Snapdragon 820 vs Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
We compared the 4-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 (Adreno 530) with the newer 8-core Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (Adreno 740) SoC. Here you will find the pros and cons of each chip, technical specs, and comprehensive tests in benchmarks, like AnTuTu and Geekbench.
Review
CPU Performance
Single and multi-core processor tests
Gaming Performance
GPU performance in games and OpenCL/Vulkan
Battery life
Efficiency of battery consumption
NanoReview Score
Overall chip score
Key Differences
Pros of Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
- Performs 8x better in floating-point computations
- Shows significantly better (up to 5.3x) AnTuTu 11 score β 1757K vs 333K
- Has a smaller size transistor (4 versus 14 nm)
- Supports 126% higher memory bandwidth (67.2 against 29.8 GB/s)
- Has 4 more cores
- 49% higher CPU clock speed (3200 vs 2150 MHz)
- Higher GPU frequency (~33%)
- Better instruction set architecture
Benchmarks
Performance tests in popular benchmarksAnTuTu 11
| CPU | 131994 | 553922 |
| GPU | 36166 | 434880 |
| Memory | 63256 | 311861 |
| UX | 102461 | 456381 |
| Total score | 333877 | 1757044 |
| Samples | Less than 3 | [238 tests] |
GeekBench 6
Single-Core Score
Multi-Core Score
| Asset compression | 28.8 MB/sec | 218.9 MB/sec |
| HTML 5 Browser | 19.7 pages/sec | 145.2 pages/sec |
| PDF Renderer | 28 Mpixels/sec | 168.3 Mpixels/sec |
| Image detection | 6.36 images/sec | 133 images/sec |
| HDR | 25.9 Mpixels/sec | 167.2 Mpixels/sec |
| Background blur | 1.39 images/sec | 18.8 images/sec |
| Photo processing | 6.33 images/sec | 34.5 images/sec |
| Ray tracing | 789.4 Mpixels/sec | 5.78 Mpixels/sec |
| Samples | Less than 3 | 132 tests |
Compute Score (GPU)
| Background blur | 1.58 images/sec | 12.3 images/sec |
| Face detection | 0.86 images/sec | 5.1 images/sec |
| Horizon detection | 0.06 Gpixels/sec | 0.53 Gpixels/sec |
| Edge detection | 0.09 Gpixels/sec | 0.56 Gpixels/sec |
| Gaussian blur | 0.05 Gpixels/sec | 0.36 Gpixels/sec |
| Feature matching | 0.01 Gpixels/sec | 0.12 Gpixels/sec |
| Stereo matching | 4.09 Gpixels/sec | 32.6 Gpixels/sec |
| Particle physics | 81.6 FPS | 2177.4 FPS |
| API | OpenCL | OpenCL |
| Samples | - | 66 tests |
3DMark
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
| Score | - | 1092 |
| Stability | - | 67% |
| Graphics test | - | 8 FPS |
3DMark Solar Bay
| Score | - | 5312 |
| Stability | - | 67% |
| Graphics test | - | 20 FPS |
| Section 1 | - | 23 FPS |
| Section 2 | - | 20 FPS |
| Section 3 | - | 17 FPS |
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
| Score | - | 3667 |
| Stability | - | 45% |
| Graphics test | - | 21 FPS |
PCMark 3.0
PCMark 3.0
| Web score | 4378 | 13957 |
| Video editing score | 5152 | 7265 |
| Data manipulation score | 4144 | 14272 |
| Photo editing score | 11831 | 32179 |
| Writing score | 5024 | 17828 |
| Phones tested | - | 9 models |
Gaming
| PUBG Mobile | - | 90 FPS [Ultra] |
| Call of Duty: Mobile | - | 60 FPS [Ultra] |
| Fortnite | - | 56 FPS [Ultra] |
| Shadowgun Legends | - | 118 FPS [Ultra] |
| World of Tanks Blitz | - | 120 FPS [Ultra] |
| Genshin Impact | - | 59 FPS [Ultra] |
| Mobile Legends: Bang Bang | - | 59 FPS [Ultra] |
| Device | - | ZTE Nubia Red Magic 8 Pro 1116 x 2480 |
We provide average results. FPS may differ, depending on game version, OS and other factors.
