In the digital circle, I often see friends discussing such a topic: how much is the difference between the performance of the mobile phone processor and the computer processor?What model of desktop processor is the performance of a certain mobile phone processor roughly equivalent to?This question is very interesting, but it is very embarrassing, and it is a bit of "Guan Gong vs. Qin Qiong".
Why?Because mobile phone processors and desktop computer processors are two types of processors suitable for different application scenarios, there is basically no comparison.
In general, when developing desktop processors, improving performance is the most important goal. Compared to mobile phone processors, desktop processors are usually equipped with more powerful cooling systems, such as fans, heat sinks and heat pipes, and the space inside mobile phones is very small, so it is impossible to use the same cooling system as desktop computers, which is an absolute disadvantage in this regard.
In addition, desktop computers are generally powered by alternating current, there is no power will run out, and the problem of battery life should be considered, as long as the power supply and heat dissipation are in place, the desktop processor can always run at 100% full load. The mobile phone processor is usually powered by batteries, and in addition to the processor, the store also needs to supply the screen and other components, and the power resources are very valuable.
Therefore, when designing and developing mobile phone processors, we should not only consider improving performance, but also consider the balance between performance, power consumption and heat dissipation. If the performance of a mobile phone processor is particularly strong, but the power consumption is particularly large, the mobile phone is particularly prone to heating, and the battery life is short, then this is also unacceptable, such as the previous Snapdragon 888 and the MediaTek processor in previous years.
On the other hand, although they are both processors, the functions of mobile phone processors are very different from desktop processors.
For example, mobile phones cannot be equipped with a large graphics card like a desktop computer, and the graphics processing unit (GPU) is integrated into the mobile phone processor, in addition to the integration of neural network processing unit (NPU), ISP unit, modem, etc. These will affect the final user experience, therefore, to measure the quality of a mobile phone processor, can not be completely evaluated from the computing performance of this indicator.
It can be seen that the design and development of mobile phone processors must be carried out under the premise that the power consumption and battery life are generally acceptable, and then consider improving the performance, so the development is much more difficult.
So, what are the main factors that affect and determine the difference in performance between mobile phone processors and desktop processors?
1. Processor architecture
Desktop computer processors typically use more complex architectures, such as the XX6 architecture, while mobile phone processors use the ARM architecture.
The x86 architecture is more suitable for handling complex general-purpose computing tasks, while the ARM architecture is a reduced instruction set (RISC) architecture that is designed for low power, low cost, and high energy efficiency.
Therefore, the processor of the ARM architecture has advantages in terms of power consumption and cost, but it is inferior to the processor of the x86 architecture in terms of performance.
Second, the chip manufacturing process
At present, the mainstream mobile phone processor uses 3nm, while AMD's desktop computer processor process is 5nm, and Intel processors still use the more backward 10nm.
The more advanced the process technology, the better the power consumption and performance of the processor, and the process of mobile phone processors is usually more advanced than desktop computer processors, and this advantage is ultimately not mainly reflected in performance, but in power consumption control.
3. The number of processor cores and threads
Desktop computer processors usually have more physical cores and threads, such as the latest Core i9-14900K, which has 8 large cores and 16 small cores, for a total of 24 cores and 32 threads.
Although mobile phone processors are also increasing the number of cores, they are not comparable to desktop processors, and they are definitely at a disadvantage in terms of performance.
Fourth, the main frequency and performance mode
Generally speaking, desktop computer processors usually have higher clock speeds, such as the Core i9-14900K, which can reach 6GHz without overclocking, which is not possible with mobile phones.
Desktop PCs are often able to maintain high-performance mode for longer periods of time, while mobile processors often deliberately and frequently reduce performance to conserve power when performing heavy calculations.
5. Heat dissipation capacity
Desktop computers have a more powerful cooling system that can better maintain the performance of the processor under high loads, and mobile phones may experience performance degradation under high loads due to space constraints and weak heat dissipation capacity.
The conclusion of this article
To sum up, the application scenarios of mobile phone processors and desktop computer processors are completely different, mobile phone processors are at an absolute disadvantage in terms of volume, power and heat dissipation performance, in this case, the performance of mobile phone processors is definitely inferior to that of processor desktop processors, but it cannot be said that the technical content of mobile phone processors is lower than that of desktop processors.
Therefore, at this stage, comparing mobile phone processors and desktop processors, who is higher and who is low, and how big is the difference?The question is meaningless. Even if the performance of the desktop processor is too strong, you can't install it on your phone, it's too big to install, and the heat dissipation and power** can't keep up.