Early benchmark results for Samsung’s upcoming Exynos 2600 chipset suggest the company’s next flagship silicon is making notable gains in graphics performance, with scores that match those of Qualcomm’s current flagship, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.
In a recent Geekbench Vulkan GPU test, the Exynos 2600 posted a score of 27,478 points, only slightly below the 27,875 points logged by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 in the same test. The narrow gap indicates that Samsung’s Xclipse 960 GPU, built on AMD’s RDNA 4 architecture, is now competitive with the Adreno 840 GPU used in Qualcomm’s top-tier chip when it comes to Vulkan graphics performance.
The Vulkan benchmark measures GPU performance in modern 3D graphics workloads, and although it is just one piece of the performance picture, the near-parity between the two results is significant. It suggests that the Exynos 2600’s graphics subsystem has matured to a point where it can keep pace with Qualcomm’s flagship silicon in at least this specific metric.
These results come from early testing, likely tied to a Galaxy S26 series device running engineering firmware. Samsung’s first 2nm GAA manufacturing process and its custom GPU design appear to contribute to the stronger graphics showing, though final retail performance may vary once thermal, power, and software optimization are complete.
It’s also worth noting that some extended comparisons show the Exynos 2600 performing comparably or slightly ahead in OpenCL benchmarks. Reinforcing the idea that Samsung has closed much of the gap with Qualcomm’s current flagship graphics solution.
That said, Vulkan and OpenCL benchmarks don’t paint the full picture of real-world gaming or sustained performance. Thermal throttling, driver optimization, and power efficiency will play a big role once the Exynos 2600 ships in consumer Galaxy S26 devices. Early prototype scores should be taken as indicative of potential rather than definitive proof of everyday performance.
Samsung’s last few Exynos generations were often seen as trailing Qualcomm in GPU speed and efficiency, so this closer match in Vulkan tests suggests meaningful progress in Samsung’s in-house silicon. If this winds up translating to real-world performance, it could reshape how flagship chip competitiveness is viewed especially in regions where Samsung uses its own Exynos chips rather than Snapdragon variants.
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