Processors

The mid-range Snapdragon 660 processor comes surprisingly close to top-end Snapdragon 835 chip in performance test

by Luis D. / May 22, 2017, 2:10 PM

The mid-range Snapdragon 660 processor comes surprisingly close to top-end Snapdragon 835 chip in performance test

Earlier this month, US chip maker Qualcomm announced its brand-new Snapdragon 660 and 630 processors for mid-range phones and other smart devices. Benchmark scores of the 660 model appeared online, showing the chip is capable of surprisingly high performance that hovers near the flagship Snapdragon 835 model's teritorry.

In GeekBench (a prominent CPU performance test), the Snapdragon 660 – as present inside an unidentified smartphone code-named Heart – racked up 5,455 points in the multi-core test. Compared to the flagship Snapdragon 835 as present in the Samsung Galaxy S8+'s score – 6,301 points – that's a 15.5% difference. Not bad for a chip that's meant to power devices several times cheaper than Samsung's finest!

At the same time, the Snapdragon 660 is 16% more powerful than its predecessor, the Snapdragon 653 (as tested inside the Oppo F3 Plus smartphone). The latter acquired a score of 4,695 in the same test.

The lines between mid-range and high-end hardware become increasingly blurred

Single-core tests are less relevant, as the bulk of smartphone processing is a multi-core affair. But they are still available and read as follows: 1,588 for the Snapdragon 660, 1,832 points for the Snapdragon 835, and 1,438 points for the Snapdragon 653. The new processor enjoys a small bump over the older model, and keeps up not too far behind the flagship 835.

The Snapdragon 660 is built on a reasonably up-to-date 14nm production process, although Qualcomm and Samsung's high-end chipsets make use of a newer 10nm process. This makes them smaller and more power-efficient relative to their higher performance. The processor has eight 64-bit "Kryo 260" CPU cores with 2.2Ghz maximum speed, with the Adreno 512 graphics unit handling visuals. The processor supports high-end features, such as 4K video capture and playback, quick charging, the latest standards for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, and LTE Category 13 uplink (150Mbps) / Cat 12 downlink (600Mbps) internet.

Overall, Qualcomm's latest mid-ranger comes surprisingly close to its top-end model's performance. That's good news for budget smartphone buyers who should be able to enjoy a smooth user experience, high-resolution video, and possibly play complex 3D games.

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source: GeekBench via GSMArena

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28 Comments

1. trojan_horse

Posts: 5868; Member since: May 06, 2016

My wonder is if the Snapdragon 660 will be able to match the great efficiency as the Snapdragon 625... I guess not, as I'm not sure of Kyro 260.

posted on May 22, 2017, 2:23 PM 0

6. Furbal unregistered

It might be pretty damn close. Lower clock speed = lower voltage

posted on May 22, 2017, 3:12 PM 0

10. vincelongman

Posts: 5724; Member since: Feb 10, 2013

But 14LPP vs 10LPE The 660 is like the 835 with lower clocks but 14LPP instead of 10LPE, with a slightly older modem and significantly weaker GPU IMO the power consumption of the 835 and 660 would be very similar, unless playing games/VR where the 835's huge GPU would use more power The 626 on the other hand would consume far less power than both the 835 and 660

posted on May 22, 2017, 4:48 PM 3

14. sgodsell

Posts: 7443; Member since: Mar 16, 2013

It's surprising that the 660 is able to use dual channel LPDDR4 1866 MHz ram. That means it it's faster than most people actually think.

posted on May 22, 2017, 8:00 PM 2

23. vincelongman

Posts: 5724; Member since: Feb 10, 2013

Agreed, I'm very surprised as to how close the 660 is to the 835 I expected the CPU to be very close, pleasantly surprised how close the DSPs, memory and modem are

posted on May 23, 2017, 3:23 AM 1

25. SYSTEM_LORD

Posts: 1168; Member since: Oct 05, 2015

You may be right, and likely that's due to the modifications that Qualcomm did to the A53/A73 cores. I think the power savings between process nodes as you go down get smaller and smaller realistically. The 630 will be the go to for power efficiency. It would be a real treat had Qualcomm designed it for 10nm, that way during the second half of the year it would get the improved version 10nmLPP

posted on May 23, 2017, 8:11 AM 0

19. Dr.Phil

Posts: 2448; Member since: Feb 14, 2011

It won't match the same efficiency as the 625, that's why they introduced the 630 (which my understanding is they didn't really improve any efficiency with it, but there is a slight performance bump in the CPU and an even bigger bump in GPU performance). This is a follow up to the 652/653 which still has great efficiency but better bridges the performance gap with the higher 800 series. And the Snapdragon 660 is probably most comparable to last years 820/821 in terms of performance (it even uses the same modem and the same Hexagon 680 DSP), but should bring about better efficiency as the 820 was just a quad-core setup while the 660 is an octa-core one with big.Little setup that allows 4 performance cores to be paired with 4 efficiency ones.

posted on May 22, 2017, 10:53 PM 3

22. trojan_horse

Posts: 5868; Member since: May 06, 2016

Thanks for the info, @Dr.Phil. Much appreciated.

posted on May 23, 2017, 1:11 AM 1

28. ikkuh

Posts: 42; Member since: May 22, 2011

They both are 14nm SoC's but the 660 is more powerful so no I don't think it will be as efficient.

posted on Aug 02, 2017, 9:34 AM 0

2. arman9953

Posts: 49; Member since: Nov 22, 2011

Yeah 5500 in Multi Core isn't that bad, but comparing the Single Core results against something like the A10 with 3500 in Single Core. The 835 is a joke and the 660 even more. I'm not a fanboy but i think most apps rely on Single over Multi Core performance, which is going to show based on these results...

