The Exynos 2200’s Xclipse 920 GPU was the result of a partnership between Samsung and AMD, and it looks like the SoC was the stepping stone the Korean giant needed to jump to the next phase; developing a custom GPU. This practice is nothing new, as companies dedicated to developing smartphone chipsets, like Apple and Qualcomm, launch successive silicon with custom GPUs.
Samsung likely to form IP, mobile GPU development could be based on AMD’s RDNA architecture
The Xclipse 920 GPU, which is part of the Exynos 2200, was based on AMD’s RDNA2 architecture. Apparently, this same architecture will be used to develop the custom GPU, at least according to Revegnus, who posted on Twitter. However, Samsung will not develop a standalone GPU, and will likely require AMD’s help to form an IP. For several years, and until the Exynos 2100, Samsung relied on ARM’s Mali GPU designs, and all of this could change.
While there is little to complain about in ARM’s GPU designs, the efforts of Qualcomm and Apple reveal that the performance gap from Samsung’s side can only be reduced through a custom GPU tailor-made for smartphones. In his tweet, Revegnus states that we should not hold our breath for the launch of this graphics processor because, at the very least, we will see it in three years.
Looking at this rumored timeline, Samsung can also delay the launch if the custom GPU does not perform according to the company’s expectations. To be fair, the Korean giant has not had the best success with smartphone chipset releases, but with the right talent, this goal can be achieved.
Samsung also has an Exynos 2300 in the works, along with the Xclipse 930 GPU, but according to a previous rumor, the upcoming Tensor G3 expected to be found in the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro will be based on it. These revelations suggest that the company is committed to releasing chipsets, and there was also a rumor doing the rounds that Samsung was pursuing the development of custom CPU cores, which the firm later denied.
Also, in ray tracing tests, the Exynos 2200’s Xclipse 920 held its own against the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, actually beating Qualcomm’s latest and greatest, showing that there is potential for Samsung here. Hopefully, the first real competitor to Apple’s GPU will not be a disappointment.
News Source: Revegnus
