the Exynos 2200 is less efficient than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1

One of the curiosities of the Galaxy S22 range is the presence of the Exynos 2200. Samsung’s new in-house chip was designed in collaboration with AMD, raising some expectations. The South Korean manufacturer has indeed recovered the license for the mobile version of the RDNA 2 architecture. At the helm of the graphics part of the Galaxy S22, AMD has simply decided to offer the architecture found in the Xbox Series S and X, the PlayStation 5 or the Radeon RX 6000. A promising solution that gives rise to high hopes for 3D performance and video games; including support for ray tracing.

As usual, Samsung offers two versions of its smartphones around the world. A choice regularly criticized in our regions, because the latest Exynos chips have not necessarily stood the comparison. With the Galaxy S22, Europe is entitled to the Exynos 2200 while the United States, Japan or South Korea are shipping the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. Despite the enthusiasm around Samsung’s new chip, the Exynos 2200 struggles to make a good impression against Qualcomm’s latest high-end chip.

YouTuber Erdi Özüağ has started comparing the two Galaxy S22 Ultra variants in benchmarks. Each time, AMD’s GPU lagged behind its competitors.

The GPU performance of the Exynos 2 is significantly lower than that of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1

In 3DMark Wild Life, the Exynos 2200-equipped S22 Ultra scored 6,684 points, compared to 9,548 points for its Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 counterpart. A 42% gap and the results are even more embarrassing for the Exynos 2200 when compared to the brand’s previous flagship. The Galaxy S21 Ultra, equipped with the Exynos 2100, scores 6,256 points, or 6% less than its successor.

The trend is confirmed in 3DMark Wild Life Extreme where the Qualcomm version still shows its advantage (+35% compared to the Exynos 2200). On this benchmark, the Galaxy S21 Ultra even manages to match – or almost – with the S22 Ultra under SoC Exynos 2200 (-0.6%). The other tests carried out by the youtuber are of the same ilk; with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 soaring while the Exynos 2200 and 2100 are neck and neck. Galaxy S21 Ultra or S22 Ultra? This revives the debate.

Should we be worried about the results of the Exynos 2200 of the Galaxy S22?

On reading these results, we see that the contribution of the RDNA2 architecture seems negligible. With AMD, Samsung doesn’t do much better than when it decides to develop its chips alone. Nevertheless, these initial results should be put into perspective, as they are not always representative of actual use.