Which mobile processor is better - MTK or Snapdragon? Rating of mobile processors - which chip is better

How will the 64-bit Mediatek MT6752 perform in comparison with the 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 615?

At the time of writing, the main topic of the mobile market was the phrase “64-bit processor”. This term was pronounced on every corner like a mantra and was actively used by marketers to promote devices. The 64-bit processor is a big step, not only because of the 64-bit chip but also the other additional features it brings to portable devices.

There are quite a number of 64-bit chips on the market today, but the most talked about are Mediatek MT6752 and Snapdragon 615 from Qualcomm. Both chips are used in many mid- and high-end smartphones, but which one is better?

This article compares two popular Chinese phones with 64-bit chips. Qualcomm is on the side, and Mediatek’s honor is defended by the iOcean MT6752 Rock. Both phones were subjected to popular benchmark tests to find out which one delivers better performance. Before we get into the comparisons and results, let's take a look at the specs and features of both the processors.

The MT6752 has eight ARM Cortex-53 cores at 1.7 GHz and a Mali-T760 graphics processor, and it has support for 4G LTE. The processor is capable of supporting a camera up to 16 MP, and video recording is possible in 1080p resolution at 60 frames per second.

In turn, Snapdragon 615 introduces the industry's first 64-bit eight-core Cortex-A53 CPU. This chip has 4 cores at 1.7 GHz and 4 at 1 GHz. The Adreno 405 GPU can support screen resolutions up to 2560x1600 pixels and cameras up to 21 MP.

Both chips have their advantages: Mediatek seems more focused on productivity, and Snapdragon 615 on media entertainment.

Now we can take a closer look at the processors and their capabilities in the benchmarks and see which one will perform better.

Mediatek MT6752 vs Snapdragon 615: Vellamo app

Vellamo started out as a mobile online tester and was later expanded into two main parts. The HTML5 part measures the performance of mobile devices while surfing the web, and the Metal part measures the single-core performance of the CPU subsystem of mobile processors.

Vellamo can evaluate scrolling and zooming, 3D graphics, video performance, internal memory speed, peak throughput, and more.

Based on this web test, performance appears to be about equal. This means that in scaling, loading, 3D graphics and video streaming, they will give customers the same efficiency.

Mediatek MT6752 vs Snapdragon 615: Ludashi App

Ludashi Android version is a performance test app for phones and tablets. Using 8 tests, you can easily determine the performance of a mobile device and compare it with another.

Ultimately, the OPPO R5's results are far behind what the iOcean M6752 can offer. This means that the M6752's single-core performance is better than that of the OPPO R5, as the MT6752's results were almost double those of the Snapdragon.

Mediatek MT6752 vs Snapdragon 615: gaming performance

Since both phones have a 1080p screen, their SoC should consume the same amount of power. In this test, the difference in SoC was determined using famous games.

The iOcean M6752 smartphone is equipped with a Mali-T760 GPU. The speed at the exit to the main screen of the game Need for Speed ​​is normal, but the Mali GPU loses a little in overall graphical clarity.

In turn, OPPO R5 has an Adreno 405 graphics card, which performed better overall. While the smoothness and quality are excellent on both phones, the overall gaming experience on the Snapdragon 615 is as good as the MT6752.

NBA 2015 is a fresh game at that time, requiring good performance from the processor and graphics card. The iOcean M6752 handled the game quite fluently, stuttering only a couple of times, while the Snapdragon 615 really disappointed in this game. The processor had a lot of difficulty with gameplay, and the overall image looked sluggish.

Other tests:

Mediatek MT6752 vs Snapdragon 615: Conclusion

While on paper both processors offer high standards and seem like they can handle anything, in fact the MT6752 in the iOcean MT6752 performed much better.

For most applications, each processor is good enough, but when it comes to anything complex, the Mediatek 64-bit processor can kick into overdrive and handle heavy workloads smartly and smoothly. It seems to me that Oppo made a big mistake by using Snapdragon 615 instead of Mediatek MT6752 in their device. Not only because the MTK chip is more powerful, but also because it helps lower the price of the phone. This explains why iOcean sells its phone internationally for just over $200, while Oppo's price is closer to $500.

