Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra benchmarks – Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy reviewed

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

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

The SD 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy sports the same CPU configuration with 1 Cortex-X3 core, 2 Cortex-A715 cores, 2 Cortex-A710 cores, and 3 Cortex-A510 cores, but the main Cortex-X3 core is clocked at 3, 36 GHz instead of 3.2 GHz. . 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. Notably, we’ve only selected phones with 1440p screens, where possible, so we can have more comparable results in on-screen graphics tests.

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

The higher, the better

• 
  iPhone 14 Pro Max

  5423

• 
  ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro

  5211

• 
  Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

  4927

• 
  OnePlus 11

  4899

• 
  Xiaomi 12S Ultra

  4300

• 
  Xiaomi 12 Pro

  3682

• 
  Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)

  3657

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

The higher, the 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 12 Pro

  1169

• 
  OnePlus 11

  1150

The Geekbench 5 CPU test results may surprise some, but there’s a very good explanation why the Galaxy S23 Ultra takes the lead over the nubia Red Magic 8 Pro in the single-core test and falls behind the latter in the multi-core test. base scenario. On the one hand, the Cortex-X3 inside the S23 Ultra is clocked higher and on the other hand, the big Cortex-X3 core is not used in the multi-core test. And that’s why the Red Magic 8 Pro may have a slight edge over the Galaxy due to its powerful cooling system which allows the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 to run at a higher speed. However, the difference is rather small.

AnTuTu 9

The higher, the better

• 
  ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro

  1288866

• 
  Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

  1241531

• 
  OnePlus 11

  1140661

• 
  Xiaomi 12S Ultra

  1039412

• 
  Xiaomi 12 Pro

  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+ display that requires less processing power to render the test. After all, the AnTuTu 9 is a compound test. However, the Galaxy S23 Ultra has a clear advantage over the OnePlus 11, which runs the same chipset and a 1440p+ display. The higher clocked CPU and GPU come at a cost.

The new Snapdragon is also considerably 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 High (on screen)

The higher, the better

• 
  ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro

  75

• 
  Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

  54

• 
  OnePlus 11

  49

• 
  Xiaomi 12S Ultra

  38

• 
  Xiaomi 12 Pro

  36

• 
  Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)

  30

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (offscreen 1440p)

The higher, the better

• 
  OnePlus 11

  61

• 
  ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro

  61

• 
  Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

  59

• 
  Xiaomi 12S Ultra

  46

• 
  Xiaomi 12 Pro

  41

• 
  Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)

  31

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (on screen)

The higher, the better

• 
  ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro

  79

• 
  Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

  60

• 
  iPhone 14 Pro Max

  54

• 
  OnePlus 11

  53

• 
  Xiaomi 12S Ultra

  39

• 
  Xiaomi 12 Pro

  37

• 
  Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)

  29

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (offscreen 1440p)

The higher, the better

• 
  Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

  69

• 
  OnePlus 11

  68

• 
  ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro

  68

• 
  iPhone 14 Pro Max

  52

• 
  Xiaomi 12S Ultra

  51

• 
  Xiaomi 12 Pro

  45

• 
  Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)

  35

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (off screen 1080p)

The higher, the better

• 
  ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro

  127

• 
  Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

  126

• 
  OnePlus 11

  126

• 
  iPhone 14 Pro Max

  118

• 
  Xiaomi 12S Ultra

  104

• 
  Xiaomi 12 Pro

  96

• 
  Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)

  76

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (on screen)

The higher, the better

• 
  ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro

  97

• 
  Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

  67

• 
  OnePlus 11

  57

• 
  iPhone 14 Pro Max

  54

• 
  Xiaomi 12S Ultra

  51

• 
  Xiaomi 12 Pro

  46

• 
  Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)

  37

3DMark Wild Life Extreme (1440p offscreen)

The higher, the better

• 
  Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

  3790

• 
  ZTE nubia Red Magic 8 Pro

  3643

• 
  OnePlus 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 lead over the rest and only failed in the on-screen tests when challenged by lower resolution phones.

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

To put things into perspective, the Galaxy S23 Ultra is 30-35% faster than the Galaxy S22 Ultra in CPU tests and around 30% faster in the combined AnTuTu 9 benchmark. Across GFX Bench and 3DMark GPU tests, the Galaxy S23 Ultra showed a huge 2x performance increase 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 has improved cooling capabilities, which was an issue for some users in the past. But you might have to wait until our full review of the trio is published to find out how the new cooling performs in practice.