Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 vs HiSilicon Kirin 985 5G

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 CPU1 vs CPU2 HiSilicon Kirin 985 5G
Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 HiSilicon Kirin 985 5G

CPU comparison

Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 or HiSilicon Kirin 985 5G - which processor is faster? In this comparison we look at the differences and analyze which of these two CPUs is better. We compare the technical data and benchmark results.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 has 8 cores with 8 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 1.50 GHz. Up to 4 GB of memory is supported in 1 memory channels. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 was released in Q4/2015.

The HiSilicon Kirin 985 5G has 8 cores with 8 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 2.58 GHz. The CPU supports up to GB of memory in 4 memory channels. The HiSilicon Kirin 985 5G was released in Q2/2020.
Qualcomm Snapdragon (102) Family HiSilicon Kirin (29)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 610 (4) CPU group HiSilicon Kirin 980 (2)
2 Generation 7
Cortex-A53 Architecture Cortex-A76 / Cortex-A55
Mobile Segment Mobile
-- Predecessor --
-- Successor --

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 is a 8 core processor with a clock frequency of 1.50 GHz. The HiSilicon Kirin 985 5G has 8 CPU cores with a clock frequency of 2.58 GHz.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 Characteristic HiSilicon Kirin 985 5G
8 Cores 8
8 Threads 8
hybrid (big.LITTLE) Core architecture hybrid (Prime / big.LITTLE)
No Hyperthreading No
No Overclocking ? No
1.50 GHz
4x Cortex-A53
A-Core 2.58 GHz
1x Cortex-A76
1.20 GHz
4x Cortex-A53
B-Core 2.40 GHz
3x Cortex-A76
-- C-Core 1.84 GHz
4x Cortex-A55

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Processors with the support of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can process many calculations, especially audio, image and video processing, much faster than classic processors. Algorithms for ML improve their performance the more data they have collected via software. ML tasks can be processed up to 10,000 times faster than with a classic processor.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 Characteristic HiSilicon Kirin 985 5G
Qualcomm AI engine AI hardware --
Hexagon 546 AI specifications --

Internal Graphics

The integrated graphics unit of a processor is not only responsible for the pure image output on the system, but can also significantly increase the efficiency of the system with the support of modern video codecs.

Qualcomm Adreno 405 GPU ARM Mali-G77 MP8
0.55 GHz GPU frequency 0.80 GHz
0.55 GHz GPU (Turbo) --
4 GPU Generation Vallhall 1
28 nm Technology 7 nm
0 Max. displays 1
-- Compute units 8
48 Shader 128
No Hardware Raytracing No
No Frame Generation No
-- Max. GPU Memory 4 GB
11 DirectX Version 12

Hardware codec support

A photo or video codec that is accelerated in hardware can greatly accelerate the working speed of a processor and extend the battery life of notebooks or smartphones when playing videos.

Qualcomm Adreno 405 GPU ARM Mali-G77 MP8
Decode Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) Decode / Encode
No Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec h264 Decode / Encode
No Codec VP9 Decode / Encode
No Codec VP8 Decode / Encode
No Codec AV1 Decode
No Codec AVC Decode / Encode
Decode Codec VC-1 Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec JPEG Decode / Encode

Memory & PCIe

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 supports a maximum of 4 GB of memory in 1 memory channels. The HiSilicon Kirin 985 5G can connect up to GB of memory in 4 memory channels.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 Characteristic HiSilicon Kirin 985 5G
LPDDR3-1866 Memory LPDDR4X-2133
4 GB Max. Memory
1 (Single Channel) Memory channels 4 (Quad Channel)
7.5 GB/s Max. Bandwidth --
No ECC No
-- L2 Cache --
-- L3 Cache --
-- PCIe version --
-- PCIe lanes --
-- PCIe Bandwidth --

Thermal Management

The TDP (Thermal Design Power) of a processor specifies the required cooling solution. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 has a TDP of --, that of the HiSilicon Kirin 985 5G is --.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 Characteristic HiSilicon Kirin 985 5G
-- TDP (PL1 / PBP) --
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
-- TDP down --
-- Tjunction max. --