If you have dealt with any of these processors, please share your opinion in the comments.

Agree, when choosing a smartphone, its performance is almost of primary importance. You don't want it to be sluggish when you're gaming, watching videos, or running multiple apps at the same time, right? Fortunately, lately processor manufacturers have been doing everything possible to ensure that phones can process as large amounts of information as possible.

At the moment, the most popular processors are MediaTek Helio and Qualcomm Snapdragon; These largest companies have launched a rather tough fight in the chipset market. Also, Exynos chips from Samsung and HiSilicon from Huawei are quite well known. True, the latter install them mainly only on their smartphones.

Let's look at several processor models from these manufacturers to understand which one to give preference to when buying a smartphone.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 820

Despite the fact that Qualcomm does not have its own production, it has quite a lot of patents that allow you to design a good processor, and only then order its manufacture from any other company.

One of their most popular chips was the quad-core Snapdragon 820. Even Samsung (which, as you remember, has its own processors) installed it on the Galaxy S7 for the American and Chinese markets.

Perhaps the only disadvantage of this processor is its heating, while its advantages include the following:

supports camera with resolution up to 28 MP;

processes FullHD video at up to 240 frames per second;

supports 10-bit 4K videos;

has a fairly high clock frequency (maximum value is 2.150 MHz);

uses battery power economically;

demonstrates excellent performance in the game.

Mediatek Helio X25

Mediatek, like Qualcomm, targets different price segments. In the budget version, it is Helio X25 that comes as close as possible to top-end chipsets, apart from some nuances. In general, the processor is quite high-performance thanks to its 10 cores. Two of them (Cortex-A72 type) are capable of reaching 2,500 MHz clock speed; the remaining eight (Cortex-A53 type) develop from 1,550 to 2,000 MHz.

Main advantages of the processor:

supports camera up to 32 MP;

has high computing power;

has low energy consumption;

supports 4K video (but only at up to 30 frames per second);

relatively low cost.

Among the minuses, it is worth noting the not very high performance in games and the lack of support for Bluetooth 4.2.

HiSilicon Kirin 950

HiSilicon Kirin 950 is a fairly serious competitor to Snapdragon and Helio, even taking into account the fact that usually only Huawei phones are equipped with these processors. HiSilicon Kirin 950 has 8 cores, the maximum clock speed of which reaches 2.5 GHz.

The advantages of this processor include:

support for dual cameras with a total resolution of up to 42 megapixels;

very high clock frequency (2.5 GHz is almost a record);

decoding 4K video at up to 60 frames per second;

excellent energy efficiency;

support for Bluetooth 4.2 and USB 3.0.

The main disadvantage of HiSilicon Kirin 955 is its weak graphics accelerator. However, it was precisely thanks to this annoying little thing that Huawei equipped it with 8 cores with a record clock speed.

The prevailing stereotypes are not always true, which is why it is especially important to dispel some myths regarding mobile processors.

To a question " Which mobile processor is better?” must be approached in detail.

Of course, we don’t choose a smartphone solely because of the processor; other components are no less important. However, without proper packaging of the chipset and other components, even the most top-end and productive mobile processor can literally turn out to be useless.

We hope that our excursion into the world of processors and their manufacturers will be useful to you.

Terminology

Usually the concepts “processor” and “chipset” are perceived as synonyms, but this is not entirely true. Modern mobile processors are part of SoC(System on Chip), on which other elements are located.

Externally, the chipset is similar to old-style processors, but at its core, the chipset is a platform for placing components, some of which are responsible for graphics, sound, spatial orientation, etc. and the processor itself is only one of the components.

For example, schematically the chipset Snapdragon 820 looks like this:

Which processor is better?

The answer to this question will logically vary for different categories of users.

