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Samsung Exynos SoC With RDNA 2 Graphics from AMD to be Revealed This July!

The upcoming Exynos SoC from Samsung — the one featuring RDNA 2 graphics — has all the hallmarks of... | 21. June 2021

The upcoming Exynos SoC from Samsung — the one featuring RDNA 2 graphics — has all the hallmarks of a “game-changer.” Whether it’ll actually end up being as powerful as the hype would suggest still remains to be seen, though.

Regardless, if the rumor mill is to be believed, Samsung will unveil this oh-so-interesting SoC in a matter of weeks!

Generally speaking, the Exynos line-up of SoCs failed to meet expectations. They’re not bad per se, but when compared to Qualcomm’s offerings (i.e. Snapdragon), they do tend to pale in comparison. They also run a bit hotter (depending on the model and its implementation) and have always had noticeably worse battery life. So you’d end up splurging a couple of hundred dollars for a phone that, by all metrics, didn’t perform like a flagship. And, well, that was a problem, for fairly logical reasons.

The folks over at Samsung are supposedly well aware of this fact and have worked around the clock to rectify as many of these issues as possible. Only time will tell whether they’ve succeeded, but their decision to implement RDNA 2 graphics is definitely an interesting one, and it warrants a bit of granular analysis.

AMD Exynos SoC + AMD RDNA 2

Who would’ve thought that a mobile SoC would have ray-tracing and variable refresh rate support baked right in — in 2021, no less? Now, mobile gaming is by no means the most comfortable way to game, but it’s definitely the future, and has been raking in record amounts of revenue across the globe. Asian markets, in particular, have been partial towards mobile gaming more than any other platform, so it should come as no surprise that so many game studios are starting to board the hype train.

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon SoCs are already incredibly powerful (not just for gaming but for any kind of workload), but it’s not like there’s no room for a bit of competition. Far from it, in fact. Given the current market trends, Samsung needs to step up, and they need to do it soon. We’ve seen just how big of a splash Apple was able to make with their A-series chips — they’re moving the whole industry forward and have been doing so for years.

If Samsung could create an equally powerful SoC (one based on their own bespoke design), they could definitely compete with Apple on even footing, which is obviously the long-term plan here.

Broader Implications

Perhaps the most interesting part about this whole thing is that Samsung is supposedly looking to implement this SoC into their laptops as well. These machines won’t be as powerful as Apple’s M1-based offerings, but they could, by all means, pack a punch. ARM-based chips are the future of portable computing — that’s pretty much a given, and the sooner the whole industry can shift towards such an architecture the better.

Apple is obviously championing this shift in the most grandiouse of fashions and have lit a fire beneath their competition. Samsung and AMD want in on the action and have been hard at work on their own ARM-based chips. Whether or not they’ll be able to trade blows with the Cupertino-based tech giant still remains to be seen.

In any case, we’re bound to get a more official breakdown in just a couple of weeks, so stay tuned!