Exynos 2600 vs Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5: Comparing GPU and CPU Performance After Galaxy S26 Launch

Recent benchmark leaks regarding Samsung’s upcoming Exynos 2600 have sparked excitement over the tech community’s anticipation for the company’s first 2nm Gate-All-Around (GAA) chipset. As expected, comparisons with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 commenced just after the official unveiling of the Galaxy S26 series. These comparisons emerged from synthetic performance tests using Geekbench 6 in single-core, multi-core, and OpenCL benchmarks, showcasing a performance narrative where Exynos 2600 exhibits a superior GPU but a comparatively slower CPU.

Performance Insights: Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 vs. Exynos 2600

The preliminary Geekbench 6 results highlighted by @GadgetsBoy underline the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5’s superior performance. While details about the compared Galaxy device remain unclear—whether it is the standard Galaxy S26 or the S26+—the findings reveal that the Snapdragon variant achieves up to an impressive 18.2% faster performance compared to the Exynos 2600 in both single-core and multi-core benchmarks.

On the graphics front, Samsung’s 2nm GAA SoC is equipped with the Xclipse 960 GPU, utilizing a modified version of AMD’s RDNA4 architecture. This integration gives it a competitive edge in OpenCL benchmark tests against its Qualcomm rival. However, it’s noteworthy that Vulkan tests were not conducted, which could potentially provide additional invaluable data regarding API performance. As it stands, the Exynos 2600 outperformed the Snapdragon X Elite’s Adreno iGPU in OpenCL but lagged in Vulkan performance.

Exynos 2600 and Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 benchmarks of the Galaxy S26 — Benchmark results comparison between Exynos 2600 and Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5

Exynos 2600 Performance Scores

Single-core score: 3, 105
Multi-core score: 10, 444
OpenCL score: 24, 240

Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Performance Scores

Single-core score: 3, 670 (18.2% faster)
Multi-core score: 10, 981 (5.14% faster)
OpenCL score: 24, 152

Notably, while the Exynos 2600 showcases mixed results—exhibiting both strengths and weaknesses—it’s crucial to acknowledge that Geekbench’s short testing bursts do not fully encapsulate the overall performance realities. An interesting advantage for Samsung’s chipset is its Heat Pass Block (HPB), a copper heatsink embedded directly atop the chip die designed to accelerate heat dissipation. This feature could enhance the Exynos 2600’s performance during sustained workloads. We will delve deeper into these metrics in forthcoming analyses, so stay tuned for updates.

Source: @GadgetsBoy

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