Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Benchmark – Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy examined

This year it finally happened that the new Galaxy S series runs a single SoC worldwide. No more Exynos versions, there is only Snapdragon. But that doesn’t mean that the new Galaxy S23 series doesn’t stand out from the crowd. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 running under the hood in all S23 phones is actually “Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy”.

This is because the CPU and GPU are both overclocked and perform slightly better than other phones with the same chipset in the market. But how much difference does it make?

The SD 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy sports the same CPU configuration with 1x Cortex-X3, 2x Cortex-A715, 2x Cortex-A710 and 3x Cortex-A510 cores, but the main Cortex-X3 core is clocked at 3.36 GHz instead of 3.2GHz . The same goes for the GPU: The Adreno 740 here runs at 719 MHz instead of the usual 680 MHz.

But without further ado, let’s dive into the first benchmarks. In particular, we only selected phones with 1440p displays wherever possible so that we could have more comparable results in on-screen graphics tests.

GeekBench 5 (multicore)

Higher is better

• iPhone 14 Pro Max
  5423
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro
  5211
• Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
  4927
• One Plus 11
  4899
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  4300
• Xiaomi 12Pro
  3682
• Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
  3657

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• iPhone 14 Pro Max
  1890
• Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
  1537
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro
  1486
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  1324
• Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
  1180
• Xiaomi 12Pro
  1169
• One Plus 11
  1150

The Geekbench 5 CPU test results might come as a surprise to some, but there’s a perfectly good explanation as to why the Galaxy S23 Ultra takes the lead over the nubia Red Magic 8 Pro in the single-core test and falls behind this ‘last in the central multi scenario. First, the Cortex-X3 inside the S23 Ultra is clocked higher, and second, the large Cortex-X3 core is not used in the multi-core test. And that’s why the Red Magic 8 Pro might have a slight edge over the Galaxy due to its powerful cooling system that allows the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 to run in a higher gear. However, the difference is quite small.

AnTuTu 9

Higher is better

• ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro
  1288866
• Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
  1241531
• One Plus 11
  1140661
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  1039412
• Xiaomi 12Pro
  985226
• Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
  968359
• iPhone 14 Pro Max
  955884

In the AnTuTu test, the Galaxy S23 Ultra falls behind the Red Magic 8 Pro because the latter has a 1080p+ screen that requires less processing power to render the test. After all, AnTuTu 9 is a compound test. However, the Galaxy S23 Ultra has a clear advantage over the OnePlus 11, which uses the same chipset and a 1440p+ screen. The higher clocked CPU and GPU pay off.

The new Snapdragon is also significantly faster than the older Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip and even the A16 Bionic inside the iPhone 14 Pro Max.

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 Alto (on screen)

Higher is better

• ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro
  75
• Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
  54
• One Plus 11
  49
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  38
• Xiaomi 12Pro
  36
• Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
  30

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• One Plus 11
  61
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro
  61
• Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
  59
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  46
• Xiaomi 12Pro
  41
• Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
  31

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (on screen)

Higher is better

• ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro
  79
• Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
  60
• iPhone 14 Pro Max
  54
• One Plus 11
  53
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  39
• Xiaomi 12Pro
  37
• Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
  29

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (OS 1440p)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
  69
• One Plus 11
  68
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro
  68
• iPhone 14 Pro Max
  52
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  51
• Xiaomi 12Pro
  45
• Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
  35

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro
  127
• Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
  126
• One Plus 11
  126
• iPhone 14 Pro Max
  118
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  104
• Xiaomi 12Pro
  96
• Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
  76

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (on screen)

Higher is better

• ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro
  97
• Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
  67
• One Plus 11
  57
• iPhone 14 Pro Max
  54
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  51
• Xiaomi 12Pro
  46
• Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
  37

3DMark Wild Life Extreme (1440p voiceover)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
  3790
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro
  3643
• One Plus 11
  3594
• iPhone 14 Pro Max
  3341

When it comes to GPU-intensive tasks, the Galaxy version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is a clear winner. In almost every off-screen test, the Galaxy S23 Ultra took the upper hand and only failed in the on-screen tests when challenged by lower resolution phones.

All in all, the new Galaxy S23 series offers a substantial upgrade over its predecessors, regardless of the version. But European and Indian consumers will likely benefit the most, as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy blows up last year’s Exynos 2200 SoC.

To put things into perspective, the Galaxy S23 Ultra is 30-35% faster than the Galaxy S22 Ultra in CPU tests and about 30% faster in the AnTuTu 9 benchmark combined. During the GFX Bench and 3DMark GPU tests, the Galaxy S23 Ultra showed a whopping 2x performance boost at times, but in most scenarios it’s an 80-90% improvement.

In addition to the already excellent synthetic performance, the Galaxy S23 series also boasts improved cooling capabilities, which was a problem for some users in the past. But we may have to wait for our full review of the trio to find out how well the new cooler performs in practice.