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Samsung's AMD-based GPU delayed slightly, will be faster than rivals even after throttling

Updated: Jun 20, 2021, 10:00 AM

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Samsung's AMD-based GPU delayed slightly, will be faster than rivals even after throttling

Samsung is going to unveil the first GPU it has co-developed with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) in July, says venerated leaker Ice Universe.

The two companies entered into an agreement in 2019 under which AMD would license its graphics designs to Samsung for use in phones and tablets.

Earlier this month, AMD CEO Lisa Su confirmed that Samsung's next flagship mobile chipset will feature the company's RDNA 2 graphics technology. The custom graphics IP will give the chip ray tracing and variable rate shading capabilities.

Exclusive：Samsung×AMD GPU was originally scheduled to be released in June, but now it has been postponed to July, when we will know the performance of AMD GPU on Exynos and other details. pic.twitter.com/GM6W8l3EKY
— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) June 20, 2021

Samsung was earlier rumored to reveal the AMD-based GPU this month but we will now have to wait until July for details on its performance.

AMD's tech could give Exynos 2200 an edge over Snapdragon 888's successor

In the meanwhile, we thankfully have leaks to fall back on. Samsung has restructured its chip business in recent years, presumably because of the criticism it received for the performance gap between its Exynos chips that usually powers European and Middle Eastern versions of its flagship smartphones and Qualcomm's premium Snapdragon SoCs that fuel the American and Chinese models.

The tech titan has retired its custom cores and now uses Arm's design - a step that has considerably boosted the performance of the Exynos 2100. The silicon still lags behind in graphics performance, supposedly because Arm's Mali GPU is no match for Qualcomm's Adreno GPU.

That is likely to change this year with the introduction of the new Exynos 2xxx SoC - and presumably the next Exynos 1xxx processor - that will embed an AMD GPU. We will supposedly first see the tech in action with the Galaxy S22 series, which will apparently be fueled by the 5nm Exynos 2200 chip.

Qualcomm's Adreno 730 GPU is also sounding like a significant upgrade over Snapdragon 888's Adreno 660, so it will be interesting to see which of the two get the upper hand. Either way, it's a win-win for Samsung smartphone fans.

AMD GPU has smoked competing products in benchmarks

Leaked benchmark results indicate that Samsung's AMD GPU will offer better graphics performance than Qualcomm's Adreno GPU and Apple's custom chips. A recent report says it will be about as good as Apple's M1 processor that fuels the latest slate of Macs and the new iPad Pros.

A post that popped up on South Korea's Clien (via Tron) message board just yesterday also says that it will overtake competing products in peak performance but adds that the performance will be throttled by up to 30 percent, presumably to prevent overheating issues. Despite that, it's allegedly going to be considerably more powerful than ARM's latest Mali GPU.

Samsung is seemingly really happy about the results and is interested in signing a new contract for the next-generation RDNA microarchitecture.

Google may use Samsung's AMD GPU next

As if the alleged performance boost wasn't exciting enough for Android smartphone users, the site also says that Google is interested in using the tech. Details are scarce at the moment, but it's safe to assume that the company's first in-house mobile chipset that will power the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro will not have an AMD GPU. Instead, it's expected to feature the Mali-G78 GPU.

Previously, tipster Digital Chat Station had said that Vivo could also use Samsung's AMD GPU.

In related news, a sketchy report claims that Samsung is trying to poach former Apple and AMD architecture engineers for a custom chip project.

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Anam Hamid is a computer scientist turned tech journalist who has a keen interest in the tech world, with a particular focus on smartphones and tablets. She has previously written for Android Headlines and has also been a ghostwriter for several tech and car publications. Anam is not a tech hoarder and believes in using her gadgets for as long as possible. She is concerned about smartphone addiction and its impact on future generations, but she also appreciates the convenience that phones have brought into our lives. Anam is excited about technological advancements like folding screens and under-display sensors, and she often wonders about the future of technology. She values the overall experience of a device more than its individual specs and admires companies that deliver durable, high-quality products. In her free time, Anam enjoys reading, scrolling through Reddit and Instagram, and occasionally refreshing her programming skills through tutorials.