Samsung has thrown the covers off of its latest Exynos system-on-chip (SoC) – the Exynos 2200. This new chip is rather special because it sports the Samsung Xclipse GPU that is based on AMD’s RDNA 2 architecture.
Does this mean we could see AAA games on a smartphone soon? Well, maybe. Samsung says that its Xclipse GPU sits somewhere between consoles and existing mobile graphics, but we need to scratch the surface a bit more.
The firm goes on to say that the Xclipse inherits advanced graphics features from the RDNA 2 architecture including hardware accelerated ray tracing and variable rate shading. There is no mention of AMD’s FidelityFX feature though which may help smartphones run games more efficiently.
We are jumping the gun here though as AMD has said that this is the first of “multiple planned generations of AMD RDNA graphics in Exynos SoCs”.
Looking at other areas of the SoC, it is the first to integrate Arm’s latest Armv9 cores. The CPU is a tri-cluster structure containing an Arm Cortex-X2 core, three performance and efficiency balanced Cortex-A710 cores and four Cortex-A510 cores.
Furthermore the Exynos 2200 will feature an upgraded neural processing unit which is said to improve the performance of AI applications it runs.
“The Exynos 2200’s image signal processor (ISP) architecture has been redesigned to support the latest image sensors for ultra-high resolution of up to 200 megapixel (MP). At 30 frames-per-second (fps), the ISP supports up to 108 MP in single camera mode, and 64+36 MP in dual camera mode. It can also connect up to seven individual image sensors and drive four concurrently for advanced multi-camera setups. For video recording, the ISP supports up to 4K HDR (or 8K) resolution,” Samsung said of the SoC’s photography prowess.
Interestingly, Samsung says this SoC is already in mass production and we have to wonder whether this means the next slate of Samsung S-series smartphones will sport this chip.
We won’t have to wait long to find out as Samsung is expected to host its first Unpacked event of the year on 8th February.
Of course, we have to see how this chip performs in the wild, but given what Samsung has shared on paper, the future of mobile gaming looks rather good.
