphone chips: Which do you think is best for you?

[nIGHT]

I merged all information I can find for easy comparison. If this is a TL;DR (Too Long; Didn't Read) then just click on the choices above. :lol:

Nvidia

Nvidia's four Cortex-A15 CPU cores (along with an additional low-power companion core, which switches on when the tablet is idle to save power) take care of the CPU side, while 72 GeForce GPU cores boost graphics performance over Tegra 3.

If the leak is to be believed, Tegra 4 (codename Wayne) will be a quad-core Cortex-A15 (with a fifth, low-power companion core), with a 72-core GPU — six times more than Tegra 3.

At this point we should stress that this leak might not be real, though the specs dovetail quite neatly with what we already knew. The shift from Cortex-A9 to A15 will bring Tegra 4 in line with the latest Snapdragon S4 and Exynos 5 SoCs. The jump to 72 cores (from Tegra 3′s 12) might sound dramatic, but it’s important to note that the Tegra 3′s graphics performance pales in comparison to Apple’s latest A5X and A6 SoCs. Of course, if Nvidia also changes the architecture of those 72 cores — to something resembling Kepler — then Tegra 4 will be a complete beast. It is odd (and a little unnerving) that the GPU’s underlying architecture isn’t listed on the leaked diagram.

Drilling down into the CPU, the leak says that Tegra 4 features a “4-PLUS-1 Quad Core Eagle.” Eagle was the codename for Cortex-A15. 4-PLUS-1 is Nvidia’s obnoxious trademark on a quad-core design, with a low-power companion core that takes care of smaller, background tasks. It isn’t clear if the fifth core will be Cortex-A15, or a “little” Cortex-A7 core. The SoC itself will be fabricated on TSMC’s 28nm HPL (high performance, low power) process, again bringing it into line with the 28nm Snapdragon, Exynos, and A6.

Rounding out the leaked specs, Tegra 4 will apparently be capable of outputting 1080p @ 120Hz, full hardware encode/decode for video up to 2560×1440 (1440p), and a maximum output resolution of 3820×2160 (4K). There’s also support for HDMI (with HDCP) and USB 3.0.

The chip will also include a separate 4G LTE modem of Nvidia's design, the i500 soft modem, which begins sampling to partners this month. Current cellular chips use fixed-function parts to enable certain technologies (3G, 4G, and so on). Nvidia's software-programmable approach allows each of the i500's eight multi-purpose processors to perform different functions as needed: the same silicon can provide support for multiple wireless technologies, which greatly cuts down on the amount of silicon needed to provide phones and tablets with the different connectivity options they need.

Source 1

Source 2

Samsung

The Exynos 5 Octa is an eight-core SoC destined for tablets and high-end smartphones.

Not all of these CPU cores are created equal: four of them are high-performance Cortex-A15 cores, the very same found in the Exynos 5 Dual that powers the Nexus 10 and Samsung's ARM Chromebook. The other four are Cortex-A7 CPU cores—these have the same feature set and capabilities as the A15 cores, but are optimized for power efficiency rather than performance.

This makes the Exynos 5 Octa one of the first (if not the first) products to actually use ARM's big.LITTLE processor switching technology, something we outlined back in October of 2011. The SoC is designed to dynamically split the workload between the high-performance and the high-efficiency CPU cores based on the task at hand—less strenuous activities like browsing an app store or checking e-mail might be done on the A7 cores, for instance, while gaming and number crunching could be handed off to the A15 cores.

The A15 and A7 cores can work in concert with one another, making it theoretically possible to create a device that can set new speed records without devouring your battery (though of course we'll need to get actual devices in for testing to see how well the technology works in practice.) This differs from Nvidia's Tegra 3 and Tegra 4 SoCs, which include a low-power Cortex-A9 and a Cortex-A15 (respectively) "companion core" that can only be used when all of the SoC's other CPU cores are powered down. There's nothing to say that one approach is inherently better than the other, but while they're conceptually similar, they're functionally quite different.

The new SoC is also built on a 28nm manufacturing process that promises to be more power-efficient than the 32nm process used by the Exynos 5 Dual.

Source

Qualcomm

The 800 series includes a quad-core Krait 400 CPU clocked at up to 2.3GHz per core alongside an Adreno 330 GPU. Qualcomm claims that the Adreno 330 has twice the “compute performance” of the Adreno 320, showing off its processing power during the presentation with a real-time render of a dragon blowing fire and stomping its feet.

