What kind of experience upgrade can a mobile phone equipped with a dual core bring?

Usually the mobile phone will be equipped with a SoC chip, which is what we often call the mobile phone processor, integrated CPU, GPU, ISP and other modules, responsible for the data processing of various core scenarios, which can be understood as the "brain" of the mobile phone. On the recently released mobile phones, many models have adopted a dual-core combination, what is the difference between these two-core mobile phones?

What is the difference between the two-core combination?

In fact, there is far more than one chip built into the mobile phone, but generally we pay attention to the core SoC chip, and the performance of this chip directly determines the comprehensive performance of the mobile phone in the game, shooting and other scenes. The recent common two-core combination is actually on the basis of the original SoC chip, an additional small chip is added to assist the SoC chip and improve the overall hardware performance.

For example, both mobile phones use the same SoC chip, and in theory their hardware performance is the same, but by adding an auxiliary chip, they can get a leading edge in hardware configuration. Mobile phone manufacturers will create a differentiated and innovative experience based on this auxiliary chip, bringing functions that cannot be achieved by a single SoC alone. What are the practical application scenarios of the two-core combination? What experience improvements can be delivered?

The game experience has been newly upgraded

A very common application scenario for two-core combinations is to play games, and some of the main esports games are equipped with independent chips to enhance the gaming experience.

The recently launched iQOO Neo6 adopts the independent display chip Pro + Snapdragon 8 dual-core combination, through the independent display chip Pro, bringing two major functions of frame rate improvement and high frame low power consumption.

"Frame Rate Improvement"

The principle of frame rate improvement is somewhat similar to emMC interpolation technology on TV, but it is used in games. After the frame rate is increased, the independent display chip calculates the transition screen between the two frames of the game screen and inserts the transition frame, thereby increasing the number of game frames. In this way, the mobile phone SoC only needs to render 60 frames natively, and can interpolate frames to 120 frames through the independent display chip, effectively improving the smoothness of the game screen.

For example, the "Peace Elite" game natively only supports 90 frame mode, but through interpolation, the game frame rate is increased to 120 frames, which exceeds the native frame rate and brings a smoother game screen.

"High Frame Low Power Consumption"

In the high-frame low-power mode, because the independent display chip shares part of the rendering pressure of the SoC chip, the mobile phone SoC chip only needs to render 45 frames natively, and then interpolates the frame to 90 frames through the independent display chip. While the power consumption is significantly reduced, it can also maintain a good picture fluency, so that the performance of the mobile phone is more stable, the body temperature is lower, and the game life is longer.

From the actual experience, the power consumption has indeed been significantly reduced. iQOO Neo6 plays Peace Elite in native 90 frame mode, with an average power consumption of 5.16W after 10 minutes of gameplay and 3.6W after turning on optimized power consumption. Reduced power consumption keeps the fuselage cooler and has less impact on hand feel.

The functions of the standalone display chip on the game phone are similar, generally improving the frame rate and optimizing the power consumption, bringing players a smoother game screen and lower power consumption, and improving the overall game experience. Of course, there is also a prerequisite, that is, the game that needs to be adapted to support these features.

In addition to the iQOO Neo6 mentioned above, there are independent display chips equipped with models such as True Self GT Neo3 and iQOO 9 Pro that mainly serve the game scene, and some products will also use independent display chips to improve screen color accuracy, brightness adjustment smoothness, etc., which are the differences with ordinary single SoC chip mobile phones.

The addition of additional standalone chips may also bring some new problems, the first is that interpolation may bring about increased operation latency, affecting the operation experience, especially for games with high control requirements. Secondly, it is possible that the interpolated frame chip will stop working due to overheating, and it will not last long enough.

In addition, there is another application scenario that is similar to the independent display chip on the Honor Magic4 Pro, which improves the video playback effect through the built-in independent display chip, realizes video interpolation, real-time conversion from SDR to HDR, etc., and improves the picture fluency and picture quality of playing low-quality videos to a certain extent.

Driving breakthroughs in computational photography

In addition to gaming, standalone chips can also serve imaging systems. OPPO Find X5 Pro adopts the dual-core combination of Snapdragon 8 + Mariana MariSilicon X, of which OPPO's self-developed Mariana MariSilicon X chip is mainly used to improve the performance of the imaging system.

Mariana MariSilicon X is an image-specific NPU chip that provides super AI computing power equivalent to 18TOPS, and has features such as low power consumption, through a more powerful computing platform combined with Snapdragon 8.

Through the support of independent chips, OPPO Find X5 Pro has additional computing power support, which can realize 20-bit real-time RAW computing, using richer information in the original data space, reducing information loss caused by compression conversion, and bringing better imaging quality.

In addition, with the support of the Mariana MariSilicon X independent chip, it can bring breakthrough image specifications, such as the ultra-high video specifications of video shooting that support 4K+20bit RAW+AI+Ultra HDR at the same time, improving the quality of each frame.

On the OPPO Find X5 Pro, it can also shoot chip-level 4K ultra-clear night scene video, optimize each frame of the picture in real time through the algorithm, and the low-light environment shooting can also present a more pure and clear, detail-rich picture, and more thoroughly release the potential of the imaging system. In contrast, the previous generation without a standalone chip only supports 1080P mode in AI video enhanced mode.

The recently released vivo X80 series also uses a dual-core combination, adding its self-developed chip V1+, which can also serve the imaging aspect. Under the blessing of self-developed chip V1+, vivo X80 series can realize the low-light mobile phone "night vision", through the algorithm real-time accurate noise reduction, improve the purity of the night scene, in the extremely dim scene, can also take photos beyond the brightness of the human eye, rich details. In terms of shooting video, it can also play a role in brightening the video, reducing noise and other functions, and improve the quality of the video in low light.

The self-developed chip V1+ chip carried by the vivo X80 series can also take into account the game interpolation function at the same time, which is similar to the independent display chip specifically for games mentioned above, supporting increasing the frame rate, reducing power consumption, etc., bringing a better game experience.

Self-developed chips have deeper advantages

In addition to the intuitive advantages mentioned above, independent chips also have a deeper meaning. Some mobile phones are equipped with manufacturers' self-developed chips, which can allow mobile phone manufacturers to grasp more autonomy, have better integration capabilities, and reduce hardware restrictions. For example, mobile phone manufacturers have developed their own image chips, which can integrate the vertical link of images more deeply based on the chip, make full use of self-developed algorithms, maximize the potential of hardware, and quickly switch between different platforms.

brief summary

We can see that the mobile phone with a two-core combination will have different focus scenarios according to the product characteristics, which are mainly used for games and imaging, and through the combination with the SoC main chip, the comprehensive experience of these two scenes can be improved, which can bring some innovative experiences that cannot be achieved by a single SoC chip. At the same time, the two-core combination can bring greater breakthrough space to the product, and it is easier for manufacturers to create differentiated advantages.