Vulkan API in Galaxy S7 and Adreno 4xx

brujo5 · 02-25-2016, 01:57 AM #1

So when Samsung says they are the first to support the Vulkan APIs, do they mean it's the same with the Exynos 8 octa as well? I was reading a blog on the Qualcomm website, and they mention that Adreno 530 is the first GPU to support these APIs, but support will arrive for the Adreno 4xx as well.

Now I'm wondering:
1. Will the Galaxy S6 range not get this support in future?
2. Once Qualcomm starts support for the 4xx series, will this need to be built into the OS to take advantage of?

Sorry I clearly don't understand how this all works. Any light on the matter would be very helpful.

Nintonito · 02-25-2016, 02:05 AM #2

(02-25-2016, 01:57 AM)brujo5 Wrote: So when Samsung says they are the first to support the Vulkan APIs, do they mean it's the same with the Exynos 8 octa as well? I was reading a blog on the Qualcomm website, and they mention that Adreno 530 is the first GPU to support these APIs, but support will arrive for the Adreno 4xx as well.

Now I'm wondering:
1. Will the Galaxy S6 range not get this support in future?
2. Once Qualcomm starts support for the 4xx series, will this need to be built into the OS to take advantage of?

Sorry I clearly don't understand how this all works. Any light on the matter would be very helpful.

2. Qualcomm's support does not require the OS to support it. It will be driver based same as the adreno 5xx.
1. Yes but it is delayed. The S7 with a snapdragon chip supports Vulkan, however the Exynos does not because ARM has not provided drivers for Mali chips yet. So both the S6 and S7 with Exynos processors will get it when that has been completed.

brujo5 · (This post was last modified: 02-25-2016, 03:22 AM by brujo5.)

Thanks to clarify things.

retroben · (This post was last modified: 02-25-2016, 05:06 AM by retroben.)

Those other devices will have the largest beneift of Vulkan because of how bad their OpenGL drivers can be along with CPU overhead,overheating,and throttling caused by said overheating.
Shield TV (unrelated to thread but related to Vulkan,merely used as a comparison) may actually need it since it currently bugs out with video slowdown and graphics flckering in and out,I am too scared to try other games besides Brawl.

It would actually greatly improve on both those and Shield TV since it would be going from limited mobile drivers of OpenGL ES 3.1 to the latest desktop OpenGL 4.5 feature set being supported,at least for the capable devices of such a high OpenGL version.
I wonder what the benchmark results would be if you took the Talos Principle Android version and compared the OpenGL side to Vulkan.
(if Vulkan is implemented on the Android version)
If not,then hopefully they can get Vulkan support on the Android port of Talos Principle so it can truly be compared to the mobile drivers.

zxcvbad · (This post was last modified: 03-01-2016, 02:10 AM by zxcvbad.)

(02-25-2016, 02:05 AM)Nintonito Wrote: 2. Qualcomm's support does not require the OS to support it. It will be driver based same as the adreno 5xx.
1. Yes but it is delayed. The S7 with a snapdragon chip supports Vulkan, however the Exynos does not because ARM has not provided drivers for Mali chips yet. So both the S6 and S7 with Exynos processors will get it when that has been completed.

S7 Exynos variant is shipping with Vulkan driver: http://i.imgur.com/EvidlcM.jpg API version is weird but I guess it's because it was side developed/prereleased.

brujo5 · 03-01-2016, 01:53 AM #6

Vulkan require ES 3.2 to work.

Cant find any site that says galaxy s7 exynos support vulkan.

I think samsung used for the presentation the galaxy s7 snapdragon variant

**degasus** · 03-01-2016, 02:26 AM #7

(03-01-2016, 01:53 AM)brujo5 Wrote: Vulkan require ES 3.2 to work.

Nope. It just require the same hardware features.

brujo5 · 03-01-2016, 02:49 AM #8

(03-01-2016, 02:26 AM)degasus Wrote: Nope. It just require the same hardware features.

I did not know that. thx

You think the galaxy s6 support vulkan?

**degasus** · 03-01-2016, 02:50 AM #9

(03-01-2016, 02:49 AM)brujo5 Wrote: You think the galaxy s6 support vulkan?

The hardware, yes. Will it get the new driver? Maybe, we'll see...

brujo5 · (This post was last modified: 03-01-2016, 03:07 AM by brujo5.)

(03-01-2016, 02:50 AM)degasus Wrote: The hardware, yes. Will it get the new driver? Maybe, we'll see...

I hope Samsung do not forget S6 owners. Hopefully the 64 bit procesor will be the minimum requirement since this chip works very well.

apple adds Metal support since released the iPhone 5S with 64-bit processor.