Mobile GPU Rankings 2021 (Adreno/Mali/PowerVR)

In recent years, we have seen substantial growth in the smartphone gaming industry. Though most people only use smartphones for casual gaming while leaving hardcore gaming for their Consoles and PC, the trend has slowly begun to change in 2018.

With the popularity of Battle Royale games like PUBG and Fortnite and their introduction to smartphones, having a good GPU on the phone has become essential for mobile gamers. If you want to increase FPS in PUBG Mobile, check out our guide.

For those of you that don’t know, mobile SOCs have a specific GPU and it is integrated into the chip itself. A GPU is not separate from the SOC. Hence, every phone out there with a Snapdragon 845 will have the same Adreno 630 GPU and every device with Exynos 9810 will have the same Mali-G72 MP18 GPU. However, two different SOCs can have the same GPU as well. For example, both the Snapdragon 625 and 626 have the same Adreno 506 GPU.

For evaluating the performance of Mobile Graphics Processors, we use both the raw benchmarks as well as the real-world gaming performance of the device. The resultant score is called Centurion Mark and we use this score to rank mobile GPUs.

    Mobile GPU Rankings

* The scores marked with a star (*) are only estimated based on the specification & the performance gain we are expecting based on the architectural improvements, GPU Cores, and clock speeds. We will update them with actual scores after we complete the testing.

Just like the GPUs, you can also check out the ranking of Mobile SOCs here.

Here are the Top 35 GPUs represented graphically.

Our score does not increase linearly with performance improvement. A GPU with a score of 115 is not 15% faster than the GPU with a score of 100. The performance difference is generally a lot more than the difference in scores.

The difference in our scores is based on the perceived difference in real-world gaming.

Some SOCs like the Helio G90T, Snapdragon 730G, Snapdragon 855+, and Exynos 9825 use an overclocked GPU and will deliver slightly faster performance over their counterparts (Helio G90, Snapdragon 730, SD 855, and Exynos 9820 respectively). This will generally result in a difference of 1 to 3 points in the Centurion Mark.

How to interpret the score?

We have categorized the GPUs in the following range in order to make the scores more meaningful.

Above 100

Delivers the best gaming performance in smartphones. If you want to purchase a phone that has a 1440p or 2160p display, make sure the GPU scores above 100 for the best gaming experience. PUBG Mobile and Fortnite can be played at high settings.

Between 90-100

Android phones in this range officially support Fortnite Mobile. Aim for this range for the best 1080p gaming experience.

Between 65-89

Good gaming performance at 1080p. The majority of the heavy games are playable without running into lags or other issues. PUBG Mobile can run at Low/Medium Settings.

Between 50-64

Decent Gaming Performance at 1080p and great performance on 720p displays. PUBG Mobile can be played at low settings.

Below 50

The gaming performance in this range is below average. Most games can still be played at 720p. PUBG Mobile may run on some of the phones at low settings.

This range is only suitable for playing casual games at 720p.

    Introduction to Smartphone GPUs

Here’s a brief description of the various GPU Brands that you see in the smartphone market. The Mali GPUs can be seen on MediaTek, HiSilicon Kirin, and Exynos SOCs while the Adreno GPUs are designed by Qualcomm for Snapdragon Processors.

Different GPU Types/Brands

1) ARM Mali

Just like their CPU Architecture, ARM Holdings also licenses the Mali GPU architecture to various chip manufacturers like Huawei HiSilicon, MediaTek, and Samsung. These companies incorporate the Mali Architecture and implement it in their SOC. They often implement various variants of the GPU which might have different cores and frequency.

The number behind Mali Chip represents the number of processing units or cores. For example, the “Mali-T880 MP12” has 12 cores. Though architecture plays the biggest role in their performance, the number of cores and frequency also does affect the performance.

As of 2018, the latest Mali GPUs are quite behind the Adreno and Apple GPUs in terms of performance. And the same also reflects in our rankings. This is one of the reasons why the GPU Performance of Exynos, Kirin and MediaTek chips is lagging behind when compared to Qualcomm Snapdragon and Apple A-Series.

You can read more about ARM’s Mali GPU on its official website.

