Kirin 980
HiSilicon Kirin 980 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
SoC Comparison Result
Below are the results of a comparison of the characteristics and performance of the HiSilicon Kirin 980 and Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 mobile processors. This comparison will help you determine which one best suits your needs.
Basic
Label Name
HiSilicon
Qualcomm
Launch Date
August 2018
September 2025
Platform
SmartPhone Flagship
SmartPhone Flagship
Manufacturing
TSMC
TSMC
Model Name
Kirin 980
SM8850
Architecture
2x 2.6 GHz – Cortex-A76
2x 1.92 GHz – Cortex-A76
4x 1.8 GHz – Cortex-A55
2x 1.92 GHz – Cortex-A76
4x 1.8 GHz – Cortex-A55
2x 4.61 GHz –
6x 3.63 GHz –
6x 3.63 GHz –
Cores
8
8
Technology
7 nm
3 nm
Frequency
2600 MHz
4610 MHz
Transistor count
6.9
-
Instruction set
ARMv8.2-A
ARMv9.2-A
GPU Specifications
GPU name
Mali-G76 MP10
Adreno 840
GPU frequency
720 MHz
1200 MHz
Max display resolution
3120 x 1440
-
FLOPS
0.5184 TFLOPS
3.6864 TFLOPS
Execution units
10
-
Shading units
36
512
OpenCL version
2.0
-
Vulkan version
1.3
-
DirectX version
12
-
Connectivity
Download speed
Up to 1400 Mbps
-
4G support
LTE Cat. 21
LTE Cat. 24
5G support
No
Yes
Bluetooth
5.0
6.0
Wi-Fi
6
7
Navigation
GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo
GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC
Memory Specifications
Memory type
LPDDR4X
LPDDR5X
Memory frequency
2133 MHz
-
Memory Bus
4x 16 Bit
4x 16 Bit
Miscellaneous
L2 Cache
4 MB
-
L3 cache
-
16 MB
Audio codecs
AIFF, CAF, MP3, MP4, WAV
- AAC
- AIFF
- CAF
- MP3
- MP4
- WAV
- AIFF
- CAF
- MP3
- MP4
- WAV
Max camera resolution
1x 48MP, 2x 20MP
1x 320MP
Storage type
UFS 2.1, UFS 3.0
UFS 4.0, UFS 4.1
Video codecs
H.264, H.265, VP9
- H.264
- H.265
- AV1
- VP8
- VP9
- H.265
- AV1
- VP8
- VP9
Video playback
4K at 30FPS
8K at 60FPS, 4K at 120FPS
Video capture
4K at 30FPS
8K at 60FPS, 4K at 120FPS
Neural processor (NPU)
Yes
Hexagon
TDP
6 W
-
Advantages
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
- Higher Technology: 3 nm (7 nm vs 3 nm)
- Higher Frequency: 4610 MHz (2600 MHz vs 4610 MHz)
- Newer Launch Date: September 2025 (August 2018 vs September 2025)
Geekbench 6
Single Core
Kirin 980
835
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
+364%
3872
Multi Core
Kirin 980
2132
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
+476%
12272
FP32 (float)
Kirin 980
523
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
+612%
3723
AnTuTu 10
Kirin 980
597276
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
+416%
3084129
SiliconCat Rating
154
Ranks 154 among all SOC on our website
4
Ranks 4 among all SOC on our website
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
