What you need to find out about Samsung’s chipset return

After an extended historical past within the customized cell processor sport, Samsung considerably unexpectedly dropped its Exynos chipset from the Galaxy S23 sequence, opting to make use of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chip solely — a “Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy” to be exact. Whereas unconfirmed, troubled growth and doubtful efficiency had been the seemingly culprits behind Samsung’s determination.

With a semiconductor restructure properly underway, rumors are circulating that Samsung is getting ready to return to chipset motion sooner than anticipated with an upcoming Exynos 2400 cell processor. Whereas nonetheless unofficial, we’ve collected publicly obtainable info to piece collectively what we’d count on from Samsung’s subsequent flagship chip.

Will there be an Exynos 2400 processor, and when will it arrive?

Samsung has traditionally launched new processors with the arrival of its next-gen flagship smartphones. Samsung’s final cell processor was the Exynos 2200 contained in the Galaxy S22 sequence. Presumably, the Exynos 2300 was destined for the S23 vary however was passed over, leaving us on the Exynos 2400 for early 2024’s Samsung Galaxy S24 sequence. At the least in line with an growing variety of web rumors.

It was initially anticipated that Samsung would possibly skip a few generations amid its semiconductor restructuring. We could not see the Exynos 2400 in any respect; it might all be a rumor or info leaking about an inside product not destined for customers. If the Exynos 2400 does seem, we nonetheless count on Samsung to supply Snapdragon-powered handsets in many of the world, as there’s an ongoing partnership between the 2 manufacturers.

With that in thoughts, we may even see a really geographically restricted Exynos launch, resembling South Korea solely, it could be restricted to the bottom Galaxy S24 mannequin, or the chip could seem in a distinct product completely whereas Samsung places its semiconductor ambitions again on monitor. Both approach, the Exynos versus Snapdragon geographic rivalry could possibly be about to begin up once more.

What options will the Exynos 2400 have?

We’re nonetheless a good distance from the potential launch of Samsung’s subsequent smartphone, however that hasn’t stopped the rumor mill from churning out a bunch of early specs. Right here’s what we count on to this point.

Rumors already abound with potential specs, a few of which match what we might anticipate ourselves by following trade information. The Exynos 2400 would nearly definitely use the newest Arm CPU cores, guaranteeing that the processor is aggressive with the competitors. The CPU is rumored to be configured in a reasonably unique 1+2+3+4 setup for 10 cores in whole.

The Exynos 2400 CPU is alleged to encompass a single high-performance Arm Cortex-X4 clocked at 3.1GHz, two Cortex-A720 cores at 2.9GHz, one other two A720s at 2.6GHz, and 4 power-efficient Cortex-A520 cores clocked as much as 1.8GHz. Curiously, this differs from the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3’s rumored eight-core, 1+2+3+2 association. We’ll seemingly additionally see cache variations between the 2 Cortex-A720 clusters, although it’s uncertain Samsung will ever element this low-level info.

Shifting to the most recent ArmV9.2 cores means the Exynos 2400 can be 64-bit solely. The Android ecosystem has nearly completely shifted to 64-bit anyway, with the Play Retailer serving 64-bit apps since late 2021 and China’s shops just lately shifting over too. This alteration seemingly gained’t have a lot bearing on the person expertise, apart from a couple of legacy functions that will stop to operate.

One of many Exynos 2200’s differentiating elements was its Xclipse 920 GPU, constructed on AMD’s RDNA 2 graphics structure. Full with ray-tracing capabilities that bested the competitors in benchmarks, this first-generation try confirmed promise, and it was a disgrace to not see how this developed in 2023.

The Exynos 2400 is rumored to characteristic a way more highly effective RDNA 2 implementation, named the Xclipse 940, and sporting twice the graphics compute models. That seemingly gained’t fairly scale as much as 2x the efficiency, though there are clock-speed modifications to think about too. Nonetheless, this all suggests a major efficiency enchancment for avid gamers that would shut the hole and maybe even overtake the competitors. Relying on its rival’s next-gen features, in fact.

