GPU Performance Benchmarks

We will begin with results from GFXBench, and the venerable T-Rex benchmark. This is an older test which uses OpenGL ES 2.0, and results from the 1080p offscreen test are charted below:

Here the Galaxy S9+ is neck-and-neck with the iPhone X. But what about an OpenGL ES 3.0 test? For that we move up to the Manhattan 1080p offscreen test:

Here we see the power of the Adreno 630, which should provide better real-world performance than any other Android phone, and in this case better than the GPU cores from Apple's A11 Bionic as well. Another ES 3.0 test follows:

ALU 2 is too close to call, effectively a tie at 1080p. For the next result we will look at just the GPU portion of the Basemark OS II 2.0 test:

Apple has an advantage here with this older test, which is somewhat surprising given the strong overall showing of the Galaxy S9+ in Basemark OS II 2.0 – though one synthetic benchmark is not enough to paint the full picture.

We now move on to 3DMark, starting with the unlimited version of the Sling Shot test. For this we cannot have a true comparison as Apple does not use OpenGL ES 3.0 for this test as the Android version does, opting for their proprietary Metal API instead.

A sweep for the Adreno 630 in the GS9+, with a better overall score thanks to higher graphics and physics sub-scores.

Finally, we look at results from the unlimited version of Sling Shot Extreme, with Apple's Metal API up against OpenGL ES 3.1 with the Android phones:

Another win for the Adreno 630, which is quite a bit more powerful than Apple's A11 Bionic in these more demanding graphics benchmarks.

On the next page we'll take a look at general usage and battery life, and then cover some final thoughts.

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