HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G vs HiSilicon Kirin 980

Comparisons   11-03-2021
   So, which processor or chip is better? Full compare data of benchmarks HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G vs HiSilicon Kirin 980, speed examination of GPUs Mali-G76 MP18 and Mali-G76 MP18.
   This performance comparison involves two processors: Kirin 990 5G is octa-core (ARM Cortex-A76) and Kirin 980 is octa-core (ARM Cortex-A76). Both processors went through battery life test and power consumption test. A careful analysis of all the technical characteristics, so that it can be easier to understand, is presented in the form of the table.
   From the comparison video, you can get the results of parallel benchmarking in special test applications such as Vellamo, Quadrant, GFXBench, AnTuTu 8, 3DMark, Mozilla Kraken, Octane V2, WebXPRT 3, Neocore, GeekBench 6, 5, PassMark, PCMark, and how good the SoCs are in games Real Racing 3, Mortal Kombat, Call of Duty: Mobile, Garena Free Fire - The Cobra, Fortnite, Sniper 3D, PUBG, Minecraft Bedrock etc.
   After looking at the data these benchmarks and videos, you can already make an briefed decision about which CPU is better to buy Kirin 990 5G or Kirin 980 and which chip is better for gaming: CSR Racing 2, Need for Speed No Limits, Asphalt 9, Madout2.

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 990 5G

32%

Kirin 980

25%

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

Kirin 990 5G

73%

Kirin 980

71%

Gaming performance
Which CPU is better for gaming

Kirin 990 5G

29%

Kirin 980

22%

Antutu v10, 9

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

	Kirin 990 5G	Kirin 980
Total score	456731	354810
CPU	127884	99354
GPU	173566	134833
MEM	73076	56759
UX	82211	63863

GeekBench 6, 5.2

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

	Kirin 990 5G	Kirin 980
Single-Core	945	765
Multi-Core	3118	2602

Comparison of specifications

CPU and Memory

	Kirin 990 5G	Kirin 980
Frequency	2860 MHz	2600 MHz
Cores	8	8
Bit	64	64
Lithography	7 nm	7 nm
Transistors count
Core configuration	2x2.86 GHz ARM Cortex-A76 2x2.36 GHz ARM Cortex-A76 4x1.95 GHz ARM Cortex-A55	2x2.6 GHz ARM Cortex-A76 2x2.0 GHz ARM Cortex-A76 4x1.8 GHz ARM Cortex-A55
Power consumption (TDP)	6 W	6 W
Memory type	LPDDR4x	LPDDR4x
Max. Memory	12 Gb	8 Gb
Memory Frequency	1600	1600
Memory bandwidth	31.78	31.78
Neural Processor (NPU)	Yes	Yes
L1 cache		512 KB
L2 cache	512 KB	512 KB
L3 cache		4 MB
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 990 5G is 9% better than Kirin 980 in terms of CPU frequency. Also keep in mind that high CPU frequency affects battery life through power consumption.

GPU and Media

GPU	Mali-G76 MP18	Mali-G76 MP18
GPU Frequency	950 MHz	950 MHz
GFloPS	581.14	581.14
# of Cores	18	18
# of Shader Units
Display	2560 x 1600 pixels	2560 x 1600 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	28.4	27.3
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG Mobile)	57.5	54.2
Garena Free Fire - The Cobra	59.6	58.2
Call of Duty: Mobile	43.6	40.1
Grand Theft Auto V (GTA 5 Mobile)	50.7	46.2
Minecraft: Pocket Edition	77.2	74.3
Real Racing 3	74.5	87.3
Sniper 3D	131.1	93.1
Need for Speed No Limits	83.4	93.1
Mortal Kombat X	86.4	66.9
CSR Racing 2	65.6	69.8

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	32 MP	32 MP
Image Signal Processor (ISP)
Video Encoding FPS	60	60
Video Encoding resolution	4K, 2K, FullHD	4K, 2K, FullHD
Codec support	H.264, H.265/HEVC	H.264, H.265/HEVC

Networks and Navigation

Modem	21	21
Download speed	1400 MBit/s.	1400 MBit/s.
Upload speed	900 MBit/s.	900 MBit/s.
Navigation	GPS, Galileo, Glonass, Beidou	GPS, Galileo, Glonass, Beidou
NFC support	Yes	No
5G support	Yes	No

Result:
The number of parameters for which HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G is better: 19
The number of parameters for which HiSilicon Kirin 980 is better: 5
You need to know that you should not sightlessly trust the software comparison of the table. It is better to just watch the full benchmark video of joint comparison and hear what people say who really appreciated the capabilities of both processors Kirin 990 5G and Kirin 980, as well as read the test results at the links below.

Kirin 990 5G SoC - all data

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

• Kirin 990 5G specs and review.

Kirin 980 SoC - all data

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

• Kirin 980 specs and review.