HiSilicon Kirin 990E vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 855

Comparisons 11-03-2021

Well, which processor or chip is better? Comprehensive comparison data of benchmarks HiSilicon Kirin 990E vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, speed examination of GPUs Mali-G76 MP12 and Adreno 630.

This performance comparison involves two processors: Kirin 990E is octa-core (ARM Cortex-A76) and Snapdragon 855 is octa-core (Kryo 385). Both processors went throughpower consumption test and battery life test. A step-by-step analysis of all the specifications, to make it easier to read, is summarized in the table.

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

After looking at the data of parallel benchmarks and videos, you already be able to know which chip is better to buy Kirin 990E or Snapdragon 855 and which chip is better for gaming: Need for Speed No Limits, Asphalt 9, CSR Racing 2, 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 990E

31%

Snapdragon 855

21%

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

Kirin 990E

75%

Snapdragon 855

71%

Gaming performance
Which CPU is better for gaming

Kirin 990E

29%

Snapdragon 855

19%

Antutu v10, 9

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

	Kirin 990E	Snapdragon 855
Total score	433894	297918
CPU	121487	83417
GPU	164888	113205
MEM	69424	47670
UX	78108	53625

GeekBench 6, 5.2

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

	Kirin 990E	Snapdragon 855
Single-Core	929	674
Multi-Core	3068	2359

Comparison of specifications

CPU and Memory

	Kirin 990E	Snapdragon 855
Frequency	2860 MHz	2960 MHz
Cores	8	8
Bit	64	64
Lithography	7 nm	7 nm
Transistors count	10300 millions
Core configuration	2x2.86 GHz ARM Cortex-A76 2x2.36 GHz ARM Cortex-A76 4x1.95 GHz ARM Cortex-A55	8x2.96 GHz Kryo 385
Power consumption (TDP)	6 W	10 W
Memory type	LPDDR4x	LPDDR4x (Dual Channel)
Max. Memory	12 Gb	16 Gb
Memory Frequency	1600	1866
Memory bandwidth	31.78	34.1
Neural Processor (NPU)	Yes	Yes
L1 cache		384 KB
L2 cache	512 KB	768 KB
L3 cache		2 MB
Instruction set architecture (ISA)	ARMv8-A	ARMv8.1-A

In this comparison block, you should pay attention to the differences in clock speed and the number of cores. Here Snapdragon 855 is 3% better than Kirin 990E 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 MP12	Adreno 630
GPU Frequency	800 MHz	650 MHz
GFloPS	489.38	712
# of Cores	12
# of Shader Units		512
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	28.6	26.2
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG Mobile)	56.3	56.8
Garena Free Fire - The Cobra	58.7	61.4
Call of Duty: Mobile	42.3	55.5
Grand Theft Auto V (GTA 5 Mobile)	47.8	50.4
Minecraft: Pocket Edition	77.8	76.1
Real Racing 3	102.7	76.8
Sniper 3D	111.5	98.2
Need for Speed No Limits	93.9	98.2
Mortal Kombat X	67.5	98.2
CSR Racing 2	64.6	67.5

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	60 MP
Dual Camera resolution		20 MP
Image Signal Processor (ISP)		Qualcomm Spectra 280
Video Encoding FPS	60	60
Video Encoding resolution	4K, 2K, FullHD	4K (Ultra HD), 2K, FullHD
Codec support	H.264, H.265/HEVC	H.264/AVC, H.265/HEVC

Networks and Navigation

Modem	5G NR	Qualcomm Snapdragon X50 LTE modem
Download speed	2300 MBit/s.	4000 MBit/s.
Upload speed	1250 MBit/s.	1200 MBit/s.
Navigation	GPS, Galileo, Glonass, Beidou	GPS, Galileo, Glonass, Beidou, QZSS, SBAS
NFC support	Yes	No
5G support	Yes	No

Result:
The number of parameters for which HiSilicon Kirin 990E is better: 18
The number of parameters for which Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 is better: 21
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 parallel comparison and listen to what people think who really appreciated the capabilities of both chips Kirin 990E and Snapdragon 855, and also read the test results on the links under the article.

Kirin 990E SoC - all data

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

• Kirin 990E specs and review.

Snapdragon 855 SoC - all data

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

• Snapdragon 855 specs and review.