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Two weeks into the launch of the Galaxy S23 lineup, we now have a complete picture of how the S23 Ultra fares in benchmarks. The S23 Ultra uses the 8 Gen 2, which is based on TSMC’s 4nm fabrication, and this solves most of the heating issues on the S22 Ultra. The S23 Ultra can easily handle any game you throw it at while remaining cool in daily use, unlike the 8 Gen 1 phones.
In this article, we’ll evaluate the performance of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 on the S23 Ultra with the help of Geekbench, Antutu, and Genshin Impact tests. We’ll find out if the slightly overclocked chip makes any difference in actual use.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy Specifications
The difference isn’t a lot. Qualcomm usually makes a “Plus” version of their chipsets a couple of months later. Samsung gets early access to that. The 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy has a 3.36 GHz clock for the prime CPU core and 719 MHz for the GPU clock instead of the 680 on the regular 8 Gen 2. This tiny improvement won’t be noticeable in everyday use, though it could fare better in some benchmarks.
Geekbench Scores of S23 Ultra
On Geekbench 5, the S23 Ultra scores an average of 5000 points on the multi-core test. That’s ahead of other phones like the Xiaomi 12S Ultra and much better than last year’s S22 Ultra, which only scores an average of ~3600-3700.
The S23 Ultra fares well on the single-core test, scoring over 1,500 points on average. These scores are comparatively higher than other 8 Gen 2 phones like the iQOO 11, which scores 1400 (single) and 4500 (multi).
Another popular 8 Gen 2 phone, the OnePlus 11, scores similarly to the iQOO and behind the S23 Ultra. However, the Xiaomi 13 Pro scores a ludicrous 5300 on multi-core, leaving the S23 Ultra in the dust.
There’s a new version of Geekbench that they’re calling Geekbench 6. The S23 Ultra scores slightly over 2000 (single-core) and 5400 for multi-core.
If we follow Geekbench 6, the A16 Bionic is a clear winner, scoring over 2500 for single-core and surpassing 6400 on multi-core performance. However, we mustn’t take these CPU benchmarks too seriously since they barely reflect real-life usage.
Antutu Scores of S23 Ultra
The S23 Ultra on Antutu 9 scores over 1.25 Million, according to FoneTech, which is significantly better than other 8 Gen 1 phones. It’s comparable to what the other 8 Gen 2 phones can offer, and so far, we haven’t seen any reports of heating problems or stability concerns.
It doesn’t look like the slight chip overclock made any difference to the Antutu 9 scores of the S23 Ultra.
Gaming performance
We usually judge the gaming performance of a phone with Genshin Impact and 3D Mark WildLife Extreme.
The S23 Ultra scores an impressive 3700 on the WildLife Extreme test, but the stability % is uncertain. Some people report over 70% stability, which is pretty good, but other tests show stability scores of over 90%. We have to wait for more thorough tests.
The S23 Ultra joins the 8+ Gen 1 phones in excellent Genshin Impact stability. It averages around 55 FPS, according to Golden Reviewer. There were initial reports of stability dropping down to 30 FPS, which is just an unplayable frame rate for the game.
However, that didn’t repeat, so we can take this as an isolated bug. If we’re looking at the tests, the S23 Ultra stays about 5 degrees cooler than the 14 Pro Max while also being more efficient per watt.
We can call this excellent gaming performance, though the average FPS is still about 4-5 behind the A16 on the iPhone.
Galaxy S23 Ultra Genshin Impact FPS Test | Best Galaxy Device For Gaming So Far. https://t.co/BGjIUltBkb
Note: I've encountered some performance issues but that was only during the first day, today I played the game for a long time to make sure the issue did not come back. pic.twitter.com/weJY67nwmS— Golden Reviewer (@Golden_Reviewer) February 9, 2023
Conclusion
The benchmark reports show that the S23 Ultra scores well and that TSMC’s 4nm fabrication solves several problems.
It’s also worth noting that these benchmarks are just numbers on paper. We can use them as reference points and to draw comparisons, but it’s not indicative of how the phone will perform in everyday use.
We’ll have to paraphrase this by mentioning that the 8 Gen 2 is a very capable chip that’s more than necessary for typical smartphone use cases.
Only if you push flagships to the Extreme with intensive video editing, RAW photo editing, or gaming at max graphics will you start to see differences.
It’s good to see that the TSMC fabrication performs much better than the previous 4nm Samsung fab. Chips based on the 4nm Samsung fab had issues with heating, thermal throttling, and efficiency.
The new 8 Gen 2 looks much more efficient, and we can see the difference in the battery tests. The S23 Ultra lasts nearly as long as the 14 Pro Max.
