Last month, we used the Realme GT8 Pro prototype to run early benchmarks of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. The phone was officially unveiled last week and is set to launch globally next month, so we’re ready to do some proper benchmarking.
Even better, we’ve reviewed several competing flagships in the meantime, so we can better track the key chipsets for the next twelve months. There are those that run on the same Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 as the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max. Others chose Dimension 9500, e.g. vivo X300 Pro. And inside the iPhone 17 Pro Max is the Apple A19 Pro — Apple’s chipsets are no longer front-runners, but they’re still the common yardstick against which all others are measured.
We also include previous generation chips as a baseline to measure performance improvements.
Let’s start with the generalist test, AnTuTu. We are in the process of moving to AnTuTu v11, but we are also including v10 tests for continuity. In v11, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is the clear leader inside the Realme GT8 Pro – it has a 9% lead over the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max. Keep in mind that AnTuTu measures things like memory performance, not just raw computing power, so the same chipset may score differently based on surrounding hardware.
The new version of the benchmark gives the Snapdragon chip an equal lead over the Dimensity 9500 inside the Oppo Find X9 Pro, while the MediaTek chip is slightly ahead in the older v10 benchmark. For a comparison with the previous generation Elite, we have to turn to v10 – here the GT8 Pro beats the GT 7 Pro by around 8%.
Focusing only on the CPU, Geekbench 6 shows the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 losing to the Apple A19 Pro by 6% in the single-core test. It’s a narrow margin and even disappears in the multi-core test, which is within the margin of error.
Behind the Dimensity 9500 is Arm’s new C1-Ultra core, which is 9% slower than Snapdragon in single-core performance. The same 9% gap is seen in the multi-core test as well. The Dimensity 9500 is closer to the original Snapdragon 8 Elite CPU than the new 8 Elite Gen 5.
Next is the GPU. While it can run at full tilt, the new Adreno 840 Arm tops the charts with a smaller margin than the G1-Ultra – well, the Realme GT8 Pro beats the vivo X300 Pro, while the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max is close behind.
Why does Xiaomi keep losing to Realme, even though both use the same chipset? We think it has to do with how each company tuned the performance curve for their respective phones.
Before you declare Realme the winner, click on another tab – the benchmark actually runs multiple times and reports both the highest and lowest scores. The highest scores usually occur when the phone is fresh and cold, while the lowest scores occur after thermal throttling is set.
This is where the Realme GT8 Pro disappoints the most – throttling reduces performance by 67%. The Xiaomi 17 Pro Max also loses some speed, but only by 40%, leaving Xiaomi well ahead of Realme. Apple A19 Pro and Dimensity 9500 show better endurance performance than their 8 Elite Gen 5 competitors. The biggest surprise is the Oppo Find X8 Ultra with last year’s Snapdragon 8 Elite, which remains ahead of its newly-launched competition.
We’ll wrap things up with ray tracing – the most expensive way to render graphics. Arm put a lot of work into its second-generation hardware accelerator and it shows – Dimension is a big lift from the 9400(+). The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 also shows gains, albeit more moderate.
We’re working on an in-depth review of the Realme GT8 Pro and will have more to say about its performance and thermal management – and everything else about the phone, of course.