2) Adreno

The Adreno GPUs are designed by Qualcomm and are used in their Snapdragon Processor lineup. Earlier on, Adreno was known as Imageon when it was first developed by ATI Technologies (which later got acquired by AMD). AMD later sold it to Qualcomm and they renamed it to Adreno.

As of 2018, the Adreno GPUs are only behind Apple in terms of performance. Because of the impressive performance of Adreno GPUs, most mobile gamers prefer the Qualcomm Snapdragon SOCs on Android devices.

3) PowerVR

PowerVR is owned by Imagination Technologies and they license their chipsets to many brands like Apple, MediaTek, Samsung, Intel, Spreadtrum, etc. Apple iPhones have also used the PowerVR GPUs till their Apple A10 Fusion SOC.

4) Apple’s GPUs

In A11 Bionic and A12 Bionic, Apple has designed the GPU for the first time. The performance of these Graphics Processors is outstanding and there’s no denying the fact that Apple is doing an amazing job with their SOCs.

Factors that Influence GPU Performance

There are three major factors that determine the performance of a Mobile GPU.

1) GPU Architecture and Fabrication Process

Without any doubt, the GPU that uses a new flagship architecture will perform better. In a Mali GPU, the number just next to Mali corresponds to the particular architecture or design it is using. For example, in “Mali-G76 MP10”, G76 is the name of the architecture and as of 2018, it is the most powerful GPU ARM has ever designed.

A better fabrication process leads to faster and efficient GPU. This is quite important when it comes to gaming. Older chips using the 28nm Node often overheat on extended gaming.

2) GPU Clock Frequency

The higher the GPU frequency, the better will be the performance of the GPU. It can’t get any simpler. Two GPUs with the same architecture may have a different clock frequency but this does not lead to a significant difference in the performance. For example, the Mali-T860 MP2 GPU in MT6750 has a 520MHz frequency while the same GPU in MT6750T has a frequency of 650MHz.

3) Number of Cores/Processing Units

Though Apple and Qualcomm do not reveal the number of cores in their GPUs, we can know the same in the case of Mali GPUs based on their codename. The number after MP shows the number of cores it has. For example, Mali-G76 MP10 has 10 cores while Mali-G72 MP18 has 18.

Two GPUs with the same architecture but a different number of cores can have a significant impact on the performance. For example, Mali-T880 MP12 scores 81.8 in Centurion Mark but its variants with 4 and 2 cores score 64.9 and 60.6 respectively.

    Centurion Mark for Smartphone GPUs

Calculating the Centurion Mark for mobile graphics processing units involves both the computation of raw benchmarks using an algorithm and manual testing of games. We use the same set of games for testing of each GPU. During this process, we also take into account the display resolution of the device.

Thus, we carry out these tests only at 1080p resolution in order to obtain consistent results irrespective of the phone’s display resolution. Here are the 4 factors that play the biggest role in the computation of Centurion Mark.

1) Performance in Heavy Games 

2) Extended Gaming Performance

3) Raw GPU Benchmarks

4) Performance in Casual Games

    Frequently Asked Questions

Question: Which GPU is best for mobile?

Answer: Apple A13 Binoic’s GPU is the best for mobiles. Among Android devices, Snapdragon 855’s Adreno 640 is the best.

Question: Which GPU is better Mali or Adreno?

Answer: Both Adreno and Mali GPUs of comparable performance are available in the market but when we compare their best processors, the Adreno 640 outperforms Mali-G76 MP16 GPU by a good margin.

Question: Which is the best Mali GPU?

Answer: The Mali-G76 MP16 GPU that is present in Kirin 990 is the best Mali GPU as of now. Upcoming SOCs will feature the new Mali-G77 GPU that is 30% faster than the G76.

Question: Which is the best Adreno GPU?

Answer: Adreno 640 GPU that is present in Snapdragon 855+ and 855 is the best Adreno GPU as of now.

    Final Words

I hope this list ends your search for that smartphone with the best GPU. Smartphone gaming is gaining popularity and we want consumers to know about the capabilities of their device. We also have a list of best smartphone SOCs to help you pick the phone with the most powerful processor.

But before you make a decision on purchasing a phone, make sure to watch your device-specific gaming tests on YouTube. This will help you to get an even better idea of the Gaming Performance of that phone. This is essential because every phone is not the same and even though it has a decent GPU, there’s no guarantee that it will perform like the rest.