Some users want to get the most out of their smartphone, using the device not only as a dialer, but also as a gaming center. Cunning marketers have found a loophole on how to attract the attention of precisely this active type of user and at the same time save money - equip a smartphone with a 4- or 8-core processor, but with minimum clock frequency.

In this case, a non-specialist in the field of mobile phones sees a tasty line in the specifications about an 8-core processor and considers the device to be very productive by default. But in fact, a 4-core processor with high The core clock speed will easily outpace some lower clocked 8-core processors.

But knowledge of processor frequency does not guarantee the correct selection of a gadget.

Hidden characteristics

There are hidden characteristics about which it is sometimes very difficult to find information.

It is important technological process, according to which the processor is designed. Roughly speaking, the technical process is an indicator of the size of transistors, of which the processor consists of millions. Accordingly, than less this indicator, the more they can be placed on a chip and thus faster the filling works. The technical process is measured in nm (nanometers).

At the moment, the most common process technology is 32nm. Some flagships planned for release in the next few years will receive processors with a much lower technological process.

In particular, a processor is being prepared for release MediaTekHelio X30, the undoubted advantage of which will be the use of 10nm FinFET technological process from TSMC.

Besides, Helio X30 equipped with top-end cores, in particular, two ARM Artemis (2.8 GHz) computing cores are installed, which have already been dubbed the main rivals to Qualcomm’s Kryo cores. The chipset also includes the well-known four Cortex-A53 cores (2.2 GHz) and the same number of Cortex-A35 (2 GHz).

The first devices with this processor will be presented only at the beginning of 2017.

But this is just reference point, and not a 100% proof of processor performance.

Technical characteristics: de jure and de facto

A case in point is the iPhone 6, which received Dual-core Apple A8 with clock frequency 1.4GHz. Don't forget about another important factor - RAM. If its quantity is insufficient, even the most top-end processor will obviously not be able to fully express itself.And in the case of the iPhone 6, there is only 1GB RAM. Modest figures, right?

Especially against the backdrop of many Chinese devices that are an order of magnitude cheaper and with more attractive indicators - for example, Xiaomi Mi3, who received Quad-core Snapdragon 800 with core clock speed 1.7GHz And 2GB RAM seems much “tastier” than the apple set in the paragraph above.

The myth about the importance of numbers in specifications will quickly dispel, once you try both smartphones in action. The secret lies in optimization.

Apple's software optimization is much better than that of Android devices, where the emphasis is placed on the attractiveness of the numbers.

You should also be careful with the amount of RAM. The newer the firmware installed on a smartphone, the more power-hungry it will be. For example, starting from Android 4.2.X, the minimum amount of RAM to ensure stable operation is 1GB, but already for Android 4.4.X the starting value of RAM for full functioning has increased to 2GB.

But even if the user carefully studied the number of cores, their clock speed, technical process, the ratio of the processor and the rest of the filling, assessed the optimization, etc., such a factor remains as peculiarities each processor.

We’ll talk about the individuality of some chipsets a little later, but for now here’s a list of top processor manufacturers:

Qualcomm- a company that has deservedly received the title of one of the best among processor manufacturers, however, the cost of this company's chipsets is usually overpriced, compared to the pricing policy of other brands.

MediaTek- Qualcomm's main competitor. Initially, the company focused production on the production of processors for budget smartphones, but at the moment the situation has changed - just remember the line of processors Helio. The company's strong advantage is much more affordable prices for processors than Qualcomm.

Intel. The company's success in the field of mobile processors is an order of magnitude more modest than in the production of processors for computers. For mobile devices, the company launched the Atom line, which was distributed mainly to devices from Lenovo. There are a number of other smartphones hiding under their hood Intel Atom, but their number is so small that it hardly makes sense to talk about this series of processors as a serious rival for the two companies described above.

Samsung- a company that produces a fairly successful line of processors Exynos. But as with Intel, Exynos is installed on a small number of phones (mostly on its own smartphones).

nVidia is the least known processor manufacturer. Produced series of processors Tegra is not in demand and is installed on a very narrow range of gadgets. An attempt to enter the international market was made in 2012, when the manufacturer released the 4-core Tegra 3. But a serious flaw soon became apparent: severe overheating.

