Samsung’s Exynos 2600 Benchmarks Raise an Unusual Question: Is It Actually Competitive?

Samsung has had a complicated history with its Exynos chips, especially when compared to Qualcomm’s top-tier Snapdragon processors. But new benchmark data suggests that the upcoming Exynos 2600 may finally be narrowing that long-standing gap, at least when it comes to GPU performance.

The latest numbers come from Geekbench 6’s Vulkan GPU test, where the Exynos 2600 scored 27,478 points. That puts it surprisingly close to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, which scored 27,875 in the same test. On paper, that’s a very slim difference, and one that most users would likely never notice in day-to-day use.

Vulkan And OpenCL Results Tell A Consistent Story

This Vulkan result isn’t a one-off. Back in January, the Exynos 2600 also appeared in Geekbench’s OpenCL test, scoring 25,460 points. Once again, it sat just behind the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, which posted 25,971 points.

What’s interesting here is the consistency. Across both OpenCL and Vulkan, the performance gap remains small. That’s notable because these benchmarks test slightly different aspects of GPU compute.

OpenCL is generally used to measure more traditional parallel computing tasks, which can include image processing and certain AI-related workloads. Vulkan, on the other hand, is a modern, low-overhead graphics and compute API. It’s especially relevant for mobile gaming, advanced visuals, and graphics-heavy applications. Strong Vulkan scores usually hint at better performance in newer games and demanding visual workloads.

A Big Shift In How The Chip Is Built

A large part of this performance jump likely comes down to manufacturing and design changes. The Exynos 2600 is Samsung’s first mobile processor built on a 2nm gate-all-around process. This design wraps the transistor gate around the channel on all sides using vertically stacked nanosheets, helping improve efficiency while reducing power leakage.

On the GPU side, the chip uses the Xclipse 960, based on a custom version of AMD’s RDNA 4 architecture. It’s clearly aimed at improving gaming and graphics performance, areas where previous Exynos chips often struggled to keep up.

Samsung is also paying closer attention to thermals this time. The company is using Fan-Out Wafer-Level Packaging along with a Thermal Block design that places a copper heatsink directly in contact with the chip die. According to Samsung, this reduces thermal resistance by 16 percent, which should help the chip sustain performance for longer periods.

Benchmarks Look Promising, But The Real Test Comes Later

Of course, benchmarks only tell part of the story. How the Exynos 2600 behaves inside actual Galaxy S26 phones will matter far more. Sustained performance, heat management, and battery life under real-world conditions are where past Exynos chips have often fallen short.

Still, these early results suggest Samsung may finally have an Exynos processor that can stand toe-to-toe with Qualcomm’s best. If that performance translates well into real devices, the Exynos versus Snapdragon conversation could look very different this year.

Via