Recent User Tests
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| π 2024-01-05 (Saber) | Geekbench 6 CPU | 356 / 615 |
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| π 2026-10-20 (TungNX) | AnTuTu 12 | 1908505 |
| π 2026-10-17 -> PocoF5hyperos | AnTuTu 11 | 1758079 |
| π 2026-10-17 -> PocoF5hyperos | AnTuTu 11 | 1714382 |
| π 2026-10-17 -> semen1998228 | AnTuTu 12 | 1985270 |
| π 2026-10-16 (WhiteSite) | AnTuTu 12 | 1875492 |
Specifications
Full list of technical specifications of Snapdragon 820 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 2CPU
| Architecture | 2x 2.15 GHz β Kryo 2x 1.593 GHz β Kryo |
1x 3.2 GHz β Cortex-X3 2x 2.8 GHz β Cortex-A715 2x 2.8 GHz β Cortex-A710 3x 2 GHz β Cortex-A510 |
| Cores | 4 | 8 |
| Frequency | 2150 MHz | 3200 MHz |
| Instruction set | ARMv8-A | ARMv9-A |
| L1 cache | 64 KB | - |
| L2 cache | 1 MB | 1 MB |
| L3 cache | - | 8 MB |
| Process | 14 nanometers | 4 nanometers |
| Transistor count | 2 billion | 16 billion |
| TDP (Sustained Power Limit) | 11 W | 8.5 W |
| Manufacturing | Samsung | TSMC |
Graphics
| GPU name | Adreno 530 | Adreno 740 |
| Architecture | Adreno 500 | Adreno 700 |
| GPU frequency | 510 MHz | 680 MHz |
| Pipelines | 1 | 3 |
| Shading units | 256 | 512 |
| Total shaders | 256 | 1536 |
| FLOPS | 261.1 Gigaflops | 2089 Gigaflops |
| Vulkan version | 1.0 | 1.3 |
| OpenCL version | 2.0 | 2.0 |
| DirectX version | 11 | 12.1 |
AI Accelerator
| Neural processor (NPU) | Hexagon 680 | Hexagon |
Memory
| Memory type | LPDDR4 | LPDDR5X |
| Memory frequency | 1866 MHz | 4200 MHz |
| Bus | 2x 32 Bit | 4x 16 Bit |
| Max bandwidth | 29.8 Gb/s | 67.2 Gb/s |
| Max size | 8 GB | 24 GB |
Multimedia (ISP)
| Storage type | eMMC 5.1, UFS 2.0 | UFS 3.1, UFS 4.0 |
| Max display resolution | 3840 x 2160 | 3840 x 2160 |
| Max camera resolution | 1x 28MP, 2x 13MP | 1x 200MP |
| Video capture | 4K at 30FPS | 8K at 30FPS, 4K at 120FPS |
| Video playback | 4K at 30FPS | 8K at 60FPS, 4K at 120FPS |
| Video codecs | - H.264 - H.265 |
- H.264 - H.265 - AV1 - VP8 - VP9 |
| Audio codecs | - AIFF - CAF - MP3 - MP4 - WAV |
- AAC - AIFF - CAF - MP3 - MP4 - WAV |
Connectivity
| Modem | X12 | Snapdragon X70 |
| 4G support | LTE Cat. 12 | LTE Cat. 24 |
| 5G support | No | Yes |
| Download speed | Up to 600 Mbps | Up to 10000 Mbps |
| Upload speed | Up to 150 Mbps | Up to 3500 Mbps |
| Wi-Fi | 5 | 7 |
| Bluetooth | 4.1 | 5.3 |
| Navigation | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, SBAS | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, SBAS, NAVIC |
Info
| Announced | November 2015 | November 2022 |
| Class | Flagship | Flagship |
| Model number | MSM8996 | SM8550-AB |
| Official page | Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 official site | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 official site |
| Successor | - Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 | - Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 |
Further details
Notes on Snapdragon 8 Gen 2:
- There's also the "Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy," which only differs by having a 160 MHz higher CPU clock and a 39 MHz higher GPU clock, resulting in 2208.8 GFLOPS for the GPU. Generally, you won't notice this difference in real-life usage, including games.
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