Next-Generation Samsung Exynos Chipsets to Feature AMD Graphics

In a bid to better differentiate itself from Qualcomm, Samsung will integrate AMD RDNA 2-based graphics into its next-generation Exynos mobile chipsets.

“AMD has partnered with industry leader Samsung for several years to accelerate graphics innovation in the mobile market,” AMD CEO Lisa Su said last night during an address at the virtual Computex 2021 event. “We will bring custom graphics IP to Samsung’s next flagship mobile SoC [System on a Chip], with ray tracing and variable rate shading capabilities.”

That was pretty much the extent of the announcement: AMD adds in its Computex press release that the chip will use Samsung’s Exynos brand, and Ms. Su said that Samsung would provide more details later in the year.

But this partnership makes sense: As we learned in the recent Apple v. Epic Games trial, mobile games are a bigger activity, by both revenue and engagement, than any other activity on mobile. This makes mobile gaming capabilities an important differentiator for hardware makers like Samsung.

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Conversation 8 comments

  • wright_is

    Premium Member
    01 June, 2021 - 9:40 am

    <p>This might be a good move.</p><p><br></p><p>My last 3 phones have had Kirin or Exynos chips. My current Samsung Galaxy S20+ is Exynos powered and it is more than fast enough, and doesn’t suffer from the hardware security flaws the Qualcomm versions have.</p>

  • glenn8878

    01 June, 2021 - 11:58 am

    <p>AMD needs to enter the ARM PC Market. Put out it’s own chips to compete with M1.</p>

    • bettyblue

      02 June, 2021 - 7:27 am

      <p>They already do. AMD Opteron A series. </p>

  • shark47

    01 June, 2021 - 12:50 pm

    <p>Didn’t Apple use the same chip in its tablets and phones and the M1 was based on them? I don’t know how popular Samsung’s PCs are, but I’m wondering if they’ll do something similar.</p><p><br></p>

    • toukale

      01 June, 2021 - 7:05 pm

      <p>Samsung and Qualcomm are currently using off the shelves ARM chip designs, those core ships are too small and too weak to compete with anything (M1) is doing. The reason for that of course is costs, ARM designs those cores like that because that’s what their vendors want. Those vendors can’t afford to do the stuff Apple is doing with their M1 for costs reasons. Until that changes, all those guys will be playing catch up with Apple.</p>

  • IanYates82

    Premium Member
    01 June, 2021 - 5:23 pm

    <p>Exynos chips were always seen as the less-favourable option for Samsung phones sold in most of the world. My last few phones in Australia have had them and they’ve been fine (nothing to compare to of course) </p><p>Since most reviewers are in the US they don’t have access to the international variants, and as most reviewers tend to focus only on their own needs (ie unlike Paul) , if it’s not US then it doesn’t matter. </p><p><br></p><p>Fortunately the Exynos seems to have been fine anyway and there haven’t ever been any compatibility issues. </p><p><br></p><p>I’m curious to see if this will prompt reviewers to try to grab phones with this CPU and do the comparisons. </p>

    • wright_is

      Premium Member
      02 June, 2021 - 8:34 am

      <p>I think, with the Galaxy S9 or S10, the Exynos was faster at image processing and could do 4K 60fps or higher, but the flagship Qualcomm chip couldn’t, so the 4K was throttled to 30fps.</p><p><br></p><p>In other areas, especially "normal" benchmarks, the Qualcomm has usually been (insignificantly) faster than the equivalent Exynos.</p>

  • digiguy

    Premium Member
    01 June, 2021 - 6:57 pm

    <p>Hopefully this will power their future high end tablets. Their upcoming Tab S8 ultra is a feat of engineering with a bezel-less OLED 14.6in which at 650gr is lighter than the latest iPad pro 12.9…. What it is going to lack is power, since M1 is miles ahead of the QC 888+, hopefully this will help to somewhat close the gap in the future… (and no high end Android tablets aren’t dead, they are still alive and well and are probably the best video watching devices, which is something a lot of people essentially use iPads for, including iPad pro…)</p>

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