Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 benchmarks: a look at the power 2023 Android smartphone flagships could pack

Last week, Qualcomm unveiled its latest and greatest mobile chipset for 2023 flagships – Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. As evident from the key features of the SoC, it’s clear that it brings a slew of improvements over its predecessor. But as they say, the proof is in the pudding, so we were really excited to put the chip through the paces.

We got a chance to check out a Qualcomm Reference Design (QRD) device powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC. We took it through a series of benchmarks to gauge performance, graphics capabilities, and AI – which is the underlying thread across all the aspects of the flagship chip. So, without further ado, let’s begin.

Note: All the tests are conducted in the performance mode.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 AnTuTu Benchmark

AnTuTu is among the most popular benchmarks out there. It provides one overall score to help evaluate the overall capabilities of the device. And as we mentioned above, Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 features across-the-board improvements, which was evident through its AnTuTu score. The score totalled up to 12,70,897, which is impressive. To put it in context, the Snapdragon 8 Gen+ 1-powered Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 got 10,24,312 in AnTuTu.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Geekbench Benchmark

Talking about the core performance, Qualcomm is using a new Kryo architecture with one Prime Cortex-X3 core running at 3.2GHz. It has also swapped the number of performance and efficiency cores by opting for a 1+4+3 configuration. The four performance cores are tuned at 2.8GHz, whereas the three efficiency cores are clocked at 2.0GHz. This results in 35 percent faster performance, and 40 percent improved power efficiency.

It’s clear that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 will impress in single- and multi-core performance and that reflects on Geekbench as well. The QRD scored 1,492 in single-core performance, while it achieved 5,222 in multi-core performance. In comparison, Apple A16 Bionic-based iPhone 14 Pro Max scores are a shade above as they reach 1,884 and 5,325, respectively.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 GFXBench

This is perhaps the first time where Qualcomm hasn’t disclosed the details about its GPU. It has just highlighted that the new Adreno graphics processor offers a 25 percent performance uplift, while promising 45 percent better efficiency. There are a ton of other features that will attract gamers though, including the ray tracing support and Snapdragon Elite Gaming suite.

So, what do GFXBench’s benchmarks tell us? In 1080p Manhattan 3.1 off-screen, it achieved 224 fps.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 AITuTu

The chipmaker highlighted that AI performance shouldn’t be evaluated by TOPS as that’s the theoretical performance limit and doesn’t suggest how AI will benefit the device. Hence, it used a couple of AI benchmarks, including AITuTu, AIMark, and more.

It scored 35,71,768 in AITuTu, whereas the score in AIMark was 1,57,670.

Of course, we ran several other benchmarks such as PCMark and 3Dmark for Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, along with browser benchmarks. Here’s a table that summarises all the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 benchmarks in one place.

It’s worth pointing out that these scores were achieved on a reference device finetuned by Qualcomm. It would be interesting to see how OEMs use (or don’t use) the capabilities of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC for offering performance and functionality to end users. Thankfully, we won’t have to wait too long to find that out…  smartphones with Qualcomm’s all-new chip are expected to launch as soon as the end of this year.

Disclosure: this writer attended Snapdragon Tech Summit in Maui, Hawaii on Qualcomm India’s invitation