The chip will include support for 4G LTE and 802.11ac as well as “Ultra HD” (née 4K) video resolutions of 4096×2304. The chip also has dual image signal processors that will support up to four cameras, 3D image capture, and photo-merging to create up to 55-megapixel images, if manufacturers can provide the hardware.

Source

Note: Consider that games use movie clips too. Playing HD movies requires substantial graphics/cpu processing as well.

[rudrax]

Nvidia is my fav :tooth:

[DKT27]

You have got the Tegra 4 thing wrong. As in, the info you are using is old. Tegra 4 is already officially announced on 6 Jan on CES by nVidia. And most of the leaked things are true.

Anyway, good question. :think: Even though I think Tegra 4 will beat them all (with power), I feel Snapdragon will have more success.

1. A.
2. C.
3. C.

[nIGHT]

You have got the Tegra 4 thing wrong. As in, the info you are using is old. Tegra 4 is already officially announced on 6 Jan on CES by nVidia. And most of the leaked things are true.

Anyway, good question. :think: Even though I think Tegra 4 will beat them all (with power), I feel Snapdragon will have more success.

1. A.
2. C.
3. C.

Thanks for pointing that out DKT27. :)

If it needs to be corrected, can you make the changes directly to correct some mistakes I made?

[nIGHT]

Nvidia is my fav :tooth:

Me too! ;)

With great power comes great powerful smartphones! :D

I won't be angry anymore, then I will not hate and I will not suffer! haha! :dance:

"anger leads to hate hate leads to suffering " :oops:

Dual channel memory, 4K resolution and super speed imaging fits my needs.

But other chips are pretty great so it's hard to choose especially if they're going to send me a free smartphone. Lol! :lmao:

[DKT27]

"anger leads to hate hate leads to suffering " :oops:

[nIGHT]

Qualcomm's

“Ultra HD” (née 4K) video resolutions of 4096×2304. The chip also has dual image signal processors that will support up to four cameras, 3D image capture, and photo-merging to create up to 55-megapixel images

Qualcomm Snapdragon is very tempting especially if you're serious with taking pictures like my girlfriend. <_<

She got more than 2K of her own pictures on FB. She will choose this definitely. :win:
I think this will be very useful for people selling stuff on the internet.
Could this beat photos taken by DSLR camera? :tehe:

[nIGHT]

Samsung

The Exynos 5 Octa is an eight-core SoC destined for tablets and high-end smartphones.

Not all of these CPU cores are created equal: four of them are high-performance Cortex-A15 cores, the very same found in the Exynos 5 Dual that powers the Nexus 10 and Samsung's ARM Chromebook. The other four are Cortex-A7 CPU cores—these have the same feature set and capabilities as the A15 cores, but are optimized for power efficiency rather than performance.

The A15 and A7 cores can work in concert with one another, making it theoretically possible to create a device that can set new speed records without devouring your battery (though of course we'll need to get actual devices in for testing to see how well the technology works in practice.)

More CPU = Better Multitasking :think:

Exynos does not have dual channel memory! Why?

Such a waste, this would mean more waiting time for each cpu pair to access memory. :nono:

This means that even though they increase the number and speed of the cpu to handle the load much more easily

each cpu must wait for the other cpu to finish accessing the memory channel

so one, two or four of them can then access that memory channel while the other cpu pairs wait for their turn.

This only means a much cooler cpu and a much hotter memory channel bus.

The increase in cpu speed is decrease by the waiting time to access the memory channel and the other shared resources, therefore.

This is why some product like the samsung galaxy SIII, if I'm not mistaken, has two version of their product,

one with quad-core for the global market and the other with dual-core for the US version.

Switching between four high-performance to four low-performance chip = longer battery life :tehe:

[calguyhunk]

Observation 1. The Snapdragon is gonna continue to sell more because it will prolly continue to be an off the self processor unlike the Exynos and the Tegra 4 ;)

Observation 2. Eight core smartphone SoC's? :o Wow how long has it been since the Nokia 1100 again? :P

Observation 3. Just wondering 'bout the batty's that need to go into these things. Surely 3000 mAh ain't gonna be good enough.

P.S. - I didn't vote because there's no need for me to fantasize 'bout any of these things because of the same reason I don't fantasize about Candice Swanepoel. I can't afford either :tehe: :P

ATM, if I can get a replacement replacement for my nearly 2 year old Optimus One P500 (CM10 - JB 4.1.1) by the end of this year, that will be good enough for me ;)

[DKT27]

Observation 3. Just wondering 'bout the batty's that need to go into these things. Surely 3000 mAh ain't gonna be good enough.

