The Exynos 2700 reportedly beat the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 in internal benchmarks, edging it out in multi-core Geekbench by about 10%. However, it can have another benefit – running cooler. In a flashback to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, the new Elite Extreme Gen 6 runs too hot for Samsung’s liking, according to industry insiders cited by SO good.
During the test of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S27 Ultra, Samsung found that the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 exceeded the temperature thresholds and started throttling during heavy sustained loads.
Now, there are already some phones with the Extreme chip, but Chinese manufacturers tend to use worse vapor chambers than what Samsung typically uses.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6
Anyway, Samsung and Qualcomm are working to solve the problem. Samsung gave Snapdragon designers until the middle of this month to find a fix. And yes, it’s already mid-October, but rumors come out with delay. However, the latest information shared by insiders is that there was no fix yet.
This caused Samsung to re-evaluate the Exynos 2700. Mass production for the Galaxy S27 series is expected to begin at the end of the year, so the company has units ready for the traditional February/March launch. This means that the decision must be made soon.
One thing not explicitly made clear in the report is whether this could lead to a split solution – some markets will get Snapdragon-powered S27 Ultras, other markets will get Exynos-powered Ultras – or if Samsung will drop Snapdragon altogether and use its internal chip exclusively. It’s probably the former, as the Ultra is the best-selling model of the S-series and it will need a large supply of chipsets.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 is the first mobile chipset to break the 5GHz barrier
An insider explained (machine translated): “It is not that the inclusion of Qualcomm APs in the Galaxy S27 Ultra model has finally failed. If the overheating problem cannot be solved, alternatives must be considered to meet the mass production plan.”
Even if it’s just the split solution, this would be a massive win for Samsung LSI, the division that designs Exynos. The local Korean market hasn’t seen an Exynos-powered Ultra since 2021 and the global market hasn’t seen one since 2022.
That brings a lot of prestige to LSI as well as much needed revenue. It will also save Samsung DX, the division that makes the phones, some money as the top Snapdragon chips are quite expensive.
Source (in Korean) | Via