Samsung's next flagship chip will be the Exynos 2400, which will power some of the Galaxy S24 models next year. Samsung is also working on the Exynos 1480, a sequel to the Exynos 1380 that powers devices like the Galaxy A54, and it may end up being more interesting despite being a mid-range chip.
The Exynos 1480 has been spotted on an online benchmark, and that benchmark has revealed that the upcoming SoC has an AMD GPU! There have been rumors that Samsung could eventually cut off ties with AMD and go back to developing its own GPU, but those rumors have no merit considering Samsung is now bringing the power of the AMD GPU to a chip that will be used in more affordable smartphones.
The Exynos 1480 wasn't benchmarked on a consumer device, which is normal since the Galaxy A55, the first smartphone that is likely to be powered by the Exynos 1480, isn't due for another six months or so (if Samsung sticks to a yearly cycle). But we do get details about the chip – it has eight cores, four clocked at 2.75GHz and four at 2.05GHz (versus 2.4GHz and 2GHz on the Exynos 1380), and an Xclipse 530 GPU.
Xclipse is the brand name Samsung uses for GPUs based on AMD's graphics architecture. The first one, the Xclipse 920, debuted with the flagship Exynos 2200 last year, and its successor, the Xclipse 940, will debut with the Exynos 2400 in 2024. Clearly, Samsung is using the Xclipse 9xx numbering for its high-end GPUs and will use 5xx for the less powerful versions that will be equipped by its mid-range smartphones and tablets.
The Xclipse 530 will also use an older architecture. While the Xclipse 940 has been confirmed by Samsung to be based on AMD's RDNA 3 architecture, the 530 will be based on the RDNA 2 architecture, the same as the Xclipse 920. The 530's performance will undoubtedly be notably lower, though at this time there is no way to compare it with the Xclipse 920 or 940 as its specs have not been revealed (and neither have the specs for the Xclipse 940).
It also means that we don't know if the Xclipse 530 will support ray tracing. Ray tracing can be extremely demanding on even the most popular desktop graphics cards and is only available on the most high-end mobile chips from Samsung, Qualcomm, and Apple right now, so it's possible the Xclipse 530 won't support it.
Still, the fact that Samsung is bringing an AMD GPU to a mid-range chip so soon is a big deal on its own. Hopefully, the company will also focus on improving cooling inside whatever phones or tablets it equips with the Exynos 1480 to make sure the performance gains aren't nullified because the heat isn't properly dissipated.
