Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra may see 81% boost in GPU performance

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra’s next-gen chipset could boost GPU performance by 81% over its S23 counterpart if a recently spotted Geekbench listing is anything to go by.

Should the benchmark scores prove accurate, Samsung’s flagship smartphone could be outfitted with a supremely powerful chipset that offers stunning graphical performance and gaming potential. 

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon: Absolute fire?

According to the Geekbench listing, during the Vulkan benchmark test, a Samsung model outfitted with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor scored a sensational 17,031 — seeing a huge 81% increase in the scores of the S23 Ultra while making use of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy chip (9,379).

Interestingly, the results in question appear to be from a prototype Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus (Samsung SM-S926U), previously expected to make use of Samsung’s Exynos 2400 chipset. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is expected to be exclusive to the upcoming Galaxy S24 Ultra — at least in Europe, where both the regular and Plus Galaxy S24 models are said to inherit the lesser Exynos chipset.

How Samsung plans to feature the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor in other markets remains to be seen. However, its inclusion in this benchmark could give credence to the idea that Snapdragon-powered S24 and S24 Plus Galaxy devices will be made available in certain regions at least.

Outlook

As leaked benchmark scores go, this is definitely up there are one of the more exciting. Which, for a set of incomprehensible numbers, is pretty impressive. However, these early benchmark tests don’t give the full story.

While these Vulkan scores put the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 somewhere between a desktop Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 and the GeForce GTX 950 in terms of raw performance, that’s not to say it will translate to real-world results.

With both Apple and Samsung making a push to elevate the mobile gaming space with more AAA-category titles, this focus on graphical performance does make a lot of sense. However, for the full picture, and an idea of this chipset’s true potential, we’ll need to wait for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit later this month (Oct. 24-26) when the chip officially launches.

Rael Hornby, potentially influenced by far too many LucasArts titles at an early age, once thought he’d grow up to be a mighty pirate. However, after several interventions with close friends and family members, you’re now much more likely to see his name attached to the bylines of tech articles. While not maintaining a double life as an aspiring writer by day and indie game dev by night, you’ll find him sat in a corner somewhere muttering to himself about microtransactions or hunting down promising indie games on Twitter.