HiSilicon Kirin 970 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2

Let's find out which one of HiSilicon Kirin 970 and Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 is of a more recent generation, and what segment it belongs to.

• Name
  HiSilicon Kirin 970 Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2
• Segment
  Mobile Mobile
• Family
  HiSilicon Kirin Qualcomm Snapdragon
• Generation
  6 1
• CPU group
  HiSilicon Kirin 970 Qualcomm Snapdragon SQ1/SQ2

In this block we are going to compare HiSilicon Kirin 970 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 by main technical specifications: number of cores and threads, base and maximum frequencies, process technology and cache size. The higher these specifications are, the more powerful your CPU will be.

• Overclocking
  No No
• Core architecture
  hybrid (big.LITTLE) hybrid (big.LITTLE)

Common specifications for integrated graphics cards in HiSilicon Kirin 970 and Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 along with supported interfaces and connection options. This block has no effect on the final efficiency of the CPU.

• GPU name
  ARM Mali-G72 MP12 Qualcomm Adreno 690
• GPU frequency
  0.75 GHz
• GPU (Turbo)
  No turbo No turbo
• Execution units
  12 0
• Shader
  192 0
• Max. GPU Memory
  2 GB --
• Max. displays
  1 0
• Generation
  Bifrost 2 6
• Technology
  16 nm 7 nm
• Release date
  Q3/2017 Q2/2020

Let's compare the support of video codecs between HiSilicon Kirin 970 and Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2. Hardware support of video decoding by embedded graphics cards directly affects the speed and quality of rendering videos.

• h265 / HEVC (8 bit)
  Decode / Encode Decode / Encode
• h265 / HEVC (10 bit)
  Decode / Encode Decode / Encode
• h264
  Decode / Encode Decode / Encode
• VP9
  Decode / Encode Decode
• VP8
  Decode / Encode Decode / Encode
• AV1
  No No
• AVC
  Decode / Encode Decode
• VC-1
  Decode / Encode Decode
• JPEG
  Decode / Encode Decode / Encode

To choose the best model between HiSilicon Kirin 970 and Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 you need to pay special attention to memory type, clock frequency, multi-channel features, and PCIe version. The higher these numbers are, the better your CPU will be. Keep in mind that the maximum memory and frequency may also depend on the model of the motherboard.

• Memory type
  LPDDR4X-2133 LPDDR4X-2133
• Max. Memory
  8 GB 16 GB
• ECC
  No No
• Memory channels
  4 8 (Octa Channel)

Let's find out what TDP value would be better for HiSilicon Kirin 970 or Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2? The Thermal Design Power (TDP) indicates the maximum amount of heat that should be dissipated by the chip cooling system. However, the value of TDP gives only a rough indication of the real power consumption of the CPU.

Here you can find a comparison of 2nd and 3rd level cache sizes for HiSilicon Kirin 970 and Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 CPUs along with a list of ISA extensions.

• Instruction set (ISA)
  ARMv8-A64 (64 bit) ARMv8-A64 (64 bit)
• Virtualization
  None None
• L3-Cache
  2.00 MB --
• Architecture
  Cortex-A73 / Cortex-A53 Kryo 495
• Technology
  10 nm 7 nm
• Socket
  N/A N/A
• Release date
  Q3/2017 Q3/2020