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Qualcomm says four cores are better than eight

Diangson Louie August 30, 2013 · 1 min read

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Last month, MediaTek introduced their true Octa-Core CPU for mobile devices. While some would consider it impressive, Qualcomm would certainly like to differ and point out that you need better cores and not more cores.

Qualcomm released a video on Youtube, explaining why the current quad-core Snapdragon chips are better while at the same time obviously slamming MediaTek’s octa-core in the process.

qualcomm-snapdragon-s4

According to the video, Qualcomm rebuilds each generation of Snapdragon CPU cores for improved performance, unlike its competitor that chooses to duplicate the same old cores. It went on to say that most Android apps are optimized to run on two cores rather than eight, thus showing that Snapdragon CPUs are more practical.

In summary, Qualcomm believes that a great processor should have better cores, not more. Because the better the cores, the faster your apps will move. But then again, we haven’t seen a true octa-core CPU in action so it’s better not to rule it out just yet.

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Diangson Louie

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This article was written by Louie Diangson, Managing Editor of YugaTech. You can follow him at @John_Louie.

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34 Comments

Aaron · 13 years ago

Yung ibang quadproc. ng ibang manufacturers minsan katumbas lang ng Dual core nila. Cores doesnt matter. Its in the procs. And I think all the cores in S4 is not working Simultaneously.

HEEH!! · 13 years ago

8 Cores…well maybe, To be honest it needs to be improved quite a bit…

evollove · 13 years ago

This looks to be a repeat of Intel vs AMD, just in the mobile market. Qualcomm=Intel, Mediatek=AMD, not considering the REAL Intel and AMD trying to enter the mobile arena themselves. Qualcomm is more expensive and has the best top-end performance while having less cores. Mediatek has the best cost:performance ratio while having the most cores.

Adrian · 13 years ago

And quadcore i5’s perform better than 8 core fx’s.. that’s what Qualcomm is pointing out :D

evollove · 13 years ago

Exactly.

rocketlog · 13 years ago

One thing that should be remembered is that in order for more cores to be useful, the software (OS and individual apps) will need to be configured to utilize the added cores.

I think I read somewhere that Android is already configured to support the use of more than 4 cores. So that side’s already cleared.

However, on the individual app optimization side, you’ll have to consider the fact that most app developers would wait for demand to be big enough before making a change (or if they anticipate that the change would bring more demand).

So considering how MediaTek is obviously not quite on the top of the popularity charts, I’m thinking it’ll take some time before their 8-core SOCs would actually outperform a 4-core SOC with a better architecture in terms of real world performance.

anon666 · 13 years ago

similar naman siguro sa procie for desktop?

abuzalzal · 13 years ago

BUT…you get what you pay for.

While Mediatek is still no match against the Snapdragon’s per-core performance

The better (or best?) -valued SoC is MEDIATEK by far

Hal Emmerich · 13 years ago

Intel: Hyperthreading is better than physical multiple cores.

techidoodoo · 13 years ago

Intel says otherwise…

analog · 13 years ago

“Qualcomm says four cores are better than eight” and “Better cores, not more cores” are two different statemates (wherein the latter is mentioned in the article and the youtube title itself).

“Better cores, not more cores”- really depends on which context we are going to apply this. based on the vid,they used the real application for their claims. i agree with qualcomm here, as of this time, most apps use two cores at the same time. and qualcomm of course design and manufactures SoCs with better performance/core and better efficiency/core than their competitors. this vid aims primarily against mediatek (and samsung a lil), mediatek released couple of A7 octo core SoCs, however in reality ,only 2-4 cores will be used on apps. in contrast, qualcomm designs krait processors (sort of a hybrid between A9 and A15 cores, others call it A9+).

i just love how qualcomm created this vid, good analogy for those not so techie people who are so glad to have octo-core phones without knowing the technology of their SoC uses.

It’s also good for them that they mentioned the other members of their SoC band (was just confused between CPU and DSP, seems redundant). however i believe PowerVR GPUs are way better than qualcomm’s Adreno GPUs.

also worth noting that in the future, apps may need to use up to 8 (who knows?).

Jiron · 13 years ago

This ad is taking aim at MediaTek isn’t it?

Justin · 13 years ago

“Qualcomm released a video on Youtube, explaining why the current quad-core Snapdragon chips are better while at the same time obviously slamming MediaTek’s octa-core in the process.”

Brad, basa basa muna bago mag-comment.

fmz · 13 years ago

better cores, higher price

Justin · 13 years ago

imho, Qualcomm is still way ahead of MediaTek in terms of SoC technology.

Aaron · 13 years ago

I agree to this. Four cores are more than enough for a smartphone. I actually think that a dual core clocked at least 1.5ghz can do the job with, of course, a respectable amount of ram, storage, and GPU.

Paul · 13 years ago

That’s great for Qualcomm if they feel they have better performing cores, but in the end it all comes down to price.

Qualcomm’s low-end chips perform worse and are more expensive than their Mediatek equivalent. Smartphones with dual core MT6577 and quad core MT6589 can be had for as low as 4k and 6k pesos respectively.

And yeah, Mediatek’s octacore CPU isn’t even out on the market. Medyo OA lang ang Qualcomm.