posted on May 22, 2017, 2:23 PM 1

3. Tech-shake

Posts: 213; Member since: Nov 14, 2016

When will this argument ever die? Let me give you some helpful tips, single performance is really important like really really important but to a limit. Once you cross that limit you start getting to the point of diminishing returns. Different OS have different needs and optimization areas, android tires to leverage all cores depending on the load, on the other hand the iOS is built specifically to run on dual core. Hence the snapdragon is not s**t neither the Apple A series. They are just different animals for different needs!

posted on May 22, 2017, 2:28 PM 21

12. sgodsell

Posts: 7443; Member since: Mar 16, 2013

Apples iPhones are task switching. Android is multitasking. So Android can run multiple tasks simultaneously. Something that iPhone's cannot do. This changes performance. I guess the joke is on you arman9953.

posted on May 22, 2017, 6:39 PM 7

27. AmashAziz

Posts: 2934; Member since: Jun 30, 2014

iPhone 7 can multitask. Multitasking is enabled in iOS, but only for the iPads. It's Apple's choice to not enable it for iPhones, but that doesn't mean iPhone's can't do it. And when one doesn't have any evidence in hand, he doesn't speak. So do some research before talking dumb. As for evidence for my statements.......it's the iPad.

posted on May 23, 2017, 10:38 AM 0

15. Lumberjack

Posts: 306; Member since: May 04, 2017

About the 835... Think geekbench uses the 1.9 GHz core, not the 2.4GHz. A10 has all cores of same clock...

posted on May 22, 2017, 8:41 PM 0

17. Chidoro

Posts: 168; Member since: Sep 20, 2016

I'm not sure why this is always overlooked. The test is under clocking the 835 by 25%

posted on May 22, 2017, 9:11 PM 0

18. BuffaloSouce unregistered

The best way to really compare would to put the 835 inside the iPhone and the A10 inside the S8.

posted on May 22, 2017, 9:47 PM 1

4. bucknassty

Posts: 1353; Member since: Mar 24, 2017

interesting... wonder what the future holds in midrangers

posted on May 22, 2017, 2:33 PM 0

5. Lumia_Luigi

Posts: 173; Member since: Mar 22, 2017

Which is why I'm excited about the Nokia 7 & Moto X

posted on May 22, 2017, 2:48 PM 2

7. ImperialDynamics

Posts: 84; Member since: Nov 30, 2012

The Nokia 9 is codenamed Heart:http://www.phonearena.com/news/Encased-Nokia-9-prototype-unit-gets-the-hands-on-treatment_id94278

posted on May 22, 2017, 3:20 PM 0

8. killer7D

Posts: 551; Member since: Sep 18, 2014

I wonder how did you call the Nokia 9 as heart .. Check below the heart is equipped with SD835 and not this chipset !!

posted on May 22, 2017, 3:57 PM 0

9. killer7D

Posts: 551; Member since: Sep 18, 2014

http://m.gsmarena.com/nokia_9_benchmarked_snapdragon_835_goes_for_the_top-news-25148.php

posted on May 22, 2017, 4:00 PM 0

11. djcody

Posts: 228; Member since: Apr 17, 2013

They may have few prototypes with different chipsets, we don't know which one will be unvield

posted on May 22, 2017, 5:30 PM 0

21. mahima

Posts: 739; Member since: Nov 20, 2014

nokiapoweruser saw three "unknown heart"

posted on May 23, 2017, 12:00 AM 0

13. Khyron

Posts: 398; Member since: Sep 28, 2015

The problem un android cpu is the several frecuencias switching between fecuencies cause lag and micro lags second the linux kernel isnt optimized to run this mobile cpute apple kernel take out al of the juice of the a10 processor in android si de were not even close to get out all the processing power of every flagship's cpu

posted on May 22, 2017, 7:45 PM 0

16. Lumberjack

Posts: 306; Member since: May 04, 2017

Qualcomm should do like Mediatek. When you do something simple like browsing or reading emails only weaker cors should work. No need to have all cores working. My phone has the 810, it was waste of power to see the A57 at 2 GHz when you just open CPU Z.

posted on May 22, 2017, 8:45 PM 0

20. Dr.Phil

Posts: 2448; Member since: Feb 14, 2011

Qualcomm utilizes the same big.Little architecture that Mediatek does, the difference is that Qualcomm leaves it up to the manufacturers as to how the cores are utilized. In other words, they leave it up to the OEMs to decide whether all 8 are utilized or if it's the more traditional swapping between performance and efficiency.

posted on May 22, 2017, 11:00 PM 1

24. tokuzumi

Posts: 1927; Member since: Aug 27, 2009

Can't wait for this to power some 6" 720p screens that people won't buy.

posted on May 23, 2017, 8:05 AM 0

26. AmashAziz

Posts: 2934; Member since: Jun 30, 2014

"Single-core tests are less relevant, as the bulk of smartphone processing is a multi-core affair". Really Luis D.? I guess that's why iPhone 7 destroys every phone once it comes to processor-intensive tasks. And they prove that single-core power is, still, more relevant than multi-core power. Take, for example, creating a time lapse from the same video file. iPhone 7 wins against the S8 due to its more powerful single-core. And opening the heaviest of apps? I guess iPhone 7 takes the crown here too. Didn't expect this statement from you, Luis. People will be arguing with me now but they can't win because if the multi-core performance mattered more, iPhone 7 would have been outperformed in atleast one, highly processor-intensive task.

posted on May 23, 2017, 10:31 AM 0

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