Technical details

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 has a 0.00 MB cache, while the HiSilicon Kirin 985 5G cache has a total of 0.00 MB.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 Characteristic HiSilicon Kirin 985 5G
28 nm Technology 7 nm
Chiplet Chip design Chiplet
Armv8-A (64 bit) Instruction set (ISA) Armv8-A (64 bit)
-- ISA extensions --
-- Socket --
None Virtualization None
No AES-NI No
Android Operating systems Android
Q4/2015 Release date Q2/2020
-- Release price --
show more data show more data


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Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 (42%)
HiSilicon Kirin 985 5G (100%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 (47%)
HiSilicon Kirin 985 5G (100%)

Geekbench 5, 64bit (Single-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 Qualcomm Snapdragon 617
8C 8T @ 1.50 GHz
287 (42%)
HiSilicon Kirin 985 5G HiSilicon Kirin 985 5G
8C 8T @ 2.58 GHz
684 (100%)

Geekbench 5, 64bit (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 Qualcomm Snapdragon 617
8C 8T @ 1.50 GHz
1176 (47%)
HiSilicon Kirin 985 5G HiSilicon Kirin 985 5G
8C 8T @ 2.58 GHz
2517 (100%)

iGPU - FP32 Performance (Single-precision GFLOPS)

The theoretical computing performance of the internal graphics unit of the processor with simple accuracy (32 bit) in GFLOPS. GFLOPS indicates how many billion floating point operations the iGPU can perform per second.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 Qualcomm Snapdragon 617
Qualcomm Adreno 405 @ 0.55 GHz
53 (6%)
HiSilicon Kirin 985 5G HiSilicon Kirin 985 5G
ARM Mali-G77 MP8 @ 0.80 GHz
819 (100%)

Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The single-core benchmark only evaluates the performance of the fastest CPU core, the number of CPU cores in a processor is irrelevant here.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 Qualcomm Snapdragon 617
8C 8T @ 1.50 GHz
301 (100%)
HiSilicon Kirin 985 5G HiSilicon Kirin 985 5G
8C 8T @ 2.58 GHz
0 (0%)

Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The multi-core benchmark evaluates the performance of all of the processor's CPU cores. Virtual thread improvements such as AMD SMT or Intel's Hyper-Threading have a positive impact on the benchmark result.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 Qualcomm Snapdragon 617
8C 8T @ 1.50 GHz
867 (100%)
HiSilicon Kirin 985 5G HiSilicon Kirin 985 5G
8C 8T @ 2.58 GHz
0 (0%)

AnTuTu 8 Benchmark

The AnTuTu 8 Benchmark measures the performance of a SoC. AnTuTu benchmarks the CPU, GPU, Memory as well as the UX (User Experience) by simulating browser and app usage. AnTuTu can benchmark any ARM CPU that runs under Android or iOS. Devices may not be directly compareable if the benchmark has been performed under different operating systems.

In the AnTuTu 8 benchmark, the single-core performance of a processor is only slightly weighted. The evaluation consists of the multi-core performance of the processor, the speed of the RAM and the performance of the internal graphics.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 Qualcomm Snapdragon 617
8C 8T @ 1.50 GHz
0 (0%)
HiSilicon Kirin 985 5G HiSilicon Kirin 985 5G
8C 8T @ 2.58 GHz
406830 (100%)

Estimated results for PassMark CPU Mark

Some of the CPUs listed below have been benchmarked by CPU-monkey. However the majority of CPUs have not been tested and the results have been estimated by a CPU-monkey’s secret proprietary formula. As such they do not accurately reflect the actual Passmark CPU mark values and are not endorsed by PassMark Software Pty Ltd.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 Qualcomm Snapdragon 617
8C 8T @ 1.50 GHz
893 (100%)
HiSilicon Kirin 985 5G HiSilicon Kirin 985 5G
8C 8T @ 2.58 GHz
0 (0%)

Devices using this processor

Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 HiSilicon Kirin 985 5G
Unknown Unknown

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