It’s has become a common news that smartphone phone maker’s are claiming that their phones are gaming exclusive. The one common thing among such high end devices is the use of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855+. Is sd855+ really worth the hype it has, is it really that better than its sibling sd855 let’s see.
Snapdragon 855+
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus (855+) Mobile Platform is a high-end smartphone and tablet SoC that Qualcomm announced in 2019. Compared to the normal sd855, the 855 Plus offers higher clock speeds of the GPU and CPU. The SoC integrates a fast ‘Prime Core’ that clocks up to 2.96 GHz (up from 2.84 GHz in the 855) and three further fast ARM Cortex-A76 performance cores, which can reach up to 2.42 GHz. These are complemented by four power-saving ARM Cortex-A55 cores that clock up to a maximum of 1.8 GHz.
The SoC also integrates the new X24 LTE modem that Qualcomm promises will deliver up to 2 Gbit/s maximum download speed over LTE Cat.20 and up to 316 Mbit/s upload speeds. The Snapdragon 855 can be configured with the company’s new X50 5G modem too.
Qualcomm has also improved the integrated Wi-Fi modem, which is Wi-Fi 6-ready, has 8×8 Sounding and supports up to 802.11 ay Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi modem can utilise the 60 GHz mmWave band for up to 10 Gbit/s internet speeds.
The Hexagon 690 DSP has undergone the most revisions of that which Qualcomm has integrated into the Snapdragon 855. The new DSP incorporates a neural processing unit (NPU) with dedicated Tensor-cores that can execute up to 7 trillion operations per second in conjunction with the CPU and GPU. In short, the Snapdragon 855 should be three times faster than the Snapdragon 845 and two times faster than the Kirin 980 SoC.
The Snapdragon 855 also has a Spectra 380 ISP onboard, which is the world’s first chip to incorporate a Computer Vision Engine (CV-ISP) that can perform depth calculations in videos at up to 60 FPS. The Snapdragon 855 should deliver real-time portrait modes or be able to detect objects with relatively low power consumption.
The built-in memory controller supports up to 16 GB LPDDR4x RAM (4 x 16-bit). As the SD855, the 855+ integrates an Adreno 640 graphics card that is now higher clocked and should offer a 15% higher performance.
Qualcomm will manufacturer the Snapdragon 855+ at the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) using a 7 nm FinFET process.
Snapdragon 855+ vs Snapdragon 855
The primary difference between the Snapdragon 855 Plus and the Snapdragon 855 is in the CPU and GPU. Like the Snapdragon 855, the Snapdragon 855 also has a tri-cluster CPU arrangement, with one Kryo 485 Prime core, three mid-cores and four efficiency cores. Only, the single Kryo 485 Prime core is clocked at 2.96GHz instead of 2.84GHz. The higher clock-speed essentially brings the flagship chipset closer to the speeds promised by ARM for the Cortex-A76, on which the Kryo 485 is based. However, considering the architecture is the same in both the chipsets, we’re not sure whether there will thermal bottlenecks when running at peak clock speeds. Next, the Adreno 640 GPU on the Snapdragon 855 Plus is 15 percent faster than the one on the regular Snapdragon 855.
Apart from this, the rest of the components in the SoC are the same. The Snapdragon 855 brings a dedicated Computer-Vision accelerator in the ISP along with the fastest 4G modem for mobile, as well as support for a 5G chip. There’s also dedicated Tensor and Vector accelerators in the DSP which aids in customised AI tasks and supports the most cutting edge hardware available for mobile at present.
So basically the difference here is the higher single core performance (2.96 GHz) and the better clock speed (672MHZ insted of 585Mhz) of the integrated graphic processor.
Is it really a deal breaker?
It is, only when implemented with the perfect hardware that can take advantage of the improvements it possesses over the original 855.
- If it’s being used to drive a 4K and/or 120 Hz display, it could mean the difference between silky-smooth and occasionally jerky gameplay.
- But if it’s just driving a Full HD and/or 60 Hz display… then it’s probably being used for marketing purposes because you won’t be able to tell the differences.
But the thing to be considered here is that the regular Snapdragon 855 is a gaming powerhouse and used in most widely recognised flagship devices of today. So the final question that comes to our mind is, wheather the extra price be justified?
Verdict : is 855+ worth the price
Well it is based on what we expect and how it is implemented. If it is implemented with the ideal hardware and if the game you play take advantage of the improvement it has then it is a idel competition for 855 but on most cases it is just a marketing gimik, since as we can clearly see that the 855+ is nothing more than just a overclocked 855 with minor upgrades here and there which most can be implemented with just a firmware update for 855. The extra price we may might generally be for the added image that it pose as a gaming intensive SoC. But the claim can be easily debunked since most High end flagship today uses 855 with similar or even better performance over that phones with 855+.
Techratst 