Samsung’s push into custom silicon took a sharp turn in 2022. That’s when it inked a deal with AMD to power Exynos GPUs with RDNA architecture. The goal? Bring PC-level graphics like ray tracing to phones. Bold move. But four years on, has it paid off?
The Android Authority analysis lays it bare. From Exynos 2200 to the new 2600, graphics scores in 3DMark Wild Life Extreme jumped 212%. Ray tracing in Solar Bay? Up 253%. Single-core Geekbench 6 scores rose 111%. Multi-core? A whopping 211%. Impressive leaps. Yet Exynos still plays catch-up. The 2200 trailed MediaTek’s Dimensity 9200 by 45% in rasterization. Fast-forward to 2600: it’s 19% behind Snapdragon and Dimensity rivals.
Ray tracing was the hook. Exynos 2200 beat everyone to hardware support. Marketing gold. But Qualcomm fired back with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. Arm’s Immortalis GPUs in MediaTek chips now lead. Exynos 2600 lags Dimensity 9500 by 9% in Solar Bay. Rasterization—the workhorse for most games—remains a weak spot. No edge there.
Samsung knows this. It skipped Exynos 2300 over yield woes. Exynos 2400 powered some Galaxy S24 models globally, but Snapdragon dominated U.S. markets. Benchmarks confirm the gap. In 3DMark Wild Life Extreme, Exynos 2400 hits 4,304 at 25.78 FPS. Snapdragon 8 Gen 3? 5,114 at 30.63 FPS. An 18-30% deficit in GPU tests, per Beebom. Stability suffers too: 63.4% versus Snapdragon’s 60%, but peaks lower.
And power draw. Early Exynos chips overheated. The 2200 throttled hard. Newer ones fare better, but efficiency trails Qualcomm. Exynos stays the budget play—cost savings for Samsung, Snapdragon for premium.
Samsung’s Pivot: From AMD Dependence to In-House Control
But change is coming fast. December 2025 reports hit like thunder. Samsung designed its first in-house GPU for Exynos 2600, built on AMD RDNA but fully internal, per SamMobile. No more full reliance. Exynos 2600, on 2nm SF2P, powers Galaxy S26 models. It packs a deca-core CPU at 3.8GHz peak, next-gen Xclipse GPU, upgraded NPU.
By 2027, Exynos 2800 drops AMD entirely. Fully proprietary GPU. Custom CPU cores too, ending Arm lock-in, says NotebookCheck. Samsung hired John Rayfield, ex-AMD and Intel exec, to lead GPU and SoC work. His LinkedIn post: “I’m looking forward to leading… GPU, System IP, and SoC architecture innovation.” Talent influx. Restructured teams. Yield fixes via foundry tweaks.
Why now? Control. Exynos lets Samsung tweak AI like Arm SME2, add Heat Pass Block for thermals. Cut supplier costs. Global S26 rollout hints confidence—Exynos for most markets, Snapdragon limited.
Early leaks fuel hype. Exynos 2600 GPU: 8 cores at 1.2GHz, ~19 TFLOPS. 3DMark Steel Nomad Light: 3,435 (23 FPS), 15% ahead of Snapdragon 8 Elite. GFXBench: 42.7 FPS, 6% throttle after 12 minutes. 94% stability. Per X posts from leakers like @_TheJasonC.
Exynos 2700 benchmarks already leak. Geekbench spots deca-core setup: peaks at 2.88GHz. Xclipse 970 GPU. OpenCL: 15,618. Android 16 test. Multi-core edges Apple A19 Pro by 14%, GPU 75% ahead in some claims. NPU 6x faster. Versus Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5: 30% NPU lead, 29% GPU. X chatter from @yabhishekhd, @TECHINFOSOCIALS.
Skeptics abound. Past promises flopped. Exynos 2400’s Xclipse 940 (RDNA3) shone in ray tracing—outpacing Adreno in GravityMark—but lagged overall. AnTuTu GPU: 662k vs Snapdragon 8 Elite’s 842k. 27% behind. Real games? Close, but Snapdragon smoother.
Still, momentum builds. Samsung’s 2nm node tempts even AMD for future chips. Exynos mid-rangers like 1680 add RDNA3 GPUs, boosting A-series. Foldables get Exynos 2500.
The bet worked halfway. AMD gave Exynos features and raw power. Not leadership. Now Samsung goes solo. If yields hold and benches deliver, 2027 flips the script. Exynos as flagship king? Possible. Watch S26 launches. That’s the test.
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