Snapdragon 665 or Helio G70: Which is the better budget gaming processor?
Comparisons between Qualcomm and MediaTek are nothing new and have been going on for the longest time. Qualcomm used to have complete monopoly in the market before MediaTek came in with its more affordable chipsets. Before MediaTek’s inception nobody could have imagined to have a budget smartphone under 10k with a processor that is equipped to handle proper heavy gaming. With the launch of the G series of chipsets this was made possible. Even better now is the fact that while Mediatek is also expanding towards the mid-range and flagship segment recently and proving to be a tough competition to Qualcomm, the latter still struggles with its relatively affordable chipsets in the budget segment.
Now, if we are comparing the Snapdragon 655 with the MediaTek Helio G70, the most glaring difference is as I mentioned above, the performance. Although, with the Helio G70 and the Snapdragon 655 the price factor is somewhat similar, the Mediatek chipset easily beats the Snapdragon counterpart with its superior performance. The Snapdragon 655 has gone considerably down in terms of its power and performance since it first surfaced in the budget market.
The MediaTek Helio G70 processor is primarily a gaming processor. The Snapdragon 655 does not offer any specific gaming power, but is more suitable for regular usage. In terms of CPU specs, the Snapdragon chipset leads slightly. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 655 comes with a CPU clock speed of 4 x 2GHz & 4 x 1.8GHz, while the MediaTek Helio G70 has a slightly less speed around 2 x 2 & 6 x 1.7GHz. Although it’s not a glaring difference, this can be credited to the Snapdragon chipsets slightly smaller built. However, the MediaTek Helio G70 as mentioned, is loads better in terms of its GPU specs as it is a chipset specifically designed for gaming performance. The Helio G70 from MediaTek however, is most ideal for regular high-level gamers. The chip powers smartphones like Realme Narzo 10A, Infinix Note 7, Realme C3, and more recently the Infinix Hot 10 smartphone. The Helio G70 incorporates a pair of powerful Arm Cortex-A75 CPUs that operate up to 2GHz, plus six Cortex-A55 CPUs in a single, octa-core cluster. All of these are interlinked and share a large L3 cache for improved performance. This is followed by up to 8GB of fast LPDDR4X memory. Because the Helio G70 is primarily a gaming chipset, an efficient, high-performance Arm Mali-G52 class graphics processor operates up to a speedy 820MHz for optimum performance, while the Snapdragon 665 is limited to 650Mhz.
The Snapdragon chipset also does not offer any specific gaming centric technology for performance. Whereas, MediaTek’s HyperEngine gaming technology boasts of providing eye-popping images and a lag-free run which makes the gaming experience smooth sailing. This technology is especially suited for tackling graphically challenging games like PUBG and Fortnite which can make even a very high-end device heat up fast. This is where MediaTek’s HyperEngime game technology delivers without taking a toll on the phone’s battery life and performance. The MediaTek HyperEngine technology uses artificial intelligence to consistently deliver a smooth gameplay experience while managing the phone’s resources. So, I would say that where the Snapdragon chipset tries to level up with MediaTek at a more budget friendly price, the Mediatek Helio G70 beats it in terms of performance, gaming as well as otherwise.
