HiSilicon Kirin 960 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 MSM8976 Plus

Comparisons 11-03-2021

Well, which processor or chip is better? Detailed comparison data of benchmarks HiSilicon Kirin 960 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 MSM8976 Plus, speed examination of GPUs Adreno 512 and Mali-G71 MP8.

This performance comparison includes two processors: Kirin 960 is octa-core (ARM Cortex-A72) and Snapdragon 660 MSM8976 Plus is quad-core (Kryo 280). Both processors went through battery life test and power consumption test. A careful review of all the specifications of the processors, so that it can be easier to understand, is summarized in the table.

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

After reading the results of all benchmarks and videos, you can already make an briefed decision about which chipset is better to buy Kirin 960 or Snapdragon 660 MSM8976 Plus and which chip is better for gaming: Need for Speed No Limits, CSR Racing 2, Madout2, Asphalt 9.

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 660 MSM8976 Plus

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

Kirin 960

50%

Snapdragon 660 MSM8976 Plus

56%

Gaming performance
Which CPU is better for gaming

Kirin 960

Snapdragon 660 MSM8976 Plus

Antutu v10, 9

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

	Kirin 960	Snapdragon 660 MSM8976 Plus
Total score	95769	113847
CPU	26819	31874
GPU	36393	43265
MEM	15324	18217
UX	17247	20499

GeekBench 6, 5.2

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

	Kirin 960	Snapdragon 660 MSM8976 Plus
Single-Core	247	232
Multi-Core	1115	1024

Comparison of specifications

CPU and Memory

	Kirin 960	Snapdragon 660 MSM8976 Plus
Frequency	2400 MHz	2200 MHz
Cores	8	4
Bit	64	64
Lithography	16 nm	14 nm
Transistors count
Core configuration	4x2.4 GHz ARM Cortex-A72 4x1.8 GHz ARM Cortex-A53	4x2.2 GHz Kryo 280
Power consumption (TDP)	5 W	9 W
Memory type	LPDDR4x	LPDDR4x (Dual Channel)
Max. Memory	4 Gb	8 Gb
Memory Frequency	1600	1866
Memory bandwidth	28.8	29.8
Neural Processor (NPU)	No	No
L1 cache	64 KB
L2 cache	4 MB	2 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 8% better than Snapdragon 660 MSM8976 Plus in terms of CPU frequency. Another difference is that Kirin 960 has -4 more core than Snapdragon 660 MSM8976 Plus. Also keep in mind that high CPU frequency affects battery life through power consumption.

GPU and Media

GPU	Mali-G71 MP8	Adreno 512
GPU Frequency	1037 MHz	850 MHz
GFloPS	282	255
# of Cores	8
# of Shader Units		128
Display	2560 x 1600 pixels	3840 x 2160 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		22.7
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG Mobile)	21.1	43.2
Garena Free Fire - The Cobra	36.9	46.5
Call of Duty: Mobile	23.8	24.5
Grand Theft Auto V (GTA 5 Mobile)	18.5	39.3
Minecraft: Pocket Edition	22.5	57.8
Real Racing 3	46.1	58.1
Sniper 3D	81.2	74.4
Need for Speed No Limits	51.7	65.1
Mortal Kombat X	59	74.4
CSR Racing 2	40.6	51.2

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
Dual Camera resolution		16 MP
Image Signal Processor (ISP)		Qualcomm Spectra 160
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 X12 LTE modem
Download speed	600 MBit/s.	600 MBit/s.
Upload speed	150 MBit/s.	150 MBit/s.
Navigation	GPS, Galileo, Glonass, Beidou
NFC support	No	No
5G support	Yes	No

Result:
The number of parameters for which HiSilicon Kirin 960 is better: 12
The number of parameters for which Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 MSM8976 Plus is better: 25
Please note that you do not need to blindly trust the automatic comparison on the table. It is better to just watch the full benchmark video of joint testing and listen to what those who really appreciated the capabilities of both chips think, 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 660 MSM8976 Plus SoC - all data

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

• Snapdragon 660 MSM8976 Plus specs and review.