Samsung Galaxy S23 Might Pack Custom Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC; Overclocked CPU, GPU Expected

Qualcomm often offers customized products to its partners, and Samsung may have reserved a unique SoC (System on a Chip) for its upcoming flagship Android smartphone. The Samsung Galaxy S23 could have a custom Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC packing an overclocked CPU and GPU. Let's see the specifications and capabilities of this premium chipset.

Qualcomm Developing Custom Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC For Samsung?

Qualcomm officially unveiled the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC last week. The company even mentioned some of the smartphone manufacturers who would adopt the latest, premium chipset in their flagship mobile phones. Strangely, Samsung was missing from the list.

Samsung hasn't dropped the powerful chipset. Instead, the company will reportedly receive a special Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC version, which no other smartphone manufacturer can claim. It appears Qualcomm will offer a custom edition of the chipset with an overclocked CPU, Additionally, this chipset will also have a higher-clocked GPU.

Samsung’s special edition Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (we don’t know its official name yet) CPU 3.2GHz→3.36GHz. Surprisingly, the GPU is also increased from 680MHz to 719MHz

— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) November 18, 2022

The standard version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, codenamed SM8550-AB, packs eight cores. There's a single prime Cortex-X3 CPU core clocked at 3.19GHz, coupled with four CPU cores clocked at 2.8GHz and three Cortex-A510 clocked at 2GHZ. The upcoming flagship SoC will have an Adreno 740 GPU clocked at 680MHz.

The custom edition of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC, presumably for the Samsung Galaxy S23, is codenamed SM8550-AC. This special version will have a prime CPU core that's clocked at a significantly higher core speed of 3.36GHz. The GPU too is clocked a little higher to work at 719Mhz. The rest of the CPU cores are expected to remain identical to the SM8550-AB version.

Would Samsung Galaxy S23 Need Additional Cooling?

The standard Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 itself is expected to have a 35 percent faster CPU and a 25 percent faster GPU than its predecessor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. The custom edition of the chipset is clocked even higher. Overclocking a CPU or GPU tends to heat up the chipsets even more than usual.

Qualcomm's flagship SoCs, especially the past two generations, have been known to overheat. The chipset maker and the smartphone manufacturers have needed to throttle the performances of these beasts, just to keep the temperatures under control.

It may appear that Samsung would have to embed a powerful cooling solution in the Galaxy S23 smartphone. However, Qualcomm claims it has been working to improve the power efficiency of its latest flagship chipset. Hence, it would be wise to await further updates, either about the overclocked SoC or Samsung Galaxy S23 before commenting on any heating issues.