These all are based on 28nm transistors. Means less power usage. Plus Samsung processor atleast, is made with battery usage in mind.

[nIGHT]

Observation 3. Just wondering 'bout the batty's that need to go into these things. Surely 3000 mAh ain't gonna be good enough.

These all are based on 28nm transistors. Means less power usage. Plus Samsung processor atleast, is made with battery usage in mind.

Samsung is known for being a leader in integrating much larger battery capacity in their flagship smartphone than their competitors..

A 100" inch LED smartphone plus the best car battery, the only thing missing is the addition of wheels! :tehe:

[calguyhunk]

These all are based on 28nm transistors. Means less power usage. Plus Samsung processor atleast, is made with battery usage in mind.

Intel's Ivy bridge chips are built on 22nm architecture and uses 3-D Tri-Gate transistors. Still come in at a 77 Watt TDP for the desktop ones and 17 - 35 Watts for the mobile (laptop) ones ;)

The 'Ultra Low Power' Atom chips range from 1W to 10W according to Wikipedia, though SoC designs like Clover Trail may be slightly different. :dunno:

P.S. - Not comparing ARM with x86. Yes, ARM is inherently more efficient - at least less power hungry - (whether or not more efficient is debatable) - but still, for whatever it's worth, shrinking the die is equal to more efficiency only to an extent. There are limits to which it can go to the best of my understanding ;)

[DKT27]

These all are based on 28nm transistors. Means less power usage. Plus Samsung processor atleast, is made with battery usage in mind.

Intel's Ivy bridge chips are built on 22nm architecture and uses 3-D Tri-Gate transistors. Still come in at a 77 Watt TDP for the desktop ones and 17 - 35 Watts for the mobile (laptop) ones ;)

The 'Ultra Low Power' Atom chips range from 1W to 10W according to Wikipedia, though SoC designs like Clover Trail may be slightly different. :dunno:

P.S. - Not comparing ARM with x86. Yes, ARM is inherently more efficient - at least less power hungry - (whether or not more efficient is debatable) - but still, for whatever it's worth, shrinking the die is equal to more efficiency only to an extent. There are limits to which it can go to the best of my understanding ;)

Not right comparing limes with sweet limes. :P Desktop x86 processors have huge amount of transistors (nearing billion I believe) and other things. Where as these mobile processors are SoC and have less amount of transistors (no idea, but should be less than a hundred million). As for x86 mobile, I'm sure you might have read, Intel is marketing new processor as "starting with 7-8W" which, in real, is cheap-ass P4.

Anyway, lets ignore Exynos (which had 32nm vs 28nm) and Snapdragon (which had 28nm vs 28nm upgrade) and lets take Tegra. Tegra 4 is based on 28nm when compared to 40nm of Tegra 3, which is kinda big in current standards. Which also contributes to increased speed and less power. In addition to that, they also have this one low powered core. Now comes Exynos, same as Tegra, but have many low powered cores, which means, usage will generally provide little more battery, but non-usage will take it couple of days. Things will only improve IMO opinion, especially with Tegra and Exynos.

[calguyhunk]

As for x86 mobile, I'm sure you might have read, Intel is marketing new processor as "starting with 7-8W" which, in real, is cheap-ass P4.

That is actually deceitful advertising on Intel's part. 7W is actually a mirage. It's actually gonna be around 14-17 Watts 'cuz they're using a new *arbitrary* standard for measuring TDP than previously used :o Anandtech link

[rudrax]

A 100" inch LED smartphone

Where is it? gim'me :o

[nIGHT]

A 100" inch LED smartphone

Where is it? gim'me :o

Samsung Galaxy SV will be in production on the 4th quarter of this year. :lmao:

I'm not rich so I cannot give you one! :P

[calguyhunk]

Samsung Galaxy SV will be in production on the 4th quarter of this year. :lmao:

Rather than coming out with new devices, Samsung (and every other Android vendor) really need to update their phones with the latest software :angry: The Galaxy S III is still plenty good and is likely to remain so for the better part of the next couple of years (till late 2014 or so). :yes:

It will need only one mainstream vendor to start releasing regular timely updates :yes: The moment somebody starts doing that, the others will have their hands forced because of the goodwill and the extra sales it will generate knowing that that particular device will get updates as long as the hardware specs are in line with Google's minimum requirements ;)

Not that hard, guys. The PC parts makers have been doing that for years. A P4 (socket 478) PC with parallel ATA drives and AGP GPU is still Win 8 compatible and that's that platform's biggest strength :yes: You don't really need to buy a new PC to run new age software unless you really want to :)

