HiSilicon Kirin 960 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 MSM8953

Comparisons 11-03-2021

Well, which processor or chip is better? Comprehensive comparison data of benchmarks HiSilicon Kirin 960 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 MSM8953, speed testing of GPUs Mali-G71 MP8 and Adreno 506.

This performance comparison includes two processors: Kirin 960 is octa-core (ARM Cortex-A72) and Snapdragon 625 MSM8953 is octa-core (ARM Cortex-A53). Both processors went throughpower consumption test and battery life test. A careful review of all the technical characteristics, so that it can be easier to understand, is summarized in the table.

From the comparison video, you can get the results of parallel benchmarking in software tests like Mozilla Kraken, 3DMark, AnTuTu 8, Vellamo, PassMark, Octane V2, PCMark, Quadrant, WebXPRT 3, Neocore, Geekbench, GFXBench, even the gaming performance of SoCs in Mortal Kombat, Minecraft Bedrock, PUBG, Garena Free Fire - The Cobra, Sniper 3D, Real Racing 3, Call of Duty: Mobile, Fortnite etc.

After reading the results these benchmarks and videos, you can already make an briefed decision about which processors is better to buy Kirin 960 or Snapdragon 625 MSM8953 and which chip is better for gaming: Madout2, CSR Racing 2, Asphalt 9, Need for Speed No Limits.

Summary benchmark results

As a percentage of the maximum value based on a sample from the entire base of all processors
CPU Benchmark
Based on Antutu and Geekbench score

Kirin 960

Snapdragon 625 MSM8953

Battery life test
Power Consumption efficiency (how quickly the processor reduces the battery charge)

Kirin 960

50%

Snapdragon 625 MSM8953

54%

Gaming performance
Which CPU is better for gaming

Kirin 960

Snapdragon 625 MSM8953

Antutu v10, 9

Antutu benchmark separately tests the performance of the CPU, GPU, and memory speed

	Kirin 960	Snapdragon 625 MSM8953
Total score	95769	61945
CPU	26819	17344
GPU	36393	23539
MEM	15324	9908
UX	17247	11140

GeekBench 6, 5.2

This benchmark shows Multi-threaded and Single-threaded processor performance

	Kirin 960	Snapdragon 625 MSM8953
Single-Core	247	160
Multi-Core	1115	721

Comparison of specifications

CPU and Memory

	Kirin 960	Snapdragon 625 MSM8953
Frequency	2400 MHz	2000 MHz
Cores	8	8
Bit	64	64
Lithography	16 nm	14 nm
Transistors count
Core configuration	4x2.4 GHz ARM Cortex-A72 4x1.8 GHz ARM Cortex-A53	8x2.0 GHz ARM Cortex-A53
Power consumption (TDP)	5 W	5 W
Memory type	LPDDR4x	LPDDR4x (Dual Channel)
Max. Memory	4 Gb	8 Gb
Memory Frequency	1600	1866
Memory bandwidth	28.8	7.46
Neural Processor (NPU)	No	No
L1 cache	64 KB
L2 cache	4 MB
L3 cache
Instruction set architecture (ISA)	ARMv8-A	ARMv8-A

In this comparison block, you should pay attention to the differences in clock speed and the number of cores. Here Kirin 960 is 16% better than Snapdragon 625 MSM8953 in terms of CPU frequency. Also keep in mind that high CPU frequency affects battery life through power consumption.

GPU and Media

GPU	Mali-G71 MP8	Adreno 506
GPU Frequency	1037 MHz	650 MHz
GFloPS	282	130
# of Cores	8
# of Shader Units		96
Display	2560 x 1600 pixels	1920 x 1080 pixels

The frequency of the GPU does not always directly indicate its performance. To fully evaluate all the capabilities of a graphics chip, you should take into account the number of Shader Units and Cores, as well as how many GFlops it has.

Gaming benchmark

Fortnite Mobile
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG Mobile)	21.1	12.4
Garena Free Fire - The Cobra	36.9	21.8
Call of Duty: Mobile	23.8	13.2
Grand Theft Auto V (GTA 5 Mobile)	18.5	9.4
Minecraft: Pocket Edition	22.5	13.7
Real Racing 3	46.1	32.7
Sniper 3D	81.2	48
Need for Speed No Limits	51.7	39.2
Mortal Kombat X	59	31.6
CSR Racing 2	40.6	24

The numbers in this table indicate the maximum FPS that was received on the device with the corresponding processor. Depending on the configuration of the gadget and graphics quality settings (Ultra, Medium, Normal), the results may differ quite significantly. We recommend that you better study the results of the Antutu v10, 9 and GeekBench 6, 5.2 becnmarks.

Cameras

Camera resolution	20 MP	24 MP
Image Signal Processor (ISP)
Video Encoding FPS	30	30
Video Encoding resolution	FullHD	4K (Ultra HD), 2K, FullHD
Codec support	H.264	H.264/AVC, H.265/HEVC

Networks and Navigation

Modem		Qualcomm Snapdragon X9 LTE modem
Download speed	600 MBit/s.	300 MBit/s.
Upload speed	150 MBit/s.	150 MBit/s.
Navigation	GPS, Galileo, Glonass, Beidou	GPS, Galileo, Glonass, Beidou
NFC support	No	No
5G support	Yes	No

Result:
The number of parameters for which HiSilicon Kirin 960 is better: 28
The number of parameters for which Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 MSM8953 is better: 6
Please note that you do not need to sightlessly trust the software comparison of the table. You can watch benchmark video from beginning to end of joint comparison and hear what people say who really appreciated the capabilities of both SoCs Kirin 960 and Snapdragon 625 MSM8953, as well as read the test results at the links below.

Kirin 960 SoC - all data

• Devices lists
• Benchmarks
• PUBG mobile
• Fortnite Mobile
• GeekBench 6, 5 mobile
• Antutu v10
• 3DMark

• Kirin 960 specs and review.

Snapdragon 625 MSM8953 SoC - all data

• Devices lists
• Benchmarks
• PUBG mobile
• Fortnite Mobile
• GeekBench 6, 5 mobile
• 3DMark
• Antutu v10

• Snapdragon 625 MSM8953 specs and review.