Rumor: Samsung could switch to a PowerVR GPU for the Exynos 9810 SoC

The 10nm-based Exynos 8895 chipset was unveiled two days ago. The new chipset is expected to debut with the Galaxy S8 and the S8 Plus. However, that's not the only high-end SoC Samsung has been developing. The South Korean electronics component giant is also working on the Exynos 9810 processor, and details regarding its existence were revealed earlier this week. Of late, Samsung has been using ARM's Mali GPUs inside its high-end Exynos chipsets, but that could change next year.

If a recent rumor is to be believed, Samsung could switch from ARM's Mali GPUs to PowerVR GPUs from Imagination Technologies, at least for the upcoming Exynos 9810. The last time Samsung used a PowerVR GPU inside an Exynos chipset was in 2013 (Galaxy S4 powered by the Exynos 5410). Apple is one of the largest customers for Imagination Technologies. The iPad Pro uses the PowerVR GT7800 GPU with 360 GFLOPS, which is in the same range of graphical grunt as of the Exynos 8895's Mali-G71 MP20 GPU.

It was rumored that Samsung was planning to develop its own GPUs for smartphones and tablets, and the company was in talks with both AMD and Nvidia for GPU-related technologies. However, its attempt is said to have hit a roadblock due to some patent-related issues.

Asif Iqbal Shaik - Senior Editor

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First Samsung device: T100

Asif is a computer engineer turned technology journalist. He has been using Samsung phones since 2004, and his current smartphone is the Galaxy S21 Ultra. He loves headphones, mechanical keyboards, and PC hardware. When not writing about technology, he likes watching crime and science fiction movies and TV shows.

Phone ARM Exynos Exynos 9810 Imagination Technologies Mali-G71 PowerVR