If the latest tip from Digital Chat Station is to be believed, we will see fewer phones with independent display chips from next year onwards. This is because the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chip’s massive GPU gain will remove the need for the extra visual processor.
Independent display processor in smartphones
For starters, smartphone brands, mostly those from China, have been using the independent display processor alongside the main CPU in their performance-focused phones.
The visual processor chip helps ease the load off the main CPU by taking over all the graphics rendering tasks. This dual-chip arrangement is mostly preferred by gamers as it helps phones achieve smoother gameplay with frame interpolation.
Basically, the independent display chip generates extra frames between native frames, reducing motion blur. It also boosts the game’s perceived frame rate (fps), resulting in higher fps that can even double the native fps without interpolation.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 GPU performance
As per Digital Chat Station, Qualcomm’s “GPU interpolation” could remove the need for “extra interpolation frame” in the phones powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chip. He also mentioned that the GPU in the new chip will have 35% performance gains over its predecessor.
Recently, it was reported that Qualcomm was testing the Adreno 830 GPU in Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 at 1250 MHz. For reference, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3’s Adreno 730 is capped at 1,000 MHz in “Galaxy” and “Leading” versions. The GPU clock speed is even lower at 903 MHz for the vanilla versions.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 launch date
Qualcomm will most likely unveil its upcoming flagship smartphone chip in October. Xiaomi 15 series will likely be the first phone to be powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, and it will go official in China in mid-October.