The most interesting thing is the confrontation Qualcomm And MediaTek. And to choose the right smartphone, you need to know some of the features of the processors produced by these two giants.

Snapdragon 820- the sensational “hot” processor from Qualcomm. The “hot” new product was installed on a variety of smartphones - Xiaomi Mi5 Pro, Leagoo Elite Pro, Doogee F7, Elephone P9000, Meizu MX6, LG G5, etc.

Similar to the situation with Tegra 3, users encountered severe overheating of their pets. What’s noteworthy is that the Snapdragon 820 was released as a replacement for the 810, which was also prone to overheating.

This failure provided an opportunity for other manufacturers to prove themselves. In particular, one of the main competitors of the Snapdragon 820 is Exynos 8890. An interesting decision was made regarding the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge. Smartphones are released in two versions: for residents of China and the USA, a version with Snapdragon 820, and for the domestic market and Europe an option with a proprietary Exynos 8890.

AnTuTu results show performance leadership Snapdragon 820.

But in multi-core mode Geekbench shows superiority Exynos 8890 .

Purchase price Snapdragon 820 is $70, which greatly affects the final price of the smartphone. You can buy it for much less Helio X20($30), the performance of which is almost the same as that of the 820 processor from Qualcomm. Naturally, devices running MediaTek Helio X20 will be much more affordable.

This is why users should be careful when purchasing a device and objectively evaluate the final purposes of using the device: if your priorities do not include spending time with toys, then it makes a lot of sense to pay attention to smartphones with a processor from MediaTek. Has proven itself especially well MT6753.

However, MediaTek is gradually getting rid of the reputation of a brand that produces chipsets exclusively for state employees - the above mentioned Helio X30 direct evidence of this.

A few words about synthetic tests

The fact is that the test results in AnTuTu is just a rough estimate of performance and not an accurate representation of reality.

The results of the same device often change after changing the firmware. Optimization of the hardware and software parts of the smartphone also plays an important role.

Manufacturers often try to cheat and artificially inflate test values. In 2013, a scandal broke out regarding deception Samsung in AnTuTu results. The company's engineers came up with a trick: when starting AnTuTu, the GPU Samsung S4 automatically switched to high frequency mode (from 480 to 532 MHz), which is why the results improved.

That same year, the company was also accused of dishonest results. Intel. Some analysts agreed that AnTuTu is optimized for Intel Atom, so the results in this test will be somewhat inflated.

It makes sense to compare AnTuTu virtual parrots exclusively within the same platform. There are other apps for cross-platform comparison, the most popular being Geekbench And GFXbench. In any case, you need to understand that the obtained indicators only roughly reflect the capabilities of the smartphone.

Conclusion

Choosing the most optimal smartphone must be approached comprehensively, relying not only on tasty numbers, but also understanding what really stands behind them and whether it is worth the money.

There is no point in overpaying for a top-end multi-core processor if it will only be used for basic functions. But you shouldn’t rely on luck that a mediocre chipset will overpower top-end toys.

Team bad-android wishes you only successful and pleasant shopping!

Stay tuned ahead a lot of interesting.

What is a processor?

Without going into details, this is the central element of the system, which is responsible for all information transformations and controls the computing process.

The mobile version of the chip (ARM) is not much different from its stationary counterpart. The only differences are in size, power and clock speed.

The latter have lower figures.

All of them have achieved success in this industry, but the main struggle is between the Chinese company MediaTek and the American Qualcomm.

Qualcomm

The silicon giant was founded back in 1985. The company produced phones, GPS modules and wireless devices.

We will consider it as the largest manufacturer of mobile chips.

In 2005, they licensed ARM technologies, purchasing the rights to create the Cortex A8 core. Based on it, our own chip was developed.

The top line of chips is called Snapdragon.

