Exclusive Exynos 2600 Internal Testing Shows Promise

Over the last few years, Exynos hasn’t been the best performer compared to its counterpart, Snapdragon, on Galaxy devices. The Exynos 2400 showed promise, but it wasn’t enough for Samsung to use it exclusively across the Galaxy S24 lineup. While industry watchers had high hopes for the Exynos 2500, it got delayed, forcing the company to ship Galaxy S25 phones with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy globally.

However, this year, things are looking much different. Exynos 2600 early testing is showing promise, and Samsung’s AMD partnership is proving to be a fruitful one, so much so that we are now looking at the PC performance territory.

Exynos 2600’s internal GPU testing shows promise beyond the smartphone

Leaker ß shared exact details of what the Exynos 2600 has to offer for the GPU. AMD’s RDNA 4 architecture may provide a big boost to mobile gaming, as it possibly would be FSR 4 compatible. You can see early test results below.

Exynos 2600 internal stress test:

• iGPU: Samsung Xclipse-960 (8 RNDA 4 CU cores)
• Clock Speed: ~ 1,350 – 1,400 MHz
• Theoretical FP32 : ~ 6 TFLOPS
• Memory: LPDDR6X / LPDDR5X

Now, this is done in an optimal environment for the chipset. However, these testing parameters feel like laptop-level testing. It wouldn’t be the first time Samsung has launched an Exynos-powered Laptop. Interestingly enough, rumors dating back to 2021 state that Samsung plans to release a laptop with an Exynos chipset featuring a GPU based on AMD’s RDNA architecture.

In 3DMark Steel Nomad Light, the Exynos 2600 achieved a score of 3,135 with a 23.23 average FPS. Over the span of 20 minutes, it retained 94% stability and achieved a 15% lead over the Snapdragon 8 Elite. Likewise, the GFXBench Aztec (Offscreen) Simulator maintained an average FPS of 42.7 over a 12-minute run, and this time it was in a thin chassis. Although unclear, this was presumably to mimic a smartphone environment.

Exynos 2600’s leaked CPU performance is outstanding

ẞ also sent several exclusive internal benchmark scores for the Exynos 2600, along with explanations detailing exactly what was done to achieve each score. These should better represent what we could see in the Galaxy S26 series. Note that the Exynos 2600 is a deca-core chip with 1 Prime core, 3 Performance cores, and 6 Efficiency cores.

Test 1: Early Silicon Validation (Unstable Governor Tables):

• 3.64 GHz / 2.82 GHz
• 3,241 Single Core / 10,802 Multi Core
• 87% Sustained Performance
• 87°C Temperature

Test 2: Thermal Tuning (Scheduler Optimized):

• 3.80 GHz / 2.76 GHz
• 3,455 Single Core / 11,621 Multi Core
• 94% Sustained Performance
• 82°C Temperature

Test 3: Stable Sustained Run (GPU Firmware Revision):

• 3.85 GHz / 2.80 GHz
• 3,509 Single Core / 11,784 Multi Core
• 96% Sustained Performance
• 80°C Temperature

Test 4: Final Binning Candidate – Ready for Mass Production (NPU 3.1 Driver Ready):

• 3.92 GHz / 2.82 GHz
• 3,562 Single Core / 11,923 Multi Core
• 98% Sustained Performance
• 79°C Temperature

Test 5: Ready for Certification and Galaxy Software:

• 3.92 GHz / 2.82 GHz
• 3,959 Single Core / 12,010 Multi Core
• 98% Sustained Performance
• 78°C Temperature

To better understand the first two tests — since the rest are self-explanatory — let’s break down the terminology. First, the baseline test highlighted the governor issue: the system managing CPU clock speed to balance performance and power. The second test optimized the CPU scheduler — a component deciding which processes and threads the CPU utilizes and for how long — configuring it to maintain performance at 82°C, for example.

The final test’s single-core improvement of approximately 10% is likely explained by the Silicon Lottery. Even though the chip uses the same model and configuration, minor manufacturing variances can cause some units to perform slightly better than others. And in this case, by as much as 10%.

Efficiency is the goal

Samsung is pushing the Exynos 2600 to its limits, and its focus is efficiency. When examining ß’s post about the efficiency notes, after the calculations, he states that the overall chipset efficiency is 27% better than the Exynos 2400, whilst providing far better performance.

As with all leaks, we reiterate to take this with a pinch of salt. Although the previous Exynos chips have been promising in recent years, we await real-world usage from the Galaxy S26 Series to reach a definitive conclusion on the chip’s performance and efficiency. The next-gen Samsung flagships launch in February 2026.