When Samsung built hype around the Exynos 2100 processor, it wasn't kidding, especially after all the flak it received for the poor performance of the Exynos 990. The latest flagship Exynos processor seems to have made massive improvements in performance as well as power efficiency when compared to the Exynos 990, at least going by the latest benchmark numbers.
Exynos 2100 vs. Exynos 990: Massive jump in performance and power efficiency
A YouTuber, who goes by the name Golden Reviewer, has published SPECint2006 numbers for all the flagship smartphone processors from 2020 and 2021. This benchmark offers performance and power efficiency scores for processors.
The Exynos 990's M5 (big) and Cortex-A76 (mid) CPU cores scored 30.95 points and 21.54 points, respectively. In comparison, the Exynos 2100's Cortex-X1 (big) and Cortex-A78 (mid) CPU cores scored 39.61 and 35.71 points, respectively. That's a huge performance improvement over the Exynos 990.
In terms of power efficiency, the Exynos 990's big and mid CPU cores received 8.09 and 13.02 performance points per watt. The Exynos 2100's big and mid CPU cores received 12.38 and 14.46 points per watt, which is a massive improvement as well.
So, Samsung has really managed to improve the performance as well as power efficiency with the Exynos 2100 when compared to the Exynos 990. That's the reason why Galaxy S21 series phones offer better sustained performance and longer battery life compared to the Galaxy S20 series devices.
Exynos 2100 vs Snapdragon 888: Still room for improvement in performance
However, the Exynos 2100 is still not as good as the latest Snapdragon processor. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 has slightly better CPU performance and power efficiency compared to the Exynos 2100. Samsung's latest high-end mobile processor is better than the Snapdragon 865+ and the Kirin 9000, but slightly slower than the Snapdragon 888.
In terms of GPU, the Snapdragon 888 fares better than the Exynos 2100. However, for what it's worth, the Exynos 2100 chipset seems to run cooler compared to the Snapdragon 888. A video published on YouTube by PBK Reviews shows Exynos and Snapdragon versions of the Galaxy S21 running various CPU, GPU, and overall benchmarks, and their temperatures after multiple test loops.
ARM's Mali GPUs are known to be less powerful and power-efficient than Qualcomm's Adreno GPUs, so Samsung is planning to bring an AMD GPU to its next flagship Exynos processor. Some early benchmarks have already tipped the AMD GPU to be the fastest in the industry, even smoking Apple's A14 Bionic.
This year, it is likely that most Exynos Galaxy S21 buyers won't feel like they are missing out by not getting the Snapdragon 888 variant. Hopefully, Samsung will be able to offer Snapdragon levels of CPU and GPU performance next year.
