Rumors indicate that Samsung’s Galaxy S8 could be a VR powerhouse thanks to ARM’s new GPU

Samsung may not be going through one of its best moments —offsetting a generally positive 2016 — but that doesn’t mean that the company is standing still; quite the opposite, in fact. Other than a rumored “early” launch, new information claims that the Galaxy S8 will represent quite the step forward in terms of raw performance compared to this year’s top device, especially graphics-wise…

According to SamMobile, Samsung seems to be ready to step up raw power inside the Galaxy S8 quite significantly, and all signs point towards a move that’s being made specifically for VR. The Korean firm was one of the very first to adopt the OpenGL’s spiritual successor, the Vulkan API, and now that Google has launched its VR platform Daydream, that’s a train they won’t be late to jump on.

However, as we’ve learned, the minimal specs for a satisfying VR experience are still generally high, and GPUs in particular are being targeted as the main component to upgrade. As per the report, in fact, Samsung is looking forward to integrate ARM’s new Mali-G71 GPU inside the forthcoming dual edge flagship, which is almost twice (1.8x) as powerful as the Mali-T880 inside the S7 family — and, in accordance with GFXBench results, faster than the one inside Qualcomm‘s next, the Snapdragon 830.

Going a little more technical, we know that the G71 is built on ARM’s new “Bifrost” architecture, purposely made for 4K VR experiences. “Running at 850MHz, the 16nm GPU can provide a throughput of 27.2Gpix/s, which is double than that of the Mali-T880 GPU running at the same frequency,” SamMobile says. But this increased GPU power could also mean more.

And, as it turns out, the Exynos 8895 — the SoC which should accompany the new GPU — could complete the package with the already-rumored 4K display for a true high end mobile VR experience. Get ready for a beastly phone — hopefully Samsung will manage to tame it this time around.