You may think it’s a bit early to start dreaming of the Galaxy S24, but the rumor mill would happily disagree with you. New details about the S24 recently surfaced online, and if they’re true, the phone could have a surprisingly big advantage over the iPhone 15.
Per a report from the Chinese social network Weibo, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset is expected to have a 50% faster GPU compared to the one on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 — the chip inside the Galaxy S23, Galaxy S23 Plus, and Galaxy S23 Ultra.
Why this is big news for the Galaxy S24
Okay, but what does any of that have to do with the Galaxy S24 and iPhone 15?
The GPU on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is already significantly faster than the GPU found on Apple’s A16 Bionic chip — what powers the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is almost certainly what’ll power the Galaxy S24.
We expect Apple to make GPU improvements with the A17 Bionic chip we’ll likely get in the iPhone 15, but if Qualcomm has really achieved a 50% year-over-year performance boost, Apple will need to make significant upgrades this year. It’s not impossible for the company to step up its GPU game in a big way, but Qualcomm may be stretching its lead further than what Apple can keep up with.
This could be huge for Samsung
It’s also possible that the Galaxy S24’s GPU could be even faster than the 50% performance boost being reported. As part of its growing relationship with Qualcomm, all Galaxy S23 models feature a customized Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy chip. One of the benefits of that customized chip is a faster CPU clock speed — 3.36GHz vs. the 3.2GHz you get on other Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 phones.
Assuming this report on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is accurate, and assuming Samsung gets another “For Galaxy” chip next year, it’s not hard to imagine the Galaxy S24 dominating the iPhone 15 in the GPU department.
We still have plenty of time to wait before the Galaxy S24’s expected release in February of next year, but if this is how S24 rumors are kicking off, we aren’t complaining.
