HiSilicon Kirin 950 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 MSM8996 Pro benchmark which processor is better

Kirin 950 vs Snapdragon 821 MSM8996 Pro

Comparisons 11-03-2021

So, which processor or chip is better? Detailed data of speed tests and benchmarks HiSilicon Kirin 950 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 MSM8996 Pro, compare of GPUs Adreno 530 and Mali-T880 MP4.

This performance comparison involves two processors: Kirin 950 is octa-core (ARM Cortex-A72) and Snapdragon 821 MSM8996 Pro is quad-core (Kryo 280). Both processors went throughpower consumption test and battery life test. A thorough review of all the technical characteristics, to make it easier to understand, is made by the table.

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

After reading the results of parallel benchmarks and videos, you already be able to understand which chip is better to buy Kirin 950 or Snapdragon 821 MSM8996 Pro and which chip is better for gaming: Asphalt 9, Madout2, Need for Speed No Limits, CSR Racing 2.

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 950

Snapdragon 821 MSM8996 Pro

10%

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

Kirin 950

48%

Snapdragon 821 MSM8996 Pro

54%

Gaming performance
Which CPU is better for gaming

Kirin 950

Snapdragon 821 MSM8996 Pro

Antutu v10, 9

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

	Kirin 950	Snapdragon 821 MSM8996 Pro
Total score	100285	149901
CPU	28073	41975
GPU	38102	56961
MEM	16044	23984
UX	18046	26987

GeekBench 6, 5.2

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

	Kirin 950	Snapdragon 821 MSM8996 Pro
Single-Core	265	306
Multi-Core	902	1349

Comparison of specifications

CPU and Memory

	Kirin 950	Snapdragon 821 MSM8996 Pro
Frequency	2300 MHz	2400 MHz
Cores	8	4
Bit	64	64
Lithography	16 nm	14 nm
Transistors count
Core configuration	4x2.3 GHz ARM Cortex-A72 4x1.8 GHz ARM Cortex-A53	4x2.4 GHz Kryo 280
Power consumption (TDP)	5 W	11 W
Memory type	LPDDR4x	LPDDR4x (Dual Channel)
Max. Memory	4 Gb	6 Gb
Memory Frequency	1600	1866
Memory bandwidth	25.6	29.8
Neural Processor (NPU)	No	No
L1 cache		64 KB
L2 cache		3 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 Snapdragon 821 MSM8996 Pro is 4% better than Kirin 950 in terms of CPU frequency. Another difference is that Kirin 950 has -4 more core than Snapdragon 821 MSM8996 Pro. Also keep in mind that high CPU frequency affects battery life through power consumption.

GPU and Media

GPU	Mali-T880 MP4	Adreno 530
GPU Frequency	900 MHz	650 MHz
GFloPS	122.31	518.73
# of Cores	4
# of Shader Units		256
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		27.4
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG Mobile)	22.3	26.5
Garena Free Fire - The Cobra	38.7	53.8
Call of Duty: Mobile	25.5	28.5
Grand Theft Auto V (GTA 5 Mobile)	19.1	21.4
Minecraft: Pocket Edition	24.3	37.2
Real Racing 3	48.4	94.2
Sniper 3D	61.9	69.9
Need for Speed No Limits	54.2	64.6
Mortal Kombat X	61.9	78
CSR Racing 2	42.6	59.2

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	28 MP
Image Signal Processor (ISP)		Qualcomm Spectra
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	300 MBit/s.	600 MBit/s.
Upload speed	50 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 950 is better: 5
The number of parameters for which Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 MSM8996 Pro is better: 33
You need to understand that you should not blindly trust the automatic comparison on the table. It is better to just watch the full benchmark video of parallel comparison and hear what people say who really appreciated the capabilities of both processors Kirin 950 and Snapdragon 821 MSM8996 Pro, and also read the test results on the links under the article.

Kirin 950 SoC - all data

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

• Kirin 950 specs and review.

Snapdragon 821 MSM8996 Pro SoC - all data

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

• Snapdragon 821 MSM8996 Pro specs and review.