{"id":4644,"date":"2026-04-18T12:46:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T11:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovatenews.site\/index.php\/2026\/04\/18\/samsung-bet-big-on-amd-for-exynos-heres-how-its-actually-working-out\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T12:46:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T11:46:25","slug":"samsung-bet-big-on-amd-for-exynos-heres-how-its-actually-working-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/innovatenews.site\/index.php\/2026\/04\/18\/samsung-bet-big-on-amd-for-exynos-heres-how-its-actually-working-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Samsung bet big on AMD for Exynos \u2014 here\u2019s how it\u2019s actually working out"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The topic Samsung bet big on AMD for Exynos \u2014 here\u2019s how it\u2019s actually working out<\/strong> is currently the subject of lively discussion \u2014 readers and analysts are keeping a close eye on developments.<\/p>\n

This is taking place in a dynamic environment: companies\u2019 decisions and competitors\u2019 reactions can quickly change the picture.<\/p>\n

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Samsung\u2019s custom chip efforts haven\u2019t exactly enjoyed smooth sailing. After years of manufacturing setbacks, design changes, and repeated hiatuses, the company is finally aiming to get Exynos back on track. For global customers, that comeback begins with the Galaxy S26, where Samsung\u2019s in-house silicon returns to the flagship lineup.<\/p>\n

Exynos has endured a turbulent decade. The Galaxy S23 skipped it entirely due to inconsistent performance, overheating, and poor efficiency, while last year\u2019s Galaxy S series also sidelined it \u2014 likely influenced by Qualcomm\u2019s major leap with the Snapdragon 8 Elite, alongside reported low yields from Samsung\u2019s 3nm process. Although an Exynos 2500 did surface in the Z Flip 7, its limited use underscored ongoing challenges. In response, Samsung has restructured its chip design and manufacturing teams, with ambitious plans to revitalize Exynos, including a long-rumored custom GPU for the upcoming Exynos 2800.<\/p>\n

Graphics have been a defining part of this journey. Over the past four generations, Samsung has leaned on AMD\u2019s RDNA architecture for its Xclipse GPUs, marking a shift away from Arm\u2019s Mali, starting with the Exynos 2200 in 2022. With Exynos making its comeback \u2014 and more ambitious graphics plans ahead \u2014 it\u2019s a good moment to reflect on the past three processors, spanning five phone generations, to assess whether Samsung\u2019s custom silicon strategy has ultimately helped or hindered its flagship devices.<\/p>\n

For starters, let\u2019s look at Exynos in isolation across recent Galaxy S flagships (we\u2019ll leave out the Z Flip 7\u2019s Exynos 2500 for a more like-for-like comparison). Between the Exynos 2200 and 2600, single-core CPU performance in Geekbench 6 has climbed 111%, while multi-core is up 211%. That\u2019s a huge leap, and a clear sign that Arm\u2019s off-the-shelf CPU cores are still scaling well, even without the fully custom designs used by Apple and Qualcomm.<\/p>\n

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Graphics tells a similar story. Performance is up 212% in 3DMark Wild Life Extreme and 253% in the Solar Bay ray-tracing test over the same period. AMD\u2019s Xclipse GPU has matured nicely too, ironing out early driver issues and now delivering the kind of raw power expected of a modern flagship GPU.<\/p>\n

All told, Exynos has roughly tripled its performance between the 2200 and 2600. That said, most of that jump came with the 2400, which nearly doubled performance outright. The 2600 is a more modest step forward, offering gains of 40\u201360% across various tests. In isolation, that\u2019s still an excellent trajectory \u2014 one the PC market would envy. The problem is that Exynos hasn\u2019t been improving in isolation.<\/p>\n

Samsung\u2019s shift to AMD\u2019s untested RDNA architecture was a bold, risky move. The Exynos 2200 was first to market with hardware-accelerated ray tracing on mobile, giving Samsung a clear feature advantage and a strong marketing angle around gaming.<\/p>\n

That lead didn\u2019t last long. Qualcomm added ray tracing with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, while Arm revamped its lineup with the Immortalis GPU series later that same year. Since Qualcomm\u2019s in-house Adreno is off-limits, the more meaningful comparison is AMD versus Arm \u2014 and here, the results are mixed.<\/p>\n

Looking at MediaTek\u2019s Dimensity 9200 (with Immortalis-G715) through to the Dimensity 9500, Samsung\u2019s early ray-tracing lead quickly evaporated. The Exynos 2200, despite launching first, is about 33% behind the Dimensity 9200 in ray tracing performance in 3DMark\u2019s Solar Bay test \u2014 though the timing gap makes that comparison slightly unfair.<\/p>\n

This comparison points to the missing piece: 2023\u2019s canceled Exynos 2300. Based on the trendline we\u2019ve drawn, it likely would have been highly competitive, but performance issues kept it from ever shipping. As things stand, Arm\u2019s Immortalis GPUs now consistently outperform Exynos in the very area AMD was supposed to dominate. The Exynos 2600, for example, trails the Dimensity 9500 by around 9% in this ray tracing test.<\/p>\n

The bigger issue is traditional rasterization, which still matters far more for most mobile games. Here, Exynos has consistently lagged. The 2200 was roughly 45% slower than the Dimensity 9200 in Wild Life Extreme, and even now, the Exynos 2600 sits about 19% behind rival chips from Qualcomm and MediaTek.<\/p>\n

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That gap is actually wider than the previous dual-chip Galaxy S generations, which isn\u2019t a great look for Samsung\u2019s flagship chipset. Perhaps price, area, and power considerations have still made this switch worthwhile from Samsung\u2019s perspective, but from a gaming perspective, AMD\u2019s Xclipse hasn\u2019t delivered a clear advantage.<\/p>\n

On the plus side, it\u2019s still a far stronger showing than Google\u2019s recent Tensor chips, which have made only modest GPU gains over the past few years using far more budget-oriented Arm and Imagination GPU designs.<\/p>\n

None of this will come as a surprise to longtime Samsung followers. A decade ago, Exynos and Snapdragon were genuine peers, but more recently, Snapdragon has pulled ahead \u2014 and stayed there.<\/p>\n

Even when Exynos has appeared in newer Galaxy S models, it\u2019s effectively become the second-tier option. Samsung\u2019s Ultra models have gone Snapdragon-only, reflecting the chip\u2019s consistent lead in CPU performance, gaming, and increasingly, on-device AI.\u00a0This has also created a familiar imbalance across global markets, where some customers get the faster Snapdragon variant while others receive Exynos.<\/p>\n

Whether this strategy meaningfully reduces costs or simply offsets Samsung\u2019s own chip development expenses is unclear. Given the company\u2019s restructuring efforts and reported yield challenges, any short-term benefit is likely limited.<\/p>\n

To be clear, Exynos hasn\u2019t stood still. Its generational gains are genuinely impressive, and the Exynos 2600 is by no means a slow chipset. But across the past five Galaxy generations, Samsung\u2019s custom silicon has consistently trailed its closest rivals (Google\u2019s Tensor aside). The move to AMD graphics hasn\u2019t changed that dynamic either.<\/p>\n

Instead, Exynos remains a strategic investment. It gives Samsung control over its own silicon roadmap, reduces reliance on external suppliers, and allows for deeper customization \u2014 whether that\u2019s features like Arm SME2 for AI or Heat Pass Block (HPB) technologies for thermal management in the 2600. This might be an optimistic sign of things to come, we\u2019ll just have to see what comes next when Samsung\u2019s partnership with AMD finally draws to a close.<\/p>\n

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