Adreno™ Graphics Processing Units
Graphic-intensive games, animations and apps have become an important part of mobile experiences. That’s why the all-in-one design of the Snapdragon processor includes the Qualcomm® Adreno™ graphics processing unit (GPU).
The Adreno GPU accelerates the rendering of complex geometries to deliver high-performance graphics and a rich user experience with low power consumption. If your users think your mobile UI, games and advanced graphics applications look good now, wait until they’ve seen them on the Snapdragon processor with the Adreno GPU.
See how you can improve graphics in your apps without trading off battery life by having a look at our videos on hardware and rendering with the Adreno GPU. Then start optimizing your graphics, gaming and heterogeneous computing applications with the Adreno GPU SDK.
Adreno 530 GPU
The Adreno 530 GPU is embedded into the Snapdragon 820 processor. Adreno 530 GPU offers:
- In comparison with the predecessor Adreno 430 GPU*
- Up to 50% better graphics performance
- Up to 40% more power efficient
- Up to 40% faster General-Purpose GPU (GPGPU) performance
- Advanced API support, including OpenGL ES 3.2† to help enable more-complex and more-efficient mobile 3D graphics for apps and games.
- A530 will be the first GPU to support new Vulkan API. Vulkan enables the next generation of graphics performance by adding multi-threaded command buffer generation and explicit control of advanced graphics capabilities within Snapdragon’s Adreno GPUs
- Shared Virtual memory that enables simultaneous data sharing between the OpenCL host and the GPU.
Vulkan API Support
Qualcomm is on the Board of Promoters for Khronos Group. Its subsidiary, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. (QTI), has announced support for Vulkan™ starting with the Adreno 530 GPU in the Snapdragon 820 processor.
Qualcomm is also announcing upcoming support for Vulkan in QTI’s developer tools, including Snapdragon Profiler and the Adreno SDK. Qualcomm will also be releasing a community edition of user-mode Vulkan driver binaries for Adreno A4xx and A5xx GPUs† soon. You can use these tools with the Vulkan API as part of the process of optimizing your apps for commercial devices powered by the Snapdragon 820 processor.
Adreno 430 GPU
Adreno 430 GPU is embedded into the Snapdragon 810 processors and offers:
- Support for console-quality graphics features – such as enhanced lighting and shading; realistic faces and animation; and deeper 3D detail through hardware tessellation and geometry shaders – at up to Ultra HD resolution
- Up to 30% improvement in graphics performance over predecessor Adreno 420 GPU*
- Up to 20% improvement in power efficiency over predecessor Adreno 420 GPU*
- Up to 100% faster General-Purpose GPU (GPGPU) performance over predecessor Adreno 420 GPU
- Dynamic hardware tessellation designed to support visually realistic scenes, with lower memory use and lower power consumption
- Advanced API support, including OpenGL ES 3.2† and DirectX 11.2, to help enable more-complex and more-efficient mobile 3D graphics for apps and games
- Support for new OpenGL ES 3.2* features like compute shaders
- Support for the Android Extension Pack, which includes compute, tessellation and geometry shaders for compatibility with new gaming consoles and PCs.
Adreno GPU Family
Adreno | Snapdragon Chipset | APIs | Sample of Commercial Devices | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
OpenGL ES | Open CL | RenderScript | Direct X | |||
200 | Snapdragon S1 | 1.x, 2.0 | N/A | Yes | FL9.3 | LG, Sony,HTC |
203 | Snapdragon 200 | HTC Desire 516, LG W5, Sony Falcon DS | ||||
205 | Snapdragon S2 | HTC, Samsung | ||||
220 | Snapdragon S3 | HTC Droid DNA | ||||
225 | Snapdragon S4 | HTC Desire500, HTC Desire600, SamsungGT-i8550 Galaxy Win | ||||
302 | Snapdragon 200 | 1.x, 2.0, 3.0 | 1.1 Embedded Profile | 9.3 | ||
305 | Snapdragon 400 | Samsung, HTC, Motorola, Sony, | ||||
305 | Snapdragon 400 | Samsung, HTC, Sony | ||||
306 | Snapdragon 410 | Samsung, HTC, Sony | ||||
320 | Snapdragon 600 | SamsungGS4, HTC One, LG G, Amazon Fire TV | ||||
330 | Snapdragon 800 | Samsung GS5, Sony Z2, LG G Pro2 | ||||
330 | Snapdragon 801 | Sony Xperia Z2, HTC One M8, Gionee | ||||
330 | Snapdragon 610 | HTC, Samsung | ||||
405 | Snapdragon 615 | 1.x, 2.0, 3.0, 3.1, CS, GS & TS | 1.2 Full Profile | FL11.1 | HTC, Samsung | |
418 | Snapdragon 808 | |||||
420 | Snapdragon 805 | Samsung S5, Pantech | ||||
430 | Snapdragon 810 | 1.x, | OnePlus 2, ZTE Axon Pro, HTC One M9, LG G Flex2 | |||
530 | Snapdragon 820 | 1.x, 2.0, 3.0, 3.1†, 3.2†, CS, GS & TS Vulkan | 2.0 Full Profile | Yes | TBD | TBD |
* Source: Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. data.
† Product is based on a published Khronos Specification, and is expected to pass the Khronos Conformance Testing Process when available.