Samsung's Hot Exynos 2200 Mobile GPU Is Already At A Huge Disadvantage
While Samsung's Exynos 2200 features AMD GPU technology with ray tracing capability, Galaxy phones ship to the US with Qualcomm processors.
Samsung recently announced its Exynos 2200 smartphone processor, featuring a GPU that was designed in collaboration with AMD, but the chip is already at a huge disadvantage. Although Samsung had been facing criticism over its Exynos line, the company turned things around with a strong showing last year, and now its Exynos 2100 competes well with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 888. Each year brings advances and Samsung's newest chip promises even more speed, particularly in graphics processing.
Samsung has been producing its own mobile processors for many years but these chips are not shipped to the United States, possibly due to licensing restrictions as part of its deal with Qualcomm for cellular technology. Qualcomm holds a large number of patents, particularly for CDMA, the cellular standard that is used for both 2G and 3G connections.
Samsung recently announced its Exynos 2200 which features AMD GPU technology. The maker of the Galaxy S and Z series phones claims that this new chip will bring console-quality graphics to mobile gaming. While few details were shared about the GPU, it should be a big improvement since ray tracing capability is one of the top features mentioned. Ray tracing typically results in much more realistic images since it is a simulation of the actual physics of light rays and how they reflect and scatter off surfaces. As impressive as this is, one has to wonder how many opportunities there will be to enjoy this capability.
The Samsung Exynos 2200 looks to be a great mobile processor, perhaps equal to or even surpassing Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip. That won't be known for certain until both become available in mobile phones and the two can be pitted in head-to-head testing on benchmarks and gameplay tests. Even if Samsung scores a big win over Qualcomm, delivering ray-tracing quality at fast enough frame rates without draining battery life too quickly, US shoppers probably won't be able to order a phone with this chip. Samsung ships Qualcomm-powered phones to the US.
Another limitation of the Exynos is that this split focus means game developers might be tempted to aim for the common ground, rather than optimizing games specifically for Samsung's Xclipse ray-tracing capabilities. Undoubtedly, some top games will make the effort to use at least some of these capabilities, and PUBG: New State was shown on the announcement page. Samsung has the ability to create amazing technology, but even the greatest mobile graphics processor in the world can't help if games and apps don't take advantage of its advanced features.
Source: Samsung