Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 MSM8956 vs HiSilicon Kirin 960

Comparisons   11-03-2021
   Well, which chip or processor is better? Detailed data of benchmarks and speed tests Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 MSM8956 vs HiSilicon Kirin 960, comparison of GPUs Adreno 510 and Mali-G71 MP8.
   This performance comparison involves two processors: Snapdragon 650 MSM8956 is gexa-core (ARM Cortex-A72) and Kirin 960 is octa-core (ARM Cortex-A72). Both processors went through battery life test and power consumption test. A step-by-step analysis of all the specifications, so that it can be easier to understand, is summarized in the table.
   From the video comparison, you can get the results of joint benchmarking in synthetic type tests such as PassMark, Mozilla Kraken, Geekbench, Neocore, WebXPRT 3, Quadrant, 3DMark, Vellamo, Octane V2, AnTuTu, GFXBench, PCMark, and how good the chipsets are in games Call of Duty: Mobile, Garena Free Fire - The Cobra, Mortal Kombat, Sniper 3D, Real Racing 3, Fortnite, Minecraft Bedrock, PUBG etc.
   After reading the results these benchmarks and videos, you can already make an briefed decision about which CPU is better to buy Snapdragon 650 MSM8956 or Kirin 960 and which chip is better for gaming: Asphalt 9, Madout2, CSR Racing 2, 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

Snapdragon 650 MSM8956

Kirin 960

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

Snapdragon 650 MSM8956

25%

Kirin 960

50%

Gaming performance
Which CPU is better for gaming

Snapdragon 650 MSM8956

Kirin 960

Antutu v10, 9

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

	Snapdragon 650 MSM8956	Kirin 960
Total score	86746	95769
CPU	24279	26819
GPU	32957	36393
MEM	13874	15324
UX	15623	17247

GeekBench 6, 5.2

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

	Snapdragon 650 MSM8956	Kirin 960
Single-Core	224	247
Multi-Core	1010	1115

Comparison of specifications

CPU and Memory

	Snapdragon 650 MSM8956	Kirin 960
Frequency	1800 MHz	2400 MHz
Cores	6	8
Bit	64	64
Lithography	28 nm	16 nm
Transistors count
Core configuration	2x1.8 GHz ARM Cortex-A72 4x1.4 GHz ARM Cortex-A53	4x2.4 GHz ARM Cortex-A72 4x1.8 GHz ARM Cortex-A53
Power consumption (TDP)	6 W	5 W
Memory type	LPDDR4x (Dual Channel)	LPDDR4x
Max. Memory	8 Gb	4 Gb
Memory Frequency	1866	1600
Memory bandwidth	14	28.8
Neural Processor (NPU)	No	No
L1 cache	256 KB	64 KB
L2 cache	1 MB	4 MB
L3 cache	1 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 960 is 25% better than Snapdragon 650 MSM8956 in terms of CPU frequency. Another difference is that Snapdragon 650 MSM8956 has 2 more core than Kirin 960. Also keep in mind that high CPU frequency affects battery life through power consumption.

GPU and Media

GPU	Adreno 510	Mali-G71 MP8
GPU Frequency	600 MHz	1037 MHz
GFloPS	176	282
# of Cores		8
# of Shader Units	128
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
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG Mobile)	17.8	21.1
Garena Free Fire - The Cobra	31.1	36.9
Call of Duty: Mobile	19.9	23.8
Grand Theft Auto V (GTA 5 Mobile)	15.4	18.5
Minecraft: Pocket Edition	18.2	22.5
Real Racing 3	54.4	46.1
Sniper 3D	59.1	81.2
Need for Speed No Limits	56	51.7
Mortal Kombat X	45.1	59
CSR Racing 2	43.5	40.6

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

Networks and Navigation

Modem	Qualcomm Snapdragon X8 LTE modem
Download speed	300 MBit/s.	600 MBit/s.
Upload speed	100 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 Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 MSM8956 is better: 10
The number of parameters for which HiSilicon Kirin 960 is better: 26
You need to understand that you should not blindly trust the automatic comparison on the table. You can watch benchmark video from beginning to end of joint testing and listen to what people think who really appreciated the capabilities of both chipsets Snapdragon 650 MSM8956 and Kirin 960, as well as read the test results at the links below.

Snapdragon 650 MSM8956 SoC - all data

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

• Snapdragon 650 MSM8956 specs and review.

Kirin 960 SoC - all data

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

• Kirin 960 specs and review.