Samsung Exynos 2200 becomes first smartphone chip with Ray Tracing

After all the controversies, Samsung has finally unveiled the Exynos 2200, its latest flagship smartphone. However, there was no launch event. The chip was quietly announced via a press release. Exynos 2200 debuts with the first RDNA 2-based Xclipse GPU among other new features.

Samsung Exynos 2200 Overview:

AMD RDNA 2-based Xclipse GPU

The main highlight of the Exynos 220 chip is its GPU, which I have already mentioned, is based on AMD's RDNA 2 microarchitecture. Samsung is calling it the Xclipse. Samsung also says that it will put an end to the old era of mobile gaming like an eclipse. As for the features, Xclipse boasts the first hardware-based Ray Tracing for smartphones. If you are not aware, Ray Tracing promises more realistic lights, reflections, and shadows in games by mimicking the physical properties of light. Likewise, we are also getting Variable Rate Shading (VSS), which reduces the pressure on GPU by adjusting the shading rates in different regions of the frame. Last year's Snapdragon 888 was the first smartphone chip to have this feature. In addition, the Exynos 2200 inherits the Advanced Multi-IP Governer (AMIGO) from its predecessor. It improves the overall performance and efficiency of the processor optimizing power usage of CPU, Xclipse GPU, and other components.

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Rest of the Features

Moving on, Samsung Exynos 2200 makes use of Samsung's 4nm process and the latest Armv9 CPU architecture. It's an octa-core CPU with a Cortex-X2 as the prime core. Likewise, Samsung has used three Cortex-A710 performance cores and four power-efficient Cortex-A510 cores. The Neural Processing Unit (NPU) is also new, enabling more advanced AI features. Samsung says it now has double the performance of its predecessor. Similarly, it now supports 16-bit floating points (FP16) in addition to power-efficient INT8 and INT6. 5G has also been an integral feature of flagship phones since last year. Exynos 2200 features a 3GPP Release 16 5G modem with support for sub-6GHz and faster mmWave bands. In addition, it boasts a maximum speed of up to 10Gbps by utilizing both 4G and 5G bands. As for photography, Exynos 2200 opens the way for hi-res 200MP smartphone camera sensors. If you recall, Samsung already has a 200MP sensor in the form of ISOCELL HP1. However, we are yet to witness it on any smartphone. Focusing on the Exynos 2200, it can now use four camera sensors concurrently.

Another disappointment on the way?

That being said, Samsung didn't mention the performance improvement of Exynos 2200 over its predecessor, which is quite unusual for any launch. Moving on, Samsung didn't even reveal the operating frequency of the CPU and GPU. According to a

, the cores have been clocked at 2.8+2.52+1.82GHz, which is lower than both Dimensity 9000 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. Also, Samsung has not even disclosed the performance of the Xclipse GPU, which was rumored to be causing issues.

Samsung Exynos 2200 5G Specifications: 

• Process: 4nm EUV FinFETprocess
• Core Architecture: 1x Cortex-X2 + 3x Cortex-A710 + 4 Cortex-A510 cores
• GPU: Samsung Xclipse 920
• Memory Support: LPDDR5
• Storage Support: UFS 3.1
• Max Camera: up to 200MP single sensor / 64MP + 32MP dual-camera setup
• Video Support:
  • Encoding:up to 8K 30fps
  • Decodinng: up to 8K 60fps
• Display Support: QHD+ @144Hz / WQUXG  @120Hz

Samsung Exynos 2200 Availability

Samsung Exynos 2200 has already hit mass production and we expect it to debut, alongside the Galaxy S22 series. The launch is likely to take place on February 9. There we also expect to learn more about the performance of Exynos 2200.

• Meanwhile, check out our gaming review of the Exynos 2100.