These processors are installed in such flagship devices as Sony Xperia Z line, HTC One, LG G2 and G3 and some models Samsung.

But the latest top-end chip Snapdragon 810 has caused a lot of discussion. Some said that it overheats a lot, causing performance to suffer.

But this fact remained undocumented.

8 cores, LTE Cat 6 chip, giving speeds up to 300 Mbps, support for 4K video, as well as sensors up to 55 MP. The figures are impressive.

MediaTek

They take advantage not only of quality, but also of mass production, supplying products to all smartphones costing up to $200.

The most famous “stone”, namely MT6592, installed on budget phones like Lenovo, in particular S860 and not only.

They were the first to develop a 10-core processor called Xelio X20. At the moment, this is the most powerful single-chip system in the world.

Recruits more than 70,000 “parrots” in AnTuTu. Not yet serially produced.

Specifications include 3 blocks of cores: 2x2.5 GHz, 4x2 GHz and 4x1.4 GHz. Mali 800 graphics and support for 2 13 MP sensors. Supports Wi-Fi 802.11ac and LTE Cat 6.

Apple

Cupertino residents have always been famous for their closeness. Their unofficial motto can be interpreted as follows: “You don’t need to know what’s inside. Just take it and use it."

And this applies to all the company’s products.

As for the mobile division, the situation here is no less confusing.

It is only known that the company itself develops processors for smartphones and tablets, assigning them an A index and a serial number.

In particular, A8 and A8X are considered the most powerful mobile stones. They are equipped with iPhone 6/6 Plus and iPad Air respectively.

Despite 2 cores at 1.4 GHz and an M8 coprocessor, the performance is impressive.

Intel

Despite the fact that this giant leads the ranking of mobile processors for laptops, in the field of mobile development it actually sits on the bench.

Although the fact that smartphones equipped with Intel Atom chips are in high demand, we can say that the company is making progress.

Now the strongest chip that is used in series is Z3580. 4 cores at a frequency of 2.33 will give a head start even to such “players” as Snapdragon 801 and Apple A7.

Specifications: 4x2.33 GHz, DDR-1600 support and proprietary graphics from Intel.

Nvidia

The situation with a company that is famous for gaming and overclocker video cards similar to Nvidia.

In their main field, they achieved outstanding results, but things didn’t work out with the mobile segment.

In particular, Tegra chips have good potential, but leading manufacturers are in no hurry to purchase processors in batches.

Yes, Nvidia hardware will be appreciated by gamers.

But the majority of smartphone users are businessmen, young people over the age of 20, and girls who are unlikely to want to “play Doom on ultra.”

They use proprietary processors. Other companies create their gadgets based on chipsets from Qualcomm and MediaTek. Both of these companies have dominated the market for third-party mobile chipset developers for several years following the exit of players such as Texas Instruments, Intel and NovaThor.

We offer you a comparative analysis of MediaTek and Qualcomm as two leaders in their field.

CPU Manufacturing Technologies

As for the technologies used in the construction of CPUs, Qualcomm has previously created its own Kryo cores. Since 2017, the company has moved to more standard Kryo Gold and Kryo Silver cores, built on Arm cores that are more powerful and more energy efficient.

MediaTek also uses Arm cores, but does not modify them like Qualcomm does.

Qualcomm is using the latest and most powerful cores, such as in the new Snapdragon 675 processor. MediaTek is not yet using the latest Arm designs (Cortex-A76, A75 and A55). From this comparison, only one conclusion can be drawn - both Qualcomm and MediaTek use the same cores in their processors, but the first company quickly adapts the newest ones to its needs.

GPU: Qualcomm's secret weapon

Graphics coprocessors are a serious advantage for Qualcomm. It exists thanks to the Adreno graphics processing technology, which Qualcomm acquired through the acquisition of AMD's division of graphics processors for portable devices (Adreno is an anagram of Radeon, AMD's graphics brand).

