Real Performance of Samsung Galaxy S IV

Samsung Galaxy S IV adopts the latest Exynos 5410 processor, i.e., the so-called octa-core CPU. Actually, it is 4+4 structure and only 4 cores can working at the same time. However, is this opinion correct? We need to verify it.

We didn＊t use the public version of AnTuTu Benchmark to do the test for even the latest version 3.2.1 can only supports quad-core. While the non-public application AnTuTu Test Suite supports octa-core. Thus we use AnTuTu Test Suite V1.2 to do the test.

Octa-core Test

Is Samsung Galaxy S IV an octa-core device? Here we would like to use AnTuTu Test Suite to verify it. Compared to AnTuTu Benchmark, AnTuTu Test Suite is more professional and it employed by many manufacturers and companies. It has the ability to test single-core, dual-core, quad-core and octa-core individually as well as professional Real Multitasking. After test, we can confirm Exynos 5410 can only make 4 cores working at the same time. The result in AnTuTu Test Suite can not compared to benchmark directly. Thus we put another 2 models into comparison-- Google Nexus 4 and Xiaomi MI 2. They both adopt Qualcomm 8064 processor, which has the best performance currently. Due to the frequent automatic underclocking of Nexus 4, this device＊s result is not so outstanding. That＊s why we added Xiaomi MI 2 in. It is a Chinese brand, and it is also the first Qualcomm 8064 product.

Xiaomi MI 2: 373
Samsung Galaxy GT-I9502: 371
Google Nexus 4: 203

As we can see in the result: Exynos 5410 has the same performance with Qualcomm 8064. This seems not good enough for Galaxy S IV, which is a product released half a year later than competing products. We can only expect Samsung could do some post-optimizations to improve its performance.

We would like to explain Real Multitasking test first. It is a unique test method in AnTuTu Test Suite and different from the method using in AnTuTu Benchmark. The method using in AnTuTu Benchmark can only test the maximum capacity of one device. However, most apps do not support multitasking. Thus the device is unable to reach its highest state while using it. Based on single core tasking, Real Multitasking simulates the real operating environments through re-designed multitasking testing method, then divided into 3 projects: Low load, Medium load and High load. It is much closer to real operating environment compared to AnTuTu Benchmark.

We tested 10 times and Exynos 5410 performed good. It exceeds other 2 devices nearly half the time. While in the late tests, its scores dropped. Qualcomm 8064 seems very stable after several tests. We come to a conclusion that the performance of Samsung Galaxy S IV is almost equal to Qualcomm 8064. However, it may defeated by Qualcomm Snapdragon 600, which has a higher frequency. We do not exclude that Samsung may develop the firmware which would make 8 cores working at the same time. Only the real octa-core age comes can we know the final result.