Qualcomm has long been the undisputed benchmark in the high-end mobile chip segment, particularly in terms of graphics performance and efficiency. New benchmark results now indicate a significant shift: Samsung’s Exynos 2600 achieves almost identical values to the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 in Geekbench’s Vulkan test. The results not only provide exciting insights into the GPU performance of the next generation of smartphones, but also underline Samsung’s progress in manufacturing technology, thermal and architecture design.
- Exynos 2600 scores 27,478 points in Geekbench’s Vulkan test
- Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 achieves 27,875 points – minimal gap
- Xclipse 960 GPU with customized AMD RDNA 4 architecture
- First Samsung chip with 2 nm GAA production and new cooling technology
Exynos 2600 in Vulkan comparison: tied with Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
The Exynos 2600 achieved a score of 27,478 points in the Geekbench 6 Vulkan benchmark. This puts it only around 1.4 percent behind the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, which scored 27,875 points. In practice, this small gap means almost identical graphics performance, especially with modern 3D workloads and graphics-intensive applications. This result is an important milestone for Samsung, as previous Exynos generations often lagged behind their Snapdragon counterparts.
What is striking is not only the absolute performance, but also the consistency of the results. Aggregated OpenCL benchmarks only show a deviation of around 3.4 percent between the lowest and highest measured value for the Exynos 2600. In comparison, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 has so far shown a greater spread. This stability indicates sophisticated power and thermal management, which is particularly important during longer gaming sessions or sustained load.
Exynos 2600 matches the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 in Vulkan on Geekbench!
With synthetic scores looking nearly identical, the real battle begins now. All eyes are on upcoming 3DMark leaks and gaming benchmarks to see which chip truly leads in practice. https://t.co/IJ8vqKwZKO pic.twitter.com/sUirDVIrte
– Kaulenda (@BairroGrande) February 2, 2026
Additional attention was attracted by a comparison in which a Galaxy S26+ with Exynos 2600 even outperformed the Galaxy Book4 Edge with Snapdragon X Elite in the OpenCL test. Even though smartphone and notebook chips are only comparable to a limited extent, this result underlines the graphical performance of the new Exynos platform.
2 nm GAA production, RDNA 4 and new thermal solutions
Technologically, the Exynos 2600 marks a turning point for Samsung. It is the manufacturer’s first SoC to be produced using the 2 nm Gate All-Around (GAA) process. In this 3D transistor architecture, the gate completely encloses the channel, which consists of vertically stacked nanosheets. The result is better electrical control, lower leakage currents and lower voltage requirements – key factors for efficiency and power density.
For the graphics, the new Xclipse 960 GPU is used, which for the first time is based on a specially adapted version of AMD RDNA 4. This close cooperation with AMD is particularly beneficial for modern graphics APIs such as Vulkan, as features such as improved shader processing and more efficient memory access benefit directly from this. This architecture is becoming increasingly relevant, especially for mobile games with console-like graphics.
Samsung also relies on a combination of fan-out wafer level packaging (FOWLP) and the new heat pass block (HPB) technology for packaging. This is a copper-based heat sink that is directly connected to the chip. According to Samsung, this solution reduces thermal resistance by around 16 percent, which enables more stable performance under continuous load and counteracts thermal throttling.
Conclusion
The latest Geekbench results clearly show that the Exynos 2600 can keep up with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 in terms of performance – at least in the Vulkan graphics test. In particular, the high consistency, the modern 2 nm GAA production and the RDNA-4-based GPU indicate a clear level of maturity. Even if final statements can only be made with production devices, there are indications that Samsung will not only catch up in the coming smartphone year, but will also be on a par with Qualcomm in the GPU sector for the first time. Prices and market availability are expected with the next Galaxy S generation.