Importantly, the RDNA 2 structure incorporates ray tracing accelerators inside every compute unit. Exynos already seems to have a wholesome lead right here, and the next-gen chip might push Samsung properly out in entrance of the competitors on this regard.

Subsequent-gen modem and AI

Synthetic Intelligence is 2023’s large buzzword and Samsung will undoubtedly make enhancements right here. AI operations per second, a reasonably meaningless statistic by itself, are rumored to clock in at 44 TOPS. Studies recommend that this determine gained’t fairly match the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3’s 60 TOPS, however it all depends upon what could be performed with these operations, what bit-depths are supported, and the way environment friendly the NPU is in comparison with working duties on the CPU.

On the networking facet, Samsung introduced its Exynos 5300 modem in early 2023, with headline options together with 10Gbps obtain and three.87 add speeds. This half is rumored to be heading to the Google Tensor G3 however appears considerably much like the capabilities already touted by the unnamed modem within the Exynos-powered Galaxy S22. Nonetheless, it does characteristic extra two-way satellite tv for pc communication tech, which we think about will make its strategy to the S24. We additionally count on a future Exynos modem to go a step additional, probably boasting superior service aggregation applied sciences, improved energy effectivity, and different options within the newer 3GPP 5G Launch 18.

Lastly, the Exynos 2400 is reported to assist blazing-fast UFS 4.0 reminiscence, LPDDR5X RAM at as much as 8.5Gbps, in addition to 320MP imaging and 8K60 video assist by way of the picture sign processor. Whether or not or not all these options find yourself supported within the Galaxy S24 stays to be seen. Samsung has a historical past of slicing some capabilities to make sure characteristic parity when dabbling in a number of chipsets.

Because the potential lynchpin of Samsung’s subsequent flagship smartphone, at the least in some areas, there are a few issues we actually need Samsung to place proper with the Exynos 2400.

No throttling, most efficiency

Excessive on the listing of each Exynos-enthusiasts wishlist can be for the approaching technology’s efficiency potential to be realized in the actual world. Regardless of loads of on-paper promise, earlier Exynos fashions have struggled to maintain up with the competitors when it got here to retail units.

Within the case of the Exynos 2200, this wasn’t helped by the subpar efficiency of Samsung Foundries’s 4nm manufacturing node. Excessive temperatures led Samsung to throttle the efficiency of its chip, decreasing sport body charges after only a very quick time. An analogous subject affected the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, additionally constructed on Samsung 4nm, however Qualcomm moved over to rival foundry TSMC to sidestep the problem in subsequent chips.

Samsung Foundries has moved on to its improved fourth-generation 4nm node and is gearing up its second-generation 3nm course of for mass manufacturing, which Samsung claims is as much as 22% quicker and 34% extra energy environment friendly than the earlier 4nm technology. The Exynos 2400 will nearly definitely be produced on one in every of its newest nodes, though some experiences trace on the newest 4nm reasonably than 3nm node. Hopefully, that can consign earlier efficiency points to historical past, however we gained’t know till we’ve silicon in our arms.

No extra Exynos verus Snapdragon compromises

One of many good issues about Samsung shifting completely to Snapdragon is that nobody is short-changed on efficiency or options primarily based on the place they stay. Each Galaxy S23 performs the identical, and we definitely don’t need to return to the previous imbalanced days with the S24 sequence.

Whereas chipset variations will inevitably end in some efficiency differentials, crucial factor is that almost all of person experiences are similar. Which means equal sustainable gaming efficiency, image high quality, AI capabilities, and networking stability. If that’s not going to be the case with the Exynos 2400 versus Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, then a extra restricted launch can be preferable till the sequence is extra comparable.

There’s nonetheless a strategy to go till Samsung unveils the Galaxy S24 sequence, and the Exynos 2400 could possibly be proper up there as one of many extra thrilling components of the announcement. That’s, in fact, if Samsung is certainly engaged on the chip for business launch. Rather a lot stays up within the air.