And in any case, I'm running JB on my 2 year old phone that came with Froyo! :o Why can't LG give me what a rag-tag unorganized but highly motivated bunch of developers at CM or xda can? :( I'm more likely to patronize a brand that gives me timely updates rather than trying to shove a new phone down my throat every year :mad2:

[DKT27]

@calguyhunk: Which phone are you using? By that, I can guess how mine will perform on JB. :)

Anyway, unlike iFags, what I feel with Samsung devices is that, it's not compulsory to upgrade to a newer version of the high end phone on Android. Let Samsung keep making them, no one will tell you that you are out of fashion for using S or S II, generally, there's no desperation for upgrading.

[Nima]

Because of my love to Samsung family, it's obvious to vote for Samsung in all. :D

Note II forever! :wub:

[calguyhunk]

@calguyhunk: Which phone are you using? By that, I can guess how mine will perform on JB. :)

Only the greatest phone evaaa! :lol:

... it's not compulsory to upgrade to a newer version of the high end phone on Android. Let Samsung keep making them, no one will tell you that you are out of fashion for using S or S II, generally, there's no desperation for upgrading.

You're right. That's exactly my point. Hardware upgrade - no desperation. But software update? Big - huge - desperation. :P Need new wine for my old bottle ASP man! Kya kare, control nahi hota! :lmao:

[DKT27]

@calguyhunk: Which phone are you using? By that, I can guess how mine will perform on JB. :)

Only the greatest phone evaaa! :lol:

>... it's not compulsory to upgrade to a newer version of the high end phone on Android. Let Samsung keep making them, no one will tell you that you are out of fashion for using S or S II, generally, there's no desperation for upgrading.

You're right. That's exactly my point. Hardware upgrade - no desperation. But software update? Big - huge - desperation. :P Need new wine for my old bottle ASP man! Kya kare, control nahi hota! :lmao:

I see. How much free RAM do you have? :think:

ANW, my HTC One V is obviously slightly better, as in, better processor with same amount of RAM. Not sure why HTC refused upgrading it to JB.

True. :lol:

[calguyhunk]

How much free RAM do you have? :think:

With official Gingerbread, it was in the high double digits. :D But with CM10, it's in low double digits with all apps closed :( But hey, running the latest Android for $0 on a 2 yr. old (low end) model - priceless :showoff:

ANW, my HTC One V is obviously slightly better, as in, better processor with same amount of RAM. Not sure why HTC refused upgrading it to JB.

At least unlike some, HTC do allow for the unlocking of their bootloader :dance2: Don't you have JB for that already either at Cynogen or XDA? :think:

[DKT27]

How much free RAM do you have? :think:

With official Gingerbread, it was in the high double digits. :D But with CM10, it's in low double digits with all apps closed :( But hey, running the latest Android for $0 on a 2 yr. old (low end) model - priceless :showoff:

>ANW, my HTC One V is obviously slightly better, as in, better processor with same amount of RAM. Not sure why HTC refused upgrading it to JB.

At least unlike some, HTC do allow for the unlocking of their bootloader :dance2: Don't you have JB for that already either at Cynogen or XDA? :think:

I see. I'm already on high double digits after couple of updates from HTC and me having some important apps in background.

Anyway. It's not as good as it looks. One, because of bootloader unlocker provided by HTC, people don't look for flaws anymore. And unlocking the bootloader (or specifically, asking for a unlock code) registers your phone as unlocked on HTC servers worldwide and secretly, officially voids your warranty. Also, lot of people are angry with S-ON / S-Off problems while rooting HTC phones (not sure what it is, as I have never rooted). As for me, I'm waiting for me 1 year warranty to end.

[tipo]

didn`t vote `cause it`s just too much rocket science for me

[calguyhunk]

I see. I'm already on high double digits after couple of updates from HTC and me having some important apps in background.

Yeah, that's the difference between an official update and a CM one, I suppose. ;) Any case, I didn't do it for the performance. Just wanted to run the latest Android version for the heck of it :P

... unlocking the bootloader (or specifically, asking for a unlock code) registers your phone as unlocked on HTC servers worldwide and secretly, officially voids your warranty. ... I'm waiting for me 1 year warranty to end.

LOL! Of course! Who roots within the warranty period? :o For most of us (aam aadmi types :P ), that's a strict no go. Mine had a 1 year guarantee. Only touched it's firmware after that. Already got the official Gingerbread upgrade in that time :yes: