Snapdragon 820 vs. Tegra X1: Mobile? Console? The paths are different

The rise of mobile smart devices has gradually shifted people's pursuit of electronic product performance from desktop PC platforms to various ARM architecture mobile SoC processor chips.

The withdrawal of Texas Instruments, Samsung's repeated silence, and MediaTek's "cheap" image that has always been difficult to get rid of in people's minds have made players always focus on Qualcomm and NVIDIA when talking about performance.

After NVIDIA released the "super nuclear bomb" Tegra X1 at the CES2015 Consumer Electronics Show, news about Qualcomm's next-generation heavyweight new product Snapdragon 820 has also been exposed recently. From the comparison of data, we can also find that Snapdragon and Tegra, which both started out as smartphone products, may be developing in different directions.

CPU: Qualcomm's independent architecture returns to the throne

Unlike the 64-bit dual-core version of Tegra K1 which uses the Denver architecture, NVIDIA has returned to "normal" this time and selected the ARM standard Cortex architecture design for the CPU part of Tegra X1. Like Qualcomm Snapdragon 810, it is equipped with four Cortex-A57 processing cores and four Cortex-A53 processing cores. It is no longer the previous weird 4+1 core, and all eight cores can run simultaneously.

Although Qualcomm adopted the Cortex standard CPU architecture on the Snapdragon 810 in order to seize the initiative in 64-bit mobile processors, the Snapdragon 820 once again uses its own architecture design and is equipped with eight 64-bit Taipan architecture processing cores. Taipan, as the successor to the Krait architecture of previous Snapdragon 800/805 products, not only continues to use the name of Viper in the naming method, but the optimization of power consumption will become Taipan's most important advantage over the standard Cortex core. You must know that the Snapdragon 810 designed with the standard Cortex architecture has been repeatedly delayed due to heating problems. From the previous comparison between Krait and the standard Cortex-A15 architecture, we can also see that Qualcomm's own architecture is indeed more suitable for mobile devices with limited size.

GPU: Don’t compare yourself with graphics card makers

No matter what new products NVIDIA launches, it always excites game enthusiasts because as a leading graphics card manufacturer, the graphics processing performance of NVIDIA chips, including Tegra, really puts its contemporary competitors under great pressure.

NVIDIA spent two years applying the Kepler GPU architecture on GeForce products to mobile processors, but it only took one year for the more advanced Maxwell GPU architecture to enter mobile processors. The GPU of Tegra X1 is equipped with up to 256 Maxwell architecture rendering cores, with graphics performance twice that of the previous generation Tegra K1 and other current products, comparable to entry-level independent graphics cards in the PC field.

In comparison, there is no more detailed data on the new generation Adreno 530 GPU provided by Qualcomm for Snapdragon 820, but it seems that NVIDIA Tegra X1 will have no problem "crushing" it again. However, it should be noted that high power consumption may still be the biggest shortcoming of Tegra chips. The GPU frequency of Tegra X1 has brought mobile chips into the category of "Ghz" for the first time. Therefore, it is still unknown whether Tegra X1 or Snapdragon 820 is better after the frequency is limited by heat.

Qualcomm and NVIDIA may no longer have any common ground in releasing full performance

Although the performance competition between Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 and NVIDIA Tegra X1 will be a hot topic among hardware enthusiasts for a long time to come, on paper, the starting points of the two products may be completely different.

Snapdragon 820 will adopt a more advanced 14nm "FinFet" mass production process to improve performance and energy consumption. In addition, Qualcomm's own excellent MDM9X55 module supports the new generation of LTE-A Cat.10 high-speed mobile network, which is obviously an ideal choice for top mobile communication devices.

When Tegra X1 was first released, it chose automobiles as its main platform, as they do not pay much attention to chip power consumption control, claiming that its full performance can only be brought into play in automobiles.

But judging from the existing Tegra K1 products, smart TVs and even new game consoles may become the stage for Tegra X1 to show its strength. The larger internal space and stable power supply make the power consumption problem faced by Tegra chips no longer a problem. The GPU design with the same specifications as desktop graphics cards has also lowered the threshold for cross-platform large-scale games. The game masterpiece "Trinity 2" that was once exclusive to Android devices equipped with Tegra chips is a powerful proof of this. Waiting until the content is perfect enough and using game consoles to experience the powerful charm of Tegra may be the best way.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.