Qualcomm Snapdragon 678 and Snapdragon 860 may be from different series, but they are available in almost similar priced smartphones. So which one should you pick? Below you will find a detailed comparison between Snapdragon 860 and Snapdragon 678 chipsets with specs differences, AnTuTu benchmarks, Geekbench Benchmarks, and gaming performance.
The Snapdragon 860 is only available in one smartphone, POCO X3 Pro. Similarly, Snapdragon 678 is also only found in Redmi Note 10.
Before we proceed to benchmarks, let’s take a look at the specifications comparison of Snapdragon 860 and Snapdragon 678.
Specifications
CPU
| Snapdragon 678 | Snapdragon 860 | |
|---|---|---|
| Cores | 8 2x 2.2GHz – Cortex A76(Kryo 460 Gold) 6x 1.8GHz – Cortex A55(Kryo 465 Silver) | 8 1x 2.96GHz – Cortex A76(Kryo 485 Prime) 3x 2.42GHz – Cortex A76(Kryo 485 Gold) 4x 1.8GHz – Cortex A55 (Kryo 485 Silver) |
| Clock speed | 2300 MHz | 2960 MHz |
| Fabrication Process | 11nm | 7nm |
| Architecture | ARMv8-A | ARMV8.1-A |
| L1 Cache | – | 16 Kb |
| L2 Cache | – | 256 Kb |
| L3 Cache | 2 Mb | – |
| TDP | 6W | 10W |
The Snapdragon 860 is built on a 7nm fabrication process while Snapdragon 678 is built on an 11nm fabrication process. However, Snapdragon 678 is still more power efficient because of the less performance cores and clock speed.
GPU
| Snapdragon 678 | Snapdragon 860 | |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Adreno 612 | Adreno 640 |
| GPU clock speed | 800 MHz | 675 MHz |
| GPU execution units | 2 | 2 |
| Shading unit | 96 | 384 |
| GFLOPS | 326 | 354 |
| DirectX | 12 | 12 |
| Vulkan | 1.1 | 1.1 |
| OpenCL | 2.0 | 2.0 |
The GPU performance difference is massive between both chipsets. Despite having a 125MHz higher GPU frequency in Adreno 612(SD 678) is heavily losing against Adreno 640(SD 860). You can see the benchmarks section below for the actual number. The reason behind it must be the higher shading units count in Snapdragon 860.
Multimedia and Memory
| Snapdragon 678 | Snapdragon 860 | |
|---|---|---|
| Display resolution | 2520 x 1080 pixels | 3840 x 2160pixels |
| ISP | Spectra 250L | Spectra 380 |
| Camera resolution | 1 x 25 megapixels (MFNR, ZSL) 2 x 16 megapixels (MFNR, ZSL) Max up to 192 megapixel | 1 x 48 megapixels (MFNR, ZSL) 2 x 22 megapixels (MFNR, ZSL) Max up to 192 megapixel |
| Video resolution | 4k @ 30fps | 8K @ 30fps |
| Storage | UFS 2.1 | UFS 3.0 |
| AI Engine | Hexagon 685 | Hexagon 690 |
| Memory type | LPDDR4X | LPDDR4X |
| Memory speed | 1866 MHz | 2133 MHz |
| Size | 8 GB | 16 GB |
| Bus | 2 x 16 bit | 4 x 16 bit |
| Bandwidth | 14.90 Gbps | 34.13 Gbps |
For the AI, Snapdragon 860 has Hexagon 690 DSP which scores 58.2 in AI benchmarks. Snapdragon 678 with hexagon 685 scores 25.3 in AI benchmarks. So in comparison, Snapdragon 678 delivers 2x less performance in the AI department.
Speaking of Cameras, They both supports MFNR and ZSL technology, However, Snapdragon 860 supports more camera resolution on both single and double camera setup. It also has a newer image processor Spectra 380 and supports 8k video resolution. On the other hand, Snapdragon 678 has Spectra 250L and video resolution is limited to 4k.
Snapdragon 860 supports up to 16 GB LPDDR4X Ram at higher memory frequency along with UFS 3.0 storage. Snapdragon 678 can up to 8GB RAM with storage being limited to UFS 2.1.
Connectivity and Other info
| Snapdragon 678 | Snapdragon 860 | |
|---|---|---|
| Modem | LTE Cat. 17 | X50, LTE Cat. 20 |
| Download speed | 600 Mbps | 2000 Mbps |
| Upload speed | 150 Mbps | 316 Mbps |
| Wi-Fi | 5 | 6 |
| Bluetooth | 5.0 | 5.1 |
| Release date | December 2020 | April 2019 |
First up, Snapdragon 678 doesn’t support 5G connectivity, while Snapdragon 860 does have X50 5G modem. It has 3x more download speed and 2x upload speed compare to Snapdragon 678 and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity options are also better.
Benchmarks
This is an AnTutu, Geekbench 5, and gaming benchmarks comparison between Snapdragon 860 and snapdragon 678.
AnTuTu
| Redmi Note 10 (SD 678 ) | POCO X3 Pro (SD 860) | |
|---|---|---|
| Overall | 2,40,291 | 4,84,478 (+101%) |
| CPU | 95,335 | 1,37,165 (+30%) |
| GPU | 42,677 | 1,90,601 (+346%) |
| Memory | 52,062 | 86,087 (+39%) |
| UX | 50,217 | 70,605 (+40%) |
In AnTuTu, Snapdragon 678 is absolutely destroyed by Snapdragon 860. Especially in the GPU department, Snapdragon has whooping 346% better GPU performance than Snapdragon 678
Geekbench 5
| Single-core | 542 | 767 (+29%) |
| Multi-core | 1417 | 2635 (+85%) |
Geekbench also tells the same story, Snapdragon 860 once again having a big advantage over Snapdragon 678. It delivers 29% more single core and 85% more multi-core performance.
Gaming Performance
| PUBG Mobile (High) | 35 fps | 63 fps |
| Call of Duty: Mobile (High) | 37 fps | 58 fps |
| Fortnite (Low) | 24 fps | 27 fps |
| World of Tanks Blitz(Ultra) | 51 fps | 95 fps |
| Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (High) | 53 fps | 59 fps |
Of course, with a more powerful CPU and GPU Snapdragon, 860 is gonna perform better in the gaming department too.
Conclusion
So, Snapdragon 678(Redmi Note 10) or Qualcomm Snapdragon 860(POCO X3 Pro), which one is better?
Redmi Note 10(SD 678)costs Rs. 15,499 while POCO X3 Pro (SD costs) 18,999. The price difference between both chipsets is around 22%. But, for that price difference you are getting much better performance, improved camera ISP, 5G connectivity, and a better gaming experience. So clearly Snapdragon 860 should be your first choice.
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