Recently, the most lively thing in the mobile phone circle is the "verbal war" between the two platform models and manufacturers of Snapdragon 8S Gen3 and Snapdragon 7+ Gen3. As the two most powerful platforms in this year's 2000 yuan stall, the two sides have been going back and forth in the past period,-for-tat. Many users are also puzzled: it's all like this, who can tell me how to buy a mid-range phone this year?
Today, let's put aside all kinds of controversies and talk about the differences between the models of Snapdragon 8S Gen3 and Snapdragon 7+ Gen3 and how to choose.
骁龙8S Gen3和骁龙7+ Gen3的区别
I have to admit that Snapdragon 8S Gen3 and Snapdragon 7+ Gen3 can indeed be regarded as "twin brothers".
According to Qualcomm's consistent naming rules, the 8 series platform is the absolute flagship positioning, and the 7 series platform is aimed at the mid-range market. But we all know that if the traditional "performance" is used as a reference standard, the main reference factors that determine the strength of a chip are the process and core architecture. Then the CPU and GPU comparison results of Snapdragon 8S Gen3 and Snapdragon 7+ Gen3 are as follows:
From this figure, you can see it very directly, Snapdragon 8S Gen3, Snapdragon 7+ Gen3 are completely consistent in terms of CPU architecture, the main difference is that the core frequency has been reduced, including the GPU part, Adreno732 can actually be regarded as a downclocked version of Adreno735. At the same time, the Snapdragon 8S Gen3 and Snapdragon 7+ Gen3 are also consistent in terms of process and manufacturing capabilities, including cache specifications at all levels. You can roughly understand the Snapdragon 7+ Gen3 as a downclocked version of the Snapdragon 8S Gen3.
Judging from the recent evaluation results of the equipped models, there is a gap between the performance of the Snapdragon 8S Gen3 and the Snapdragon 7+ Gen3, but it is not obvious. Taking the familiar Antutu results as a reference, the Snapdragon 7+ Gen3 model has a running score of around 1.43 million at room temperature, and the normal score of the Snapdragon 8S Gen3 model is around 1.55 million. Judging from the Antutu running score, the Snapdragon 8S Gen3 will probably have a difference of about 100,000 compared to the Snapdragon 7+ Gen3. On the GeekBench platform, the Snapdragon 7+ Gen3 has a single-core score of 1800+ and a multi-core score of 4900+, and the Snapdragon 8S Gen3 has a single-core score of 2000+ and a multi-core score of 5400+. Comparatively speaking, the Snapdragon 8S Gen3 has a performance advantage of about 10% in both single-core and multi-core.
Benchmark scores are not indicative of actual performance
From the perspective of mobile phone use, you don't have to care about the performance difference between the two chips. Because of the performance level of a mobile phone, the running score can only be used as an indicator for quantitative reference. Due to the differences in scheduling strategies and heat dissipation methods of various manufacturers, there may be inconsistencies in the daily use of mobile phones.
For example, in the scenario of heavy games, it is not only the absolute peak performance of the chip that determines the performance, but also the heat dissipation performance. Some phones will have a relatively good gaming performance in the early stages of the game, but after 20 minutes, as the internal temperature rises, the phone will start to reduce the frequency, and the frame rate will also decrease significantly. Under these conditions, the Snapdragon 7+ Gen3, which has a lower peak frequency, has better energy efficiency and heat generation, which can make up for some performance differences in long-term heavy complexity.
After our testing, both the Snapdragon 7+ Gen3 model and the Snapdragon 8S Gen3 model are able to achieve an average frame rate of 58 and 59 fps in heavy-duty games such as Genshin Impact. And such a difference in the number of frames is very small in terms of actual experience.
In the end, it settled on the purchase of Snapdragon 7+ Gen3 and Snapdragon 8S Gen3 models. The conclusion is that both platforms are available. But if you are more concerned about performance, it is recommended to choose a product with a more stacked heat dissipation structure, rather than paper parameters. The book performance of the chip is the lower limit of the performance of the mobile phone, but the heat dissipation and scheduling strategies can better reflect the upper limit of the performance of the mobile phone.
So does it mean that at the price of 2000 yuan, you must choose between the two new platforms of Snapdragon 7+ Gen3 and Snapdragon 8S Gen3?
Considering that the current Snapdragon 7+ Gen3 and Snapdragon 8S Gen3 models are basically priced at around 2000, and this level happens to be the price covered by the old Snapdragon 8 Gen2 model. In theory, the Snapdragon 8 Gen2 has a similar architecture to the Snapdragon 7+ Gen3 and Snapdragon 8s Gen3 CPUs, but the latter two use a new generation of cores with better performance and power consumption. However, because the Snapdragon 8 Gen2 is the former flagship chip, it has absolute advantages in terms of operating frequency, system cache, etc. So as soon as the front and back are offset, the three processors are pulled to the same level again in terms of actual paper performance.
As it is a flagship chip, the Snapdragon 8 Gen2 has stronger performance development potential. In particular, if the manufacturer can go through in-depth tuning and optimization, supplemented by a stronger cooling solution, the Snapdragon 8 Gen2, the old flagship product, still has strong performance strength. Taking Antutu's results as an example, the Snapdragon 8 Gen2 model has been able to reach the level of 160W+ in terms of scores.
In terms of performance, the Snapdragon 8 Gen2> Snapdragon 8S Gen3> Snapdragon 7+ Gen3 are in order.
Thousand-dollar machine budget to buy flagship performance
Interestingly, the price of the current machines equipped with these three chips happens to be in this ranking. The current Snapdragon 8 Gen2 model is priced at around 2000, the Snapdragon 8S Gen3 is priced at 1999 yuan, and the Snapdragon 7+ Gen3 is currently at least 1799 yuan. At this price, I think it is also within the budget range of most users.
The question of how to buy, my current advice is that it can be divided into two scenarios:
The first is that if you need to change your phone in the past month or so, it is recommended to go directly to the old Snapdragon 8 Gen2 model. At present, you can buy a lot of good performance-oriented products for about 2000 yuan, iQOO Neo9, OnePlus Ace3, Redmi K70 and so on. If you have higher requirements for images, you can even increase your budget by a few hundred yuan to charge some flagship products. At present, the Snapdragon 8 Gen2 chip has basically been discontinued, and the price has basically reached the end, so it is the right time to get it.
If you're not in a hurry to change your phone, then I recommend waiting for the Snapdragon 8S Gen3 and Snapdragon 7+ Gen3 models at the mid-year sale. The price of these two models has been able to do 1799-1999 yuan, considering the market performance of products at this price, in the middle of this year, the models of these two platforms should have a good discount. Especially for the entry-level version of 8+256 or 12+256GB, the price is likely to drop to the 1500 yuan price segment.
With a budget of 1,000 yuan machine, I bought last year's flagship-level performance, which is obviously more cost-effective.