Testing the brand new Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1

Benchmarks

And now, let's start our traditional benchmarking session. We ran through our growing chipset benchmark database, and we extracted the highest scores we've encountered from each of the SD 8+ Gen 1 predecessors to put its performance in context. We've made sure we are comparing only against devices with 1080p resolution, as the reference engineering sample we received from Asus comes with a 1080p display.

We start with the CPU-heavy tests.

GeekBench 5 scores reveal the updated processor offers 14% faster performance over the one of the vanilla SD 8 Gen 1 platform, meaning it lives up to the promise.

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• SD 8+ Gen 1 test device (1080p)
  4199
• Our highest SD 8 Gen1 (1080p)
  3658
• Our highest SD 888 (1080p)
  3749
• Our highest SD 888+ (1080p)
  3667

The single core performance is about 7% faster, which is an obvious increase even if minor.

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• SD 8+ Gen 1 test device (1080p)
  1316
• Our highest SD 8 Gen1 (1080p)
  1244
• Our highest SD 888+ (1080p)
  1175
• Our highest SD 888 (1080p)
  1143

Indeed, the higher CPU core clocks do help for an overall processor performance boost. Once again, the power efficiency should be more important, but we don't mind the faster speed, of course.

Now, let's talk about the Adreno 730 GPU. It is still the same as seen on the SD 8 Gen 1, but now has faster clock - it runs on 900MHz, 10% faster than the vanilla version.

The 10% faster clock doesn't necessarily mean 10% improvement. Running the offscreen GPU benchmarks, we can see the performance improvements hover around 9%-10% over the standard SD 8 Gen 1 chipset.

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• SD 8+ Gen 1 test device (1080p)
  46
• Our highest SD 8 Gen1 (1080p)
  41
• Our highest SD 888 (1080p)
  29
• Our highest SD 888+ (1080p)
  29

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• SD 8+ Gen 1 test device (1080p)
  51
• Our highest SD 8 Gen1 (1080p)
  45
• Our highest SD 888 (1080p)
  32
• Our highest SD 888+ (1080p)
  32

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• SD 8+ Gen 1 test device (1080p)
  103
• Our highest SD 8 Gen1 (1080p)
  95
• Our highest SD 888+ (1080p)
  75
• Our highest SD 888 (1080p)
  73

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• SD 8+ Gen 1 test device (1080p)
  180
• Our highest SD 8 Gen1 (1080p)
  164
• Our highest SD 888+ (1080p)
  128
• Our highest SD 888 (1080p)
  123

GFX Manhattan ES 3.0 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• SD 8+ Gen 1 test device (1080p)
  276
• Our highest SD 8 Gen1 (1080p)
  251
• Our highest SD 888+ (1080p)
  182
• Our highest SD 888 (1080p)
  174

3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• SD 8+ Gen 1 test device (1080p)
  10534
• Our highest SD 8 Gen1 (1080p)
  9794
• Our highest SD 888+ (1080p)
  5896
• Our highest SD 888 (1080p)
  5879

And, finally, the compound AnTuTu test puts this device on top of everything we've tested so far, about 13% faster than the best scoring Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 with a passive cooling solution in our database.

AnTuTu 9

Higher is better

• SD 8+ Gen 1 test device (1080p)
  1120235
• Our highest SD 8 Gen1 (1080p)
  985115
• Our highest SD 888+ (1080p)
  870708
• Our highest SD 888 (1080p)
  846231

Finally, we ran the Burnout benchmarks - it returns some fascinating stats like power consumption and fps per watt.

We ran this benchmark on both the vanilla and plus versions of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 platform.

The CPU performance is better in the Plus model and it offers higher FPS per watt - 1.74 vs. 1.41. The total power consumption of the CPU was 9.88 watts for the Plus model and 9.61 watts for the standard one.

The GPU numbers are even more interesting. The Plus model now made 4.07 FPS per watt, while offering higher FPS count at 23.7, and consumed 5.6 watts. In comparison, the non-Plus did 3.27 FPS per watt, 20.1 maximum fps, and consumed 6.07 watts.

And if these are not statements for the improved power efficiency, you can look at the NPU scores. Both models have spent about 6.3 watts, but the Plus model offered 52.6 FPS per watt versus 35.8 FPS per watt on the vanilla one.

SD8 Gen 1 • SD8 Gen 1 • SD8+ Gen 1 • SD8+ Gen 1

Indeed, it seems the new Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 has notable benefits when it comes to power efficiency thanks to the new manufacturing process.

First impressions

So, we managed to confirm that the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 offers a 10% increase in raw performance, which is great. But the even greater benefit should be the more efficient fabrication process that will lead to lesser battery consumption. Maybe we can also see some improved thermals that will allow it to offer better sustained performance, too.

We cannot wait to see what Asus and others will make of this new Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 platform. It is the current best on the Android market, and if it is indeed so much more efficient compared to the vanilla model, we'd say that we might finally have flagship silicon that will provide a great battery life and offer longer gaming sessions with less throttling.