Making sense of mobile CPU&GPU specs and models

jvroig

Platinum Member
Nov 4, 2009
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I'm trying to understand how specs and models of mobile CPUs & GPUs work. That's basically to get a rough ballpark of how different devices compare to each other given their SOCs.


1.) So first thing I'd like to clarify is if I understand Mali GPU specs correctly. Mali models indicate a core scaling spec, for example, "1-8". As I understand it, this means you can implement this specific model (say, Mali 400 on the ultra low power family) with just 1 core, or with a full 8 cores, or anything in between. Is this correct?


2.) The next thing is interpreting specs from a specific SOC. For example, the old, low-end MediaTek MT6592. It says it has 8x A7 cores and a Mali 450 (single core, I think). Am I right in understanding that the MT6592 SOC will always have 8 A7 cores, and Mali 450 single core, regardless of what phone/device it finds itself in? Meaning, "MT6592" already denotes a specific configuration, and if a device maker needs something a little different (say, like the MT6592 but 2 Mali cores instead of 1), then they'll end up buying a different SKU/model SOC from MediaTek? (Say, a hypothetical MT6593 model number to denote double Mali cores)


Just checking if I'm interpreting specs correctly. I've found it a little bit more challenging interpreting mobile device and SOC specs compared to CPU and GPU specs in the PC world, but that's probably just familiarity.

Thanks.