Currently, there are over 25 5G SoCs available on the market, covering all price ranges from hundreds to thousands of yuan.How do we judge the performance of these 5G SoCs?The answer mainly depends on three factors: core architecture, number of large cores, and maximum frequency. Among these, the core architecture is the most important. We all know that ARM’s new generation Cortex-X2 and Cortex-A710 are more powerful than the existing Cortex-X1 and Cortex-A78.
It is important to note that Apple’s A-series chips are self-developed based on the ARM instruction set, while Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips use Kryo 600, Kryo 500, and Kryo 400 series chips, which are optimized (modified) based on Cortex-A78/A77/A76. Therefore, when other parameters are consistent, Apple’s A-series chips have the best CPU performance, followed by Qualcomm Snapdragon, and then platforms designed based on the ARM reference architecture.The second factor is the number of large cores in the 5G SoC. To balance performance and power consumption, 5G SoCs generally adopt dual-cluster or tri-cluster architectures such as 2+6, 4+4, or 1+3+4. When other parameters are consistent, those with super-large cores (Cortex-X) perform the best, and having four large cores is definitely stronger than having two.The third factor is frequency. When the core architecture and the number of large cores are the same, the 5G SoC with the higher frequency will have an advantage in CPU performance. Please note the premise: “when the core architecture and the number of large cores are the same.” Although the Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 has a frequency of 3.2GHz, it still cannot beat the Snapdragon 888, which has a frequency of only 2.84GHz, because the latter uses the next-generation Cortex-X1+A78 architecture combination.From the ranking in this article, we can also see a problem: some 5G SoCs have higher model numbers, but their frequencies are lower than those of their lower-tier counterparts. For example, the Dimensity 700 has a higher frequency than the Dimensity 720, but the latter is positioned higher because it integrates a Mali-G57MC3 GPU with three computing units, while the Dimensity 700 has a Mali-G57MC2 GPU. Although the CPU performance is somewhat stronger, the GPU performance has decreased significantly, making its comprehensive strength indeed lower than that of the Dimensity 720.In a sense, frequency is the easiest to quantify and is used to judge the performance of 5G SoC chips. It is definitely correct to prioritize selecting chips with higher frequencies among chips of the same tier.