Adreno graphics coprocessors currently outperform Mali coprocessors - this can be seen in benchmarks, for example, of Galaxy S9 smartphones with Qualcomm-based chipsets in comparison with the same phone models based on Exynos chipsets. To get around this and give their phones an edge, Samsung and Huawei are simply using more Mali GPUs. This allows them to catch up with Qualcomm with Adreno coprocessors, closing the gap - but only due to quantity.

The new Mali-G76 GPU will be a significant breakthrough, but Qualcomm developers are preparing a worthy response to it and plan to announce a new flagship graphics processor in December.

Machine learning

In recent years, Qualcomm has been using its Hexagon digital signal processor (DSP) for machine learning tasks. It performs tasks related to audio processing, photo processing, as well as some types of connections. This company, unlike Apple and Huawei, did not develop a separate processor for artificial intelligence tasks.

The latest Hexagon 685 DSP is used in the Snapdragon 845, Snapdragon 710, Snapdragon 670 and Snapdragon 675 chipsets. Therefore, smartphones based on these processors cope better with image recognition tasks.

MediaTek, in turn, presented its AI processing unit (APU) for mid-range phones based on the Helio P60 chipset. This block is designed to recognize faces and images during shooting.

Developer support and software updates

If you plan to change the firmware on your phone, then it will be easier to do this with a Qualcomm-based device. Smartphones with MediaTek processors do not receive the latest firmware so quickly, but this is due to the company’s policy regarding source code.

In addition, developers of budget devices, which are mainly equipped with MediaTek processors, do not update the software themselves for a long time. Therefore, the lack of software updates is often associated with problems of phone manufacturers, and not the MediaTek representatives themselves. The company is trying to change this situation by offering its partners GMS Express - a more complete version of Android with several Google applications, instead of the standard AOSP build.

Project Treble from Google, in turn, also accelerated the receipt of software updates for devices based on both Qualcomm and MediaTek processors due to the fact that the dependence of Android software on hardware features was reduced.

However, Qualcomm still leads in software updates and developer support.

Devices based on Qualcomm and MediaTek

MediaTek is very successful in creating processors for low-end and budget smartphones such as Nokia 1, Nokia 3 and 3.1, as well as Redmi 6 and 6A. The new Helio A22 and P22 processors, designed for low-cost and simple smartphones, are smaller in size than their competitors from Qualcomm.

For budget models, Qualcomm still offers outdated Snapdragon 212 and Snapdragon 425 processors. We hope that their new developments, Snapdragon 429 and Snapdragon 439, will improve the picture.

Among the flagship devices, of course, devices based on Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 series processors (Snapdragon 835 and 845) dominate. Mediatek made a foray into the flagship processor market with last year's Helio X30 chipset. But so far this processor can only be found in Meizu Pro 7 Plus, while Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 is built into almost all top smartphones.

In mid-line phones you can find Qualcomm Snapdragon processors of the 400, 600 and 700 series, but also those developed by MediaTek Helio P60 and MT6750. The latter powers Nokia 5.1 Plus, Realme 1, Oppo F9, LGQ7 and LG X Power 2, while the former powers Nokia 7 Plus, Xiaomi Mi A2, Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 and Realme 2 Pro. Therefore, it is difficult to name a leader here.

So who wins?

Users choose smartphones not only and not so much depending on what processor they use. Some people simply care about a productive device, while others want to get a high-quality camera, moisture protection and a 3.5 mm audio jack for their money.

If you buy a flagship, it will most likely be powered by a Qualcomm processor. In mid-range smartphones you can find both Helio P60 chipsets from MediaTek and Qualcomm Snapdragon 660. Both chipsets are approximately equal in performance, but the new 600 series processors from Qualcomm are likely to be more powerful than the Helio P60.

Among entry-level smartphones, MediaTek dominates with its Helio A22 and P22 chipsets. Not only are they smaller, but they also offer more modern connections such as Bluetooth 5.

It is also important that processors from MediaTek are cheaper than their competitors from Qualcomm. Therefore, smartphones based on them are often more affordable, although this does not mean that they are of worse quality.