Qualcomm Snapdragon 821

Qualcomm Snapdragon 821
  • GPU: Adreno 530
  • Cores: 4
  • Clock: 2342 MHz
Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 – an 4-core chipset that was announced on August 16, 2016, and is manufactured using a 14-nanometer process technology. It has 2 cores Kryo at 2342 MHz and 2 cores Kryo at 1600 MHz.

Review

CPU Performance
13
Gaming Performance
6
Battery life
61
NanoReview Score
21
Compare Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 with other SoCs

Benchmarks

Performance tests in popular benchmarks

AnTuTu 11

The AnTuTu Benchmark measures CPU, GPU, RAM, and I/O performance in different scenarios
Qualcomm Snapdragon 821
312361
CPU 84002
GPU 72699
Memory 62840
UX 92820
Total score 312361

GeekBench 6

The GeekBench test shows raw single-threaded and multithreaded CPU performance
Single-Core Score
390
Multi-Core Score
792
Asset compression 43.4 MB/sec
HTML 5 Browser 26.6 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 35.3 Mpixels/sec
Image detection 9.82 images/sec
HDR 35.1 Mpixels/sec
Background blur 1.79 images/sec
Photo processing 7.1 images/sec
Ray tracing 993.9 Mpixels/sec
Samples 21 tests
Compute Score (GPU)
530
Background blur 1.2 images/sec
Face detection 1.09 images/sec
Horizon detection 0.04 Gpixels/sec
Edge detection 0.05 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian blur 0.01 Gpixels/sec
Stereo matching 1.1 Gpixels/sec
Particle physics 51.3 FPS
API Vulkan

PCMark 3.0

Benchmark for evaluating overall system performance in everyday workloads
PCMark 3.0
5484
Web score 3763
Video editing score 5829
Data manipulation score 4163
Photo editing score 11521
Writing score 4882

Specifications

Detailed specifications of the Snapdragon 821 SoC with Adreno 530 graphics

CPU

Architecture 2x 2.342 GHz – Kryo
2x 1.6 GHz – Kryo
Cores 4
Frequency 2342 MHz
Instruction set ARMv8-A
L1 cache 64 KB
L2 cache 1 MB
Process 14 nanometers
Transistor count 2 billion
TDP (Sustained Power Limit) 11 W
Manufacturing Samsung

Graphics

GPU name Adreno 530
Architecture Adreno 500
GPU frequency 653 MHz
Pipelines 1
Shading units 256
Total shaders 256
FLOPS 334.3 Gigaflops
Vulkan version 1.0
OpenCL version 2.0
DirectX version 11

AI Accelerator

Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon 680

Memory

Memory type LPDDR4
Memory frequency 1866 MHz
Bus 4x 16 Bit
Max bandwidth 29.8 Gb/s
Max size 8 GB

Multimedia (ISP)

Storage type eMMC 5.1, UFS 2.0
Max display resolution 3840 x 2160
Max camera resolution 1x 28MP, 2x 13MP
Video capture 4K at 30FPS
Video playback 4K at 30FPS
Video codecs - H.264
- H.265
- VP8
- VP9
Audio codecs - AIFF
- CAF
- MP3
- MP4
- WAV

Connectivity

Modem X12
4G support LTE Cat. 12
5G support No
Download speed Up to 600 Mbps
Upload speed Up to 150 Mbps
Wi-Fi 5
Bluetooth 4.1
Navigation GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo

Info

Announced August 2016
Class Flagship
Model number MSM8996 Pro-AC
Official page Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 official site
Successor - Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5

Comments

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someone out there February 18, 2026 at 07:53 AM
Ray tracing is almost a thousand Mpixel/sec!?! Unbelievable!!
+3 Reply
Avatar
Joe April 22, 2025 at 08:58 AM
GPU frequency 653 -> 624-653 MHz FLOPS 334.3 -> 319.5-334.3 Gigaflops
+6 Reply
Avatar
Irfan Ali February 7, 2025 at 11:00 AM
How much it's Ray Tracing unbelievable is it mistake? Or real
0 Reply
Avatar
Irfan Ali December 19, 2024 at 12:47 PM
How much it's Ray Tracing unbelievable is it mistake